AW: [Oberon] Re: 2: Have we got email send authenticate ability ?

[W B Hacker]

shark at gulfnet.sd64.bc.ca wrote:

> Chris & Daniel,
> 
> cg> Q- does anybody in the 1st world still use dialup ?
> 
> Yes.  At home and at the city apartment.
> 
> dk> We will not use PPP with old analog modems, but with gprs ...
> 
> I view the exclusion of analog modems as an unfortunate 
> design decision.  Imagine that you exclude 5% of potential users 
> because of lack of modem support.  Then exclude another 5% 
> for lack of printer support.  Then another 5% for failure with 
> a certain FTP server ... and so on.  The net effect is that by 
> relatively small economies in implementation you exclude 
> a large population of potential users.  Conversely, relatively 
> small investments in implementation can allow a significantly 
> larger audience.
> 
> Regards,           ... Peter E.
> 
> Desktops.OpenDoc  http://carnot.pathology.ubc.ca/
> 
> --
> Oberon at lists.inf.ethz.ch mailing list for ETH Oberon and related systems
> https://lists.inf.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/oberon
> 

Dialup remains the only available option in all too much of the 
'first world' (if suburban/rural USA actual *is* still 'first 
world' <g>)

I am presently a few miles from Dulles Airport, and just a 
rifle-shot away from MAE EAST, but in a community served by 
16000 yard (1.5 Km?) local-loop from the telephone CO, hence 
outside the range of such (cheap!)  *DSL as they choose to deploy.

ISDN (It Still Does Nothing) never caught on for residential use 
in the US, as it was priced too high. Higher than 56K nailed-up 
and the 2 channels could not be 'bonded' anyway. V.90 was 
actually faster (compression) for most use.

Cable modem was, until relatively recently, 'downlink only', and 
satellite still largely is - requiring a simultaneously-live 
dial-up for uplink and control.

Until last year, the only option here was to load the PowerBook 
in the car and motor over to a Starbucks Coffee or Borders 
bookstore to use T-mobile WiFi, often from the carpark at 2AM.

I have an 'emergency' USB cable from PowerBook to my Motorola 
GPRS handset, but bandwidth is spotty and costs are outrageous 
compared to V.90+ on landline.

Then there are hotels and such in many of the world's major 
cities that still have no WiFi or LAN...

Need for dial-up may be vanishing, but at least GPRS / 3G can be 
expected to take the place, and something has to be able to work 
to that 'universe'.

I don't consider it a show-stopper for Aos, but it need not be 
done over and over again, and would be a useful 'core' resource 
to have ppp.  Not to forget there are 'broadband' provders who 
use PPPoE as well.

Note also that the old QNX 1-floppy demo had it all built-in, 
and configuration for a huge number of modems as well.

JM2CW

Bill