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Usenet Encoding: yEnc

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the all-your-base64-are-belong-to-us dept.

Motor writes "Anyone remotely interested in usenet binary newsgroups must have noticed the spread of yEnc. yEnc is an encoding scheme for usenet binaries which avoids the enormous (30-40%) bloat associated with the schemes currently in use - which all have to produce 7-bit data to stop ancient newsservers from choking. A good thing, surely? Well, not according to some people. The guy has some good points about yEnc and standards, but I can't help thinking that "standards" people have endlessly discussed better encoding schemes, and nothing has come out of it. yEnc may not be perfect, but it works and it's here - hence the rapid adoption. What do you think?"

5 of 417 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Intertia vs. Good Ideas by xmda · · Score: 0, Troll

    Er, betamax, anybody?

    And I say, er, Microsoft, anybody?...

  2. Screw Elegance by Deflatamouse! · · Score: 2, Troll

    If everyone is as anal as the poster of this story and cares about elegance and "pretty code" and whatnot, we all would not be using a x86 processor because its architecture is just "sooo damn ugly!!". Get over it. If it works, it works, does it really matter how anything is implemented if it does its job just perfectly fine?

    Personally, I will adopt anything that will make my life (not the developer's life) easier. yenc allows me to download 30-40% less, so I use it. Why? because if I don't use it, I won't be able to obtain the mp3s, the games, the warez, the pr0n, etc, etc, etc that I wanted :) Real life is not pretty, deal with it... stop living in fantasy world.

  3. I think it's a bad idea... by seebs · · Score: 1, Troll

    Because binary newsgroups themselves are a fundamentally stupid and bad idea, which do nothing but damage the discussion medium. Usenet isn't designed for binary distribution, and it's not good at it. A real solution would involve getting away from usenet entirely.

    --
    My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
  4. All of Mr. Nixon's points are easily refuted by Self-Important · · Score: 0, Troll

    I'm a pretty active Usenet poster and binary downloader, and let me assure any of you who are riding the fence on this that yEnc *is* much, much faster. It is light years ahead of uuencoded binaries, and the coolest thing since .PAR to hit Usenet.

    Whatever kind of "transition period" Mr. Nixon is referring to has already passed. Let me just cry a freaking river for the poor programmers who have to update their code to accommodate the changing spec--it seems that the most popular usenet progs have *already* done this. If "Joe's Special Shareware Usenet Posting and Spyware Program" needs to be updated so that its 7 users can stay happy, then so be it.

    Whatever kind of "confusion" this guy is referring to is nonexistent. yEnc downloading and decoding with the right software is as transparent as uudecoding. Promise. People don't have to relearn anything.

    I read Mr. Nixon's "I invented better binary posting, but didn't rush to claim credit" anecdote and can't even force myself to care. Sounds like sour grapes to me.

    -----
    Nothing to see here, go back to downloading pr0n now.

  5. Re:Is usenet dead? by Graymalkin · · Score: 1, Troll

    Thats why it is fucking funny. Get back on the fucking short bus.

    --
    I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.