Compression of text is great, but it's really not the majority of data flowing over the net. Most of the data transfer lies movies, audio, binaries, and other such "real file" sources. Things like executables, distros, and data backups don't compress real well.
On the audio and movies, if you don't care about quality, sure, compress it to a small lump. I had that kind of experience at dialup, and is one of the reasons I made the jump to DSL.
Yeah, 200kbs not technically dial up, but at the same time you're not going to be able to do a lot of the things that you're "supposed" to be able to do.
The whole idea behind this press release is that broadband is a "good thing" that all have a right to. It becomes a definitional issue concerning when my connection is fast enough to get the "good things" out of it.
I tend to agree with them, in that 200kbs is not fast enough in general to do good streaming audio or video, and yet is just fast enough that the always on nature will get the less informed users hammered security wise.
Now what I don't agree with is that broadband is inherently "good". I have many relatives who are perfectly content on their dial up connections, and don't feel that they are missing out on a thing. Who am I to argue with that?
Slashdot Mirror
Compression of text is great, but it's really not the majority of data flowing over the net. Most of the data transfer lies movies, audio, binaries, and other such "real file" sources. Things like executables, distros, and data backups don't compress real well.
On the audio and movies, if you don't care about quality, sure, compress it to a small lump. I had that kind of experience at dialup, and is one of the reasons I made the jump to DSL.
Yeah, 200kbs not technically dial up, but at the same time you're not going to be able to do a lot of the things that you're "supposed" to be able to do. The whole idea behind this press release is that broadband is a "good thing" that all have a right to. It becomes a definitional issue concerning when my connection is fast enough to get the "good things" out of it. I tend to agree with them, in that 200kbs is not fast enough in general to do good streaming audio or video, and yet is just fast enough that the always on nature will get the less informed users hammered security wise. Now what I don't agree with is that broadband is inherently "good". I have many relatives who are perfectly content on their dial up connections, and don't feel that they are missing out on a thing. Who am I to argue with that?