To: John Tserkezis

 BL> There aren't a million, just three: Lotus, M$ and Borland.

 JT> And how many of those are used by fido? How many of those are
 JT> used by unix systems? Of how many of those can you obtain
 JT> messages base structures, with APIs in Pascal and most usually
 JT> C? Freely?

  I do not consider unix or even OS/2. I only care about the big
numbers when discussing e-mail. As for Pascal, Borland license their
SQL freely. In fact, that's the one I'd use. E-mail system does not
need the ultimate massage base, just something readily available that
can be built into *everything* commercially.

 BL> The whole concept has changed... not minutes on the phone but
 BL> HOURS.

 JT> Stiff shit.

  I was not making a moral judgment, just an observation. I go with
the flow. Modern communications is working towards  a *permanent*
connection and this will change this drastically, but in the meantime 
offline mail has a niche and even *now*, saving 10% connection-time is
pointless.

 JT> Er, that's what you're doing now isn't it? That's the most
 JT> cost-effective system to use. Store and forward. You use the
 JT> phone line in off-peak periods, (where it is not used voice
 JT> anyway) to transfer data. Heck, you can transfer HEAPS more
 JT> data over that same line than you can talk. 

  Cost-effective? It depends on whether I *already* have an ISP
connect. I thinkj Fido and others have lost the plot. Offline mail has
nothing to do with saving money. Most of us only make local calls
anyway. Offline mail is a *different* form of communication.

 JT> Yes, I have another line here, so in my case, that won't be an
 JT> issue. But I *do* use it for fax, and if that's the case, it's
 JT> a good idea, as people usually send faxes during the day.

  With greater bandwidth, a single line does all...

 JT> OTOH, some people do just that- use a voice line for mail as
 JT> well. Voice during the day, and data at night.
 JT> I call that efficient usage of available resources.

  They're only now beginning to wake up that a single telephone line
is all we need, from cable TV to whatever. We've been through the
early days of teletype, FAX and 2400 modems, now comes the exiting bit
where they do it right.

Regards,
Bob
  
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12
@EOT:

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