Re: Using local MTA re: tlug: Naive VM question

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>]

>>>>> "jb" == Jonathan Byrne <- 3Web <jq@example.com>> writes:

    jb> On Tue, 5 May 1998, Kei Furuuchi wrote:
    >> Jonathan Byrne writes: > Umm, I don't exactly follow how this
    >> differs from using an ordinary mail > client such as Netscape
    >> Mail or Eudora on any other machine.  For
    >> 
    >> I don't have to be conscious about dialing, so do the
    >> applications.  The applications don't have to have fuctions
    >> like "send it later" because it is not online now. So those
    >> functions are not sales point

    jb> So you mean that you have your system setup to automatically
    jb> make a connection and mail run during Telehodai time and you
    jb> keep all of the mail on your local mail spool until then?  Or

This is probably what Kei meant, but there's no reason he you couldn't 
teach sendmail to do an outgoing mail run every so often (eg with a
cron job).  Also, using the MTA gives you the full power of linux
scripting and powerfully configurable programs like procmail, which
would allow you to sort your mail into urgent and small, leaving spam
and big to be downloaded at telehodai rates.  My sister and brother
occasionally send me 5MB MPEGs and stuff like that....

    kei> I think this applies to netday.  The government is eager to get
    kei> schools online connected by t1.

T1?  What happened to FTTH (fiber to the home)?

Or are you talking about the US?

    jb> So the school shouldn't have its own server on the Internet,
    jb> but instead should run on dial-up access all day, and the web
    jb> page updates, etc., would only be uploaded to a remote web
    jb> server overnight by an automated routine?

Actually, I think that's an excellent idea; I really don't see great
benefits to surfing for education.  The school's general access
internet connection should be somewhat lagged, and should be oriented
to pushing content on to the Web in a controlled fashion.

Research would be conducted through browsers proxied through the
library, mostly to restrict browsing of smut and to limit the number
of accesses, similarly to the way that the number of books you can
check out is limited; this would choke off most aimless browsing.

I don't have anything against aimless browsing, on one's own time; but 
it is currently too big a time sink for too little return to consider
it "educational"---except for the already educated.  Catch-22, O-nii-san.

    jb> I think few users
    jb> would find this to be an acceptable solution, and you would
    jb> need to use a 128K ISDN dial-up to get anything like
    jb> acceptable performance.  That connection would most likely be
    jb> open all day long, and the cost of that is actually much
    jb> greater than the cost of a 128K leased line.

No, users will find that an acceptable situation if the alternative is 
managing their own systems.  Tell me that the government is committed
to providing tech support staff for the web page connected to the HTTP 
server, the HTTP server connected to the TCP/IP, the TCP/IP connected
to the funny bone, and I'll be very happy to support T1s for every
school.

But without tech support, it'll sit on the shelf like the 3.5 million
yen of multimedia computer with the 3.5 mm of dust at the Tsukuba
Board of Education....

Japanese educators are not going to consider web surfing a positive
influence on their students, either, especially if the school can only 
afford an average of 1 PC per 30 students.