[gurps] Re: Internet on blue planet and like worlds

[Jeff Wilson]

From: Tom Sparks <tom_a_sparks at yahoo.com.au> Subject:
>>> >> From: "Onno Meyer" <Onno.Meyer at gmx.de>
>>> >> The difference between that and the internet as we know it is simply a matter of scale and search engines.
>>> >> But to provide a wealth of content, you need people who write it to start with! 
>>> >> I believe the limiting factor will be content producers, not bandwidth. By
>>> >> the time you have a Blue Planet Wikipedia, the hardware will be no problem any more.
> 
>> > Historically, bandwidth has always lagged behind *desired* content.
> but bandwidth has shown us new content, so we  demand more bandwidth
> an example: teletext to telnet to Gopher/BBS to HTML to youtube

Yes, that's another mechanism that drives the demand for more bandwidth.

>> > Even today, high quality video phones aren't feasible without expensive dedicated links.
> most if not all people are happy with 320x240 or 640x480 video sizes

I'm talking about an SD-quality TV picture with no compression 
artifacts. If it was remotely that presentable, we'd be seeing it on 
Vonnage commercials.

>> > Telepresence and other bulk surveillance will expand to fill any reasonable capacity shared bandwidth.
> telepresence is time-depended

Yes, it is, meaning every piece of teleoperable equipment (which is 
anything that moves itself or is fixed in place that involves a skill 
roll to use) is going to need a decent width connection that can be 
prioritized and un-multiplexed at any time anyone associated with the 
colony or homestead might need to use it.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
< http://www.io.com/~jwilson >