[linux-dvb] Multicast Mailing Lists / Newsgroups via DVB equipment (was AW: Re: DVB driver for B2C2 based budget cards (such as Technisat SkyStar 2))

["Torsten Schlabach" <tschlabach@gmx.net>]

Dear Miernik,

I have changed the topic as I think your thoughts on a new broadcast
service is a whole separate issue, but definitely worth understanding.

>> There are many users/developers who otherwise have to pay money they 
can't afford to be online.

I might have the wrong perspective here, but for about 50 EUR / month
you can get DSL with a flatrate or at least some very high transfer
volume seen from a mail / news perspective. (What I mean is: 1 GB of
monthly traffic is nothing if you are a heave user of video trading
systems such as the Napster successors, but it is more than you will
ever have to use up for newsgroups.)

If you go for dial-in prices have arrived at about 1 Cent (Euro-Cent)
per Minute without a monthly subscription fee being paid. That is about
0,60 EUR per hour. If you count ONLY the time you need to replicate
newsgroups or mailing lists (not all the time you spend on the web) 1
hour a day would sum up to maybe 25 hours a month which will be less
than 20 EUR a month. If you'd sell such a subscription for 10 EUR /
month (don't forget administrative cost) this will make 10 EUR / month
of a difference for a lot of technical effort. Do you think people would
subscribe to that service?

Thoughts and opinions on this are welcome! Maybe prices are different in
other parts of the world? Just it is my experience that even in Africa
(I am not kidding, I am serious) there is Internet service available
pretty much at comparable rates to in what some people call the
"developed" world. So I did not find a lot of value in making huge
investments to compete in such markets.

>> It should not cost more than 100 EUR monthly to multicast that.

I have heared quite different prices for capacity on Astra or Eutelsat.
More like 10.000 EUR / month or even more.

Torsten

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: Miernik [mailto:miernik@tarnica.ctnet.pl] Im Auftrag von Miernik
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 30. Januar 2003 22:46
An: linux-dvb@linuxtv.org
Betreff: [linux-dvb] Re: DVB driver for B2C2 based budget cards (such as
Technisat SkyStar 2)

On Thu, Jan 30, 2003 at 10:23:06PM +0100, Torsten Schlabach wrote:
> >> In many coutries even disassembling the driver in order to write a 
> completely new one is ont illegal EVEN IF the vendors licence 
> prohibits disassembling.
> 
> Do you know what countries these are or do you have any pointers to
some
> literature on this topic? I think the other part of the story is if

I've read about this that this law was used to legally disassemble the 
BIOS of one of the old computers (it was either Amiga, Amstrad or 
Atari - they all begin with A, so I don't remeber which one).

This was they legally made a machine compatible with the original 
computer (the A.... company didn't want to release any 
specifications).

> Aside from legal issues, I am not sure if I think it will be realistic
> to understand the chipset interface from looking at the uncommented
> disassembled code. Anyone has any experience with this? I might be
wrong
> or over-estimate the complexity ?!?

Surely it is poossible, the question is - in what time :)
I think it is worth it - it would be great to have two different 
hardware platforms for GPL Linux based DVB systems. I hate it when 
there is only one hardware platform which is possible to use - it's 
great to have a choice. And the low price of these cards...

BTW: I just had a great idea for all GNU community to benefit from: 

There is a bi-directional mailing-list <-> nntp gateway at 
http://gmane.org/ 
They will offer feeds for anyone who wants in the near future.

It would be great to take such feed, and:
Buy some bandwith on a satellite service, and transmitt all the groups 
multicast, so everyone who has a DVB card and antenna can receive it 
without any monthly cost in real time!

Don't you think this would be great?
There are many users/developers who otherise have to pay money they 
can't afford to be online. With such service it will be posibble to 
receive all the groups without any uplink (however they will need 
uplink to post - but that is small cost, because you read much more 
than post).

I have looked at the statistics, and all the groups there take only 11 
kbps in total, it will be probably a little larger when new groups are 
added, so a 16 kbps will be enough. It should not cost more than 100 
EUR monthly to multicast that. And one multicast would supply it all 
for whole Europe. A second multicast on a different satellite would be 
needed for America, and maybe a third one for Asia. We could look for 
some sponsor, or even collect money from GNU users and developers, for 
example 1 EUR monthly for each user. The fee would not be mandatory, 
but I am sure that there would eaisly be 100 people who would pay 
1 EUR monthly for this service to run.

What do you think? Ability to receive all mailing lists in real-time 
for 1 EUR monthly?

> I’ve heard that, but please, where is it?

http://www.esat.pl/files/dvb/technisat/b2c2_install_base.tgz

-- 
    Miernik
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