K-Factor vision of the future.

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

--On Saturday, September 28, 2002 5:33 AM -0700 Wade & Barbara Akle <wb_akle at msn.com> wrote:

> One question is how come I get to download in pdf format all kind of manuals 
> and pages of information larger than the k-factor in a reasonable time and 
> yet have avoided the k-factor because of the time it takes?? 

I speculate (but do not know) that there may be a bottleneck
at the server end as well as at your end.  Faster servers may
help make the download time less oppressive.

> Until the download time on a 56 kbps phone line gets down to less than 
> a minute or two, we have a losing proposition, leaving a lot of us 
> without the k-factor. 

If there were a text-only version offered, that might be
possible.  But there is a limit to how much stuff you can
get through a 56 kbps pipeline, even if the server were
the fastest imaginable.  I don't forsee compression technology
making huge leaps any time soon.  They've got stuff packed
pretty tightly as it is now.

Another possibility for the mix: a CD-ROM subscription.
I have no idea of what the cost might be for that compared
to a hard-copy subscription.  Just another brainstorm
to add to the list of suggestions.

						Marty #2874

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