the lost art of downloading headers

[nntpjunkie]

I have no problem paying for the best. I get my money's worth from Giga and that's all that matters to me.

Anyone wanting "the best" absolutely needs to get an account from at least two separate NSPs. Block accounts are one way to go, but you can also buy an unlimited account at two different providers for less than the cost of one Giganews account, and (with a newsreader that supports fill-servers) get better completion and overall reliability than Giganews alone.

Agreed entirely, I am a die hard Newshosting fan as most here know, but I have to admit that my usenet usage turned into a completely sick experience once I paired my newshosting account with a block account from astraweb... Also as far as incompletes go, I have not had many because I still have lots of download available on my astraweb account. All told I still spent a hell of alot less money than just on single giganews account supporting two awesome providers with better completion and speed than giganews alone. No completion problems here.

[heiska]

There seems to be a widespread mis-perception that USPs will eventually need to stop spooling retention because the storage cost will become too expensive at some point. That was historically the case, but today, the exact opposite is now true.

The reason is that cost *per byte* of storage is decreasing at a greater rate than the total stored volume *in bytes* is increasing. (The "flipping point" was reached, I'd estimate, about a year to 18 months ago.) This means that the cost of storing usenet retention -going back to 15 August 2008- will be less and less each succeeding year.

So unless usenet posting volume were to unexpectedly increase (or hard drive development were to come to a screeching halt) then we can be quite certain that spooling will continue forever.

Cost of storage isn't the only factor. The ower of Blocknews/Usenetnow made some interesting points when it comes to the possiblity of unlimited retention.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r25842875-

All of the usenet providers depend on new people signing up - it would be a huge suicide in the long run for one provider to stop increasing retention while the others keep growing. Only if all the major usenet players formed a cartel which decided certain amount of days of retention which none of them would exceed could they make more profit by not spending money on new HDDs.

A very simple application of the game theory in microeconomics 101.

[Malcontent]

Cost of storage isn't the only factor. The ower of Blocknews/Usenetnow made some interesting points when it comes to the possiblity of unlimited retention.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r25842875-

All of the usenet providers depend on new people signing up - it would be a huge suicide in the long run for one provider to stop increasing retention while the others keep growing. Only if all the major usenet players formed a cartel which decided certain amount of days of retention which none of them would exceed could they make more profit by not spending money on new HDDs.

A very simple application of the game theory in microeconomics 101.

It would be suicide if a provider gets to the point where continuing increasing retention causes them to stop generating profit (expenses) and they continue increasing retention and run their business at a loss (no profit). Hoping to attract new customers with the promise of increasing retention is no guarantee of success. Not in this economic climate.

[heiska]

All of the usenet providers depend on new people signing up - it would be a huge suicide in the long run for one provider to stop increasing retention while the others keep growing. Only if all the major usenet players formed a cartel which decided certain amount of days of retention which none of them would exceed could they make more profit by not spending money on new HDDs.

A very simple application of the game theory in microeconomics 101.

It would be suicide if a provider gets to the point where continuing increasing retention causes them to stop generating profit (expenses) and they continue increasing retention and run their business at a loss (no profit). Hoping to attract new customers with the promise of increasing retention is no guarantee of success. Not in this economic climate.

But it has worked out pretty good for the past two years, no? With all the huge pressure against BT, I'm pretty sure usenet (both retention and customer base) will continue growing for years to come. What they could do is to shut down one of their multiple dc locations: concentrate on either US or EU depending on the geographic location of the majority of their customers.

Btw, data centers will evolve their energy effieciency through innovations too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VChOEvKicQQ .

[Malcontent]

But it has worked out pretty good for the past two years, no?

It was in the last 2 years that storage cost dropped that allowed the increase in retention. The drop in storage cost allowed the usenet providers to increase retention and remain profitable. With the increase in storage the cost of electricity and other expenses will begin to become a factor in profitability.

Btw, data centers will evolve their energy effieciency through innovations too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VChOEvKicQQ .

How long until it will be useful for usenet providers today? How long can the usenet providers wait until these more energy efficient data centers go online?

[ensisoft]

Hi,
just want to comment, Newsflash Plus can handle headers also, although support for compressed headers is not implemented. But the database engine can take quite large volumes of data. You can also easily integrate your favourite picture viewer or mp3 player application and then getting that downloaded media going is very easy.

- ensi