In article , "Jim Hampton"
writes:

Len,

I doubt anyone can read 120 characters per *second*. The need for more and
more speed is being pushed by the desire to send more visually 'appealing'
information.

I was referring to PACKET type of data. Internet material goes
through faster over a POTS with "attractiveness."

Generic packet transmission goes as "packets of data" along with
sync and system-housekeeping data. That slows down the data
rate in the long run. However, even at half the maximum possible,
data can go zinging through at 60 characters per second or 600
"words" per minute. If the packet stuff was interrupted badly and
required resends such that the maximum rate was dropped to ten
percent, the throughput would be 120 "words" per minute or about
equal to slow speech rate. Packet can sustain throughput as long
as the circuit holds up.


Mostly, the great advances in communication have resulted in more visual
information being passed. At times, porn is involved. I'm not suggesting
that the higher speed is bad, it certainly isn't. I am suggesting that a
lot of communication going on now might well be described as "bloatware".

In that case, newspapers with advertisements have been
"bloatware" for centuries.

One person's "bloat" is another person's gourmet delicacy.

The longest fiber-optic communications line is one that goes from
the UK, through the Med, under-around the Indian Ocean, around
Southeast Asia, and to Japan. Two 4 Gigabit per second optical
fibers, pumped at a light wavelength for amplification. No active
devices IN the cable for repeatering.

Think about it...4,000,000,000 bits per second. And that's not the
fastest comm carrier using fiber.

Come to think of it, one is safer if you've set your reader to 'text only'
for receive. I wonder why ...
(ps - it is also a good idea to send only plain text. If only plain text
were sent, 1200 baud would be a darn good clip.)

This dial-up POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) I connect on
indicates a normal rate prompt of 49333 bps most of the time.
Downloads and uploads go at about 1/10th that rate or roughly
three times faster than 1200 bps data. I'm satisfied with that.

Not bad for a POTS that's only supposed to have a 3 KHz BW
and some folks still saying "it can't possibly send data that
fast!!!" But, it does anyway. :-)

Back a half-century ago, I was keeping SSB transmitters going
that were handling two voice channels and 12 TTY circuits, all
simultaneously in a 12 KHz bandwidth...and that was already
two decades old in radio communications. Back then hams
were bragging up a storm about how they could go "faster" than
20 words per minute. They still do, but the data rates have gone
up far more. Manual "CW" maximum rate is still the same as it
was a half century ago.

If you want to call anything faster than 40 wpm as "bloatware,"
fine. Your choice. You might also think about why a half
million Teletype terminals were made and how all those tele-
printer things displaced the old landline telegraphy operators
long ago with all that 60 and 100 wpm "bloatware" text copy.

LHA / WMD