On Sunday, in article <2v7e2fF2h9nkcU1@uni-berlin.de>
mikecoxlinux@yahoo.com "Mike Cox" wrote:
> Also, he pointed out that for those who want to get the postgresql groups
> when their usenet sever doesn't carry them, the solution would be to point
> their newsreaders to news.postgresql.org.
Which only confirms my opinion that he's a fuckwit. The concept of
Usenet is NOT that everyone has to read a newsgroup from one particular
server; it's that everyone ought to be able to access any newsgroup from
THEIR own particular most convenient server. Servers exist (and at one
time there were hundreds of thousands of them) specifically to reduce
wasted bandwidth in having everyone and his dog accessing information
that is only in one place, when it could just as easily be in thousands
of places and thereby result in use only of local bandwidth, rather than
international.
(Personally, I blame the original authors of Netscape for incorporating a
news "reader" that could access multiple servers. Before then, most
readers of news had no option other than to read ALL their desired
newsgroups from ONE server, that of their university/employer/ISP. Since
that capability appeared in Netscape, and other browser/newsreaders,
there has been a proliferation of *really* private newsgroups, such as
borland.*; even microsoft.* was originally only available from one
"site".)
--
Brian {Hamilton Kelly} bhk@dsl.co.uk
"I don't use Linux. I prefer to use an OS supported by a large multi-
national vendor, with a good office suite, excellent network/internet
software and decent hardware support."