[19874] in APO-L
Re: WebCam in December 2000
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (John Grossi)
Wed Jan 6 10:57:17 1999
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1999 15:43:32 -0000
Reply-To: John Grossi <jgrossi@BBNPLANET.COM>
From: John Grossi <jgrossi@BBNPLANET.COM>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.02A.9901060857040.9680-100000@kappa.pair.com>
> The two readily apparent issues I see are privacy & cost. As far as
> privacy goes, I would suggest setting up webpage where only brothers know
> the address and even have a username/password combo to get in. Even with
> the greatest of security, I'm certain it would be best not to transmit
> anything dealing with ritual activities.
It seems of dubious value to me, considering the bulk of the people who we'd
like to use it, are deprived of their internet access for the winter break.
While I think some of the alumni would enjoy it... our goal is not to do stuff
for the alumni (like you and me) it's to do stuff for the actives.
> As for cost, I think it is unrealistic to use today's pricing structure to
> eliminate a propossal 2 years down the road.
It's all I've got brother... I can't guess what the prices will be in 2 years.
BUT I will say there are certain basements you will not go below, those that are
set in the state tarrifs, which have been fairly constant over the last decade.
So say we loose 20% on the cost, it's still a lot of $$$
> At my work, we are using
> giga backbone technology that was not even available two years ago.
I've got a Cisco 7507 with 3 OC-3 cards in it sitting in my office right now,
that's being staged for shipment to our POP in Elkhart IN. I know exactly what's
out there.
> In
> homes today, users can get ISDN (128K) and Cable Modem (wishfull 10MB) for
> less than $40/month which was out of the question two years ago.
Your not in a home, your are in a convention facility... which is a BIG
difference. It's not your place, you can only do what the hotel/convention
center will let you do. And they are certainly not going to let you install
phone lines infrastructure for no charge. Even if you talked really really
sweetly brother, there union contracts will prohibit them. (trust me as someone
who did the trade show circuit for six months) They are in the business of
making money... net connections are something that hotels charge highly for. You
pay for the wire, you pay for DNS, you pay $$$
As to most of these "new" technologies while they are available it's spotty,
and there are installation delays... and very very few companies will be willing
to install something of that sort for 2 1/2 days with out a large penalty fee.
ISDN is not installable in most of those places as it would require running a
NEW phone line in from the street, as most of these hotels function on a minimum
of T1 lines and to set up ISDN service on one of there trunks would require
MAJOR work in there PBX and phone systems (a lot of which are CENTREX, an added
complication). *DSL technologies are of spotty availability, and in many cases
availability is street by street. (they aren't available at ALL in Boston yet,
the sixth largest city in the country) Cable Modems while reasonable in cost and
avaialable in large (but not all) swaths of the country, would not be available
in a hotel/convention center, as they likely do not have the facilities set up
and you run into large penalty fees from the cable company, the hotel, etc.
> The best
> option for any type of setup would be to get services donated which could
> easily put the final cost of project to about $0.
While I can't say you could not do it... get them donated. I doubt it. Your
talking about a lot of hassle on the part of the Point of Presence Provider for
2 1/2 days worth of use. Your talking about asking a hotel to deprive itself of
one of it's sweetest revenue streams, and go through the added hassle of
installing and reconfiguring facilities for free. I'm also very certian that the
hotels/convention center contracts with it's vendors will prohibit them from
giving you a "deal"
> It takes a while for technology issues to run the course in Alpha Phi
> Omega. It tooks years just to get to apo.org. I'm not confident that
> having a webcam will be embrased by leadership at conference and nationals
> this time, but I'm certain it is feasible.
I didn't say it wasn't feasible, I said it was costly, and of dubious value.
It's cheaper to pay REV's way in my opinion than to set up a webcam.
> In a worst case scenario, set
> up a laptop with webcam and 28.8K modem (can you imagine these even being
> around in two years) that refreshes a picture of hallway ever minute.
um brother... 2 1/2 days of 100% utilization on there phone line? Say they
charge you ONLY 50 cents a minute... 3600 minutes at 50 cents a minute is 1800
dollars. Okay say you manage to talk them out of free 800 service (not likely in
convention space... in a hotel yes, convention space no, and then deal with the
hassles of digital phone systems and analog modems)... and pay for a 800 dialup
somewhere... your going through all this effort and cost to transmit 1 picture a
minute... I'm sorry but it's a cute toy... I might glance at it once... twice...
maybe three times... and your paying how much?
Just my thoughts and I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts they'll apply today as
well as in Q4 2000
-John Grossi
