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Posted by Tin Man Alley on 03/13/06 01:51
In article <8jKQf.71761$Fw6.62296@tornado.tampabay.rr.com>,
Eben King <ebenONE@tampabay.ARE-ARE.com> wrote:
> Interesting usage. Logical, I guess, but I haven't heard it. Is it
> regional?
Also known as discussion groups or newsgroups.
Usenet actually existed before e-mail and HTML used by web browsers.
It is a mindless interconnection of computers with no overseer except
for a few exceptions here and there.
A message is posted much like one would to a message board but then it
is propagated to thousands of other computers carrying that traffic
world-wide.
The story is somewhat funny.
Usenet has been used for decades to post illegal copies of software,
and more recently videos and mp3 files.
Given the all-text nature of this segment of the internet, a
binary-to-text program changes the digital material to an all-text
gobble-dee-gook file and breaks it up into small segments. A program
that reverses this process is operated on the receiving end to restore
the full file.
Actually e-mail operates this way but it is point to point. Usenet is
Person-to-server, and then server-to-world.
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