MobileRead Forums - View Single Post

bill_mchale · 10-02-2009, 02:09 PM

Here is the thing, bulk downloading is generally an inefficient use of bandwidth. If I download 50 books and only read 5 of them then I have roughly used 10 times more bandwidth than I actually needed. All that wasted bandwidth does in fact have a cost. The more torrents that are running, the more bandwidth being occupied, which means the ISPs have to upgrade their infrastructure; you know we are paying for those upgrades. Granted the cost, when we are talking books, is pretty small compared to audio and video files, but that doesn't mean its not wasteful of bandwidth.

I am frankly dubious of the claims that anyone saves any significant (if any) time by using torrents. Sure you don't have to spend as much time browsing through books online, but if you plan on reading some of them, you will need to on your own computer. No one has yet actually really demonstrated that it really saves them time (Saying it saves them time is not the same as demonstrating it).

--
Bill

10-02-2009, 02:09 PM	#54
bill_mchale Wizard Posts: 1,451 Karma: 1550000 Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Maryland, USA Device: Nook Simple Touch, HPC Evo 4G LTE	Here is the thing, bulk downloading is generally an inefficient use of bandwidth. If I download 50 books and only read 5 of them then I have roughly used 10 times more bandwidth than I actually needed. All that wasted bandwidth does in fact have a cost. The more torrents that are running, the more bandwidth being occupied, which means the ISPs have to upgrade their infrastructure; you know we are paying for those upgrades. Granted the cost, when we are talking books, is pretty small compared to audio and video files, but that doesn't mean its not wasteful of bandwidth. I am frankly dubious of the claims that anyone saves any significant (if any) time by using torrents. Sure you don't have to spend as much time browsing through books online, but if you plan on reading some of them, you will need to on your own computer. No one has yet actually really demonstrated that it really saves them time (Saying it saves them time is not the same as demonstrating it). -- Bill