Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem

From	Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.programming
Subject	Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem
Date	2012-01-15 18:07 +0000
Organization	Aioe.org NNTP Server
Message-ID	<jev4la$hav$1@speranza.aioe.org> (permalink)
References	<jev1nr$adj$1@speranza.aioe.org> <12rzp30r2r9ib.114yn9ofgduyc.dlg@40tude.net>

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Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote:

> On Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:17:50 +0000, Rui Maciel wrote:
> 
>> The following xkcd comic caught my attention:
>> 
>> http://xkcd.com/949/
>> 
>> Indeed, it appears that transfering files over the internet is still an
>> open question.
> 
> Well, it is rather a closed question. You should not transfer files, do
> data instead. File is a container object for certain types of data
> persistent in a file system. As such it has limitations and usage areas.

If a user wants to send/receive a file, why is this any relevant?

> UNIX was in some sense responsible for overuse of files. It was the UNIX's
> false idea that everything were a file.

This is silly.

>> Is there any relevant method to transfer files on the interent?
> 
> Specifically to transfer files, depending on the topology of the
> publishers and subscribers, their coupling, mutual trust, connectivity QoS
> etc:
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rsync
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_%28protocol%29
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_File_System_%28protocol%29

Unfortunately, neither of those technologies solves the problem of providing 
a convenient way for user A to transfer a file to user B.  Rsync is employed 
to synchronize files from multiple locations, bittorrent is designed to 
transfer files from multiple servers to multiple clients and NFS is employed 
to provide remote access to a file system.  None of these scenarios are 
applicable to a simple use case of transfering a file between two users, 
such as the one described in the xkcd comic.

Rui Maciel

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Ideas on solving the file transfer problem Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-01-15 17:17 +0000
  Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de> - 2012-01-15 18:35 +0100
    Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-01-15 18:07 +0000
      Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de> - 2012-01-15 20:19 +0100
        Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-01-15 19:42 +0000
  Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem Willem <willem@toad.stack.nl> - 2012-01-15 19:15 +0000
    Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-01-15 20:10 +0000
  Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem Leif Roar Moldskred <leifm@dimnakorr.com> - 2012-01-18 09:16 -0600
    Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-01-19 16:26 +0000
      Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2012-01-19 14:59 -0600
        Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-01-19 21:22 +0000
          Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2012-01-19 15:54 -0600
            Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem root <NoEMail@home.org> - 2012-01-19 22:20 +0000
              Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2012-01-19 17:43 -0600
                Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-01-20 04:22 +0000
                Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2012-01-19 23:43 -0600
                Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-01-20 12:59 +0000
                Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem Geoff <geoff@invalid.invalid> - 2012-01-20 02:41 -0800
                Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-01-20 12:45 +0000
                Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem Geoff <geoff@invalid.invalid> - 2012-01-20 15:41 -0800
                Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem root <NoEMail@home.org> - 2012-01-21 00:18 +0000
                Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem Geoff <geoff@invalid.invalid> - 2012-01-20 16:41 -0800
                Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2012-01-20 18:44 -0600
                Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem Geoff <geoff@invalid.invalid> - 2012-01-20 15:43 -0800
                Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2012-01-20 18:34 -0600
                Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem "Chris Uppal" <chris.uppal@metagnostic.REMOVE-THIS.org> - 2012-01-21 10:21 +0000
              Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-01-20 03:59 +0000
            Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-01-20 03:44 +0000
              Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2012-01-19 23:41 -0600
    Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2012-01-20 14:07 +1300
      Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem blp@cs.stanford.edu (Ben Pfaff) - 2012-01-19 18:20 -0800
      Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem Leif Roar Moldskred <leifm@dimnakorr.com> - 2012-01-19 20:33 -0600
        Re: Ideas on solving the file transfer problem Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-01-20 04:08 +0000

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