From: lance@motcsd.csd.mot.com (lance.norskog)
Subject: Re: The COMET Environment (LONG)
Date: 26 Apr 91 23:31:29 GMT
Organization: Motorola CSD, Cupertino CA




About the information publishing part: publishing data to subscribers
and getting paid will involve some level of encryption technology.
This is available today, and if you believe people in sci.crypt, 
it's trustworthy.  The comm broadcast portion is called UseNet 
and has already been debugged, mostly.  A production version of 
UseNet would not require a trained hacker at each node.  It's close, 
but it's not there yet.  There are a few other interesting protocols
in this area: IRC, for example, is a worldwide Internet CB-style
chat program (quite a trick).

About the 1456 part: performance doesn't matter in software.  
Functionality matters.  Programmers are more productive in languages
higher-level language than 1456.  Also, the more abstract the language,
the smaller the code (usually).  This is a big win for broadcasting 
programs on any comm line with less bandwidth than fiber optic.
The current wave in making cheaper faster computing is RISC,
and picking a CISC object code would have been a bad idea.
The next wave will be parallel (2-16 processor) computing.  
A "dissemination" language should be carefully designed for 
efficient parallel execution, and the programmer's monoprocessor 
workstation should include a parallel simulator to ensure that 
software will work well on a subscriber's parallel machine.

Lance Norskog