Re: [Pan-users] Pan 0.133 refuses to work any longer

[Duncan]

Mike Brown posted on Sat, 25 Aug 2012 02:23:24 -0500 as excerpted:

> Let's see.  Astra has the $20 for 3 months, unlimited download.  1TB is
> about 300 binary files in the 3GB range.  I download some less and some
> more, as far as size.  I'll easily download more than 300 files in 3
> months.  Even if it takes me 6 months, it is still only $40.

I just sent a reply on a different angle, but then thought of this too.


1) It's really cool that, of all the apps you could choose to use for 
that sort of news download volume, you choose to use pan.  There was a 
time when it would have had a very hard time scaling, and it's great that 
it not only can do so now, but that you find pan's UI usable and 
efficient enough to chose it for the task.

2) I think 0.133's too old to have it, but I was /going/ to ask how you 
like the new auto-"actions" that newer pan has now, that make it possible 
to set pan up to auto-download new posts (not just headers) based on 
score, before you've ever seen them.

It seems to me, especially since you're moving so much data over a 
/relatively/ narrowband (4 Mbit, but that's only ~1/2 a MByte/sec and you 
just called over 11 gigs a day likely not enough, if my math's not wrong 
that's ~6 hours daily of downloading at full tilt!) connection, that 
especially if the downloads are predictable enough to score on, it would 
be REALLY worth your while to get a newer pan with that feature, even if 
you have to build it from sources yourself.  Then just leave the computer 
and pan running, and let it download as the posts show up (0.133 can 
already be set to grab headers as they show up, but not to grab full 
posts), so they're already waiting for you when you get ready to do 
whatever you'd do with them.

Of course if the downloaded posts are varied enough that they're not 
easily pre-scored, that hurts, but I'd guess at least /some/ of it can be 
automated.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman