[OS X TeX] [OT] All about P2P (was: MacTeX-2008 Status)

[Alain Schremmer]

On Sep 4, 2008, at 12:16 PM, Bruno Voisin wrote:

> Le 4 sept. 08 à 17:46, Alex Ross a écrit :
>
>> On Sep 4, 2008, at 5:03 PM, Bruno Voisin wrote:
>>
>>> It's a bit like choosing your type of holiday: do you prefer to  
>>> pay for a flat or hotel room or camping space, or to share houses  
>>> with another family? Personally I'd rather pay any amount of  
>>> money than allow others to dwell in the privacy of my home.
>>
>> Except in this case you paying for only half the price of  
>> accommodation, and the other half is paid by a single party who is  
>> also responsible for everybody else's other half as well.  It  
>> seems to me that the Hotel is going out of business pretty soon.
>
> For what is worth, I meant "exchange houses" not "share houses";  
> namely occupying another family's home while this family is  
> occupying your home.

Personally, I am used to operating in a less than a 100% setting  
(e.g. downhill racing (ski) in my teens, uphill racing (cars) in my  
twenties and now, considerably later, construction work.) So, my main  
concern in the torrential issue was the *level* of the security risk  
and, in that respect, I will say that I have been utterly convinced  
by Bohn: The risk is not enough for me to worry about it and not to  
allow my political proclivities to take over.

As for the "exchange house" thing, we never did it but on the  
occasion of sabbaticals and vacations we still often lend our house.  
Yes, there is a "risk" and we have had occasional damages. But then,  
there have also been "disappearances" on the occasion of parties.  
Again, the issue is that of what level of risk is acceptable to you.  
In all the cases I have mentioned, from downhill racing to house  
lending, the question becomes, what would my life have been had I  
insisted on nothing less than 100% safety.

The only reason I am not downloading via Torrent is that I am not  
downloading anything at this time because cutting edge software  
represents for me an unacceptable level of risk: Even though, given  
what I am using, I am pretty certain that the probability of  
something going wrong is infinitesimal, for me the expectation is  
quite finite.

Regards to all.
--schremmer