What does 95th %tile mean?

Mon Apr 23 18:58:35 UTC 2001

[ On Monday, April 23, 2001 at 07:09:56 (-0400), Andrew Odlyzko wrote: ]
> Subject: RE: What does 95th %tile mean?
>
> Yet if the members
> of this list behave like that (and I am definitely not suggesting
> this is economically irrational behavior, people do weigh costs 
> and benefits, and my conclusion is that most people have more
> valuable things to do), then can one hope to introduce any
> sophisticated pricing scheme to the great bulk of Internet users?

Indeed!  Very well put!

However one thing your argument does not take into account is the
question of how howe we are to price relatively low-cost high-speed
ports (eg. Ethernet).  At present such ports do not usually offer simple
ways of controlling throughput (eg. in a manner similar to frame relay).

Now if I could do frame relay over Ethernet with the simple addition of
some freely (or nearly so) available software that would work in Joe
Random's BSD or Linux box, then I'd be in Nirvana from a pricing and
accounting point of view.  It's almost possible to control some
throughput factors from the ISP's router side now with the likes of ALTQ
but this is still not an ideal solution.

-- 
							Greg A. Woods

+1 416 218-0098      VE3TCP      <gwoods at acm.org>     <woods at robohack.ca>
Planix, Inc. <woods at planix.com>;   Secrets of the Weird <woods at weird.com>