Hi I think the hint with the SYNC="rsync://rsync.us.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" (where us is the short country-name) should be added to the manual, at least I coulnd't find that hint there and it makes "emerge sync" faster.
I can add the verbage from the Tips and Tricks section of the March 17 newsletter (with the correction from the March 24 newsletter) http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/20030317-newsletter.xml http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/20030324-newsletter.xml If I don't hear any negative comments, I'll edit the portage manual and commit in a few days.
The following note was added to the RSYNC section of the Portage Guide: --- See /etc/make.conf for how to set SYNC to retrieve a localized rsync mirror rotation. This will select servers that are geographically closer to you, which usually translates to higher transfer speeds. It will also help to distribute the load over a number of servers. ---
