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A Different Idea For Distributed Storage
hojo writes: "A really cool idea for an anonymous, distributed storage system is actively being worked on. Talk about a way around censorship and control--check out this article at Forbes for more." The article talks about a system dubbed "OceanStore," a high-concept application of the same massively distributed and replicated data idea behind FreeNet and some other projects. The availability of massive storage cheaper and cheaper will start to change exactly what we think is worth saving and where it makes sense to store it. (Do we want a data cloud full of the digital pictures millions of people couldn't bring themselves to delete?)
More information can be found here: http://oceanstore.cs.berkeley.edu.
The cost of data storage isn't the physical capacity - its the management.
You should know that if you've heard of EMC. EMCs are practically self contained black-boxes of "poop data here and dont worry about it, ever". Some (all?) EMC systems phone home when they think there will be a problem. It is not uncommon for the first sign of disk failure in an emc to be the new disk arriving in the mail on the sysadmins desk!
Its not tricky to slap a bunch of drives together and get an assload of capacity. It is tricky to figure out how to keep 23523 18gb disks running if you just have an excel spreadsheet telling you which cabinet each disk sits in.
Ditto with IBM. The coolest thing i've ever seen are the multiple-arm tape storage libraries with the ADSM interfaces infront of them that make data archival and retreival pretty painless.
The key is managing data distribution when you've got an assload of data. This is one project that addresses that, among other things.
My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
The problem with a system like this is that it is designed for adults with adults (and the self-restraint that maturity brings) in mind. I'd reckon its going to be next to impossible to regulate when the kids find out they have almost unlimited storage capacity, for a week or so until the system collapses under the weight of the kids' vast warez collections. If you think they are going to assemble their collections efficiently, then you need treatment. How likely is it that the kids will:
Search the public areas archive extensively to determine which parts of their collection are already stored
Identify the set of files in the current collection of thousands that are not already in the store
Segregate their collection and upload all these missing files
Create an index of their archive for distribution?
Unlikely. They are all just going to upload their entire collections en masse. Cognitive simplicity is a powerful decision maker.
Everybody is coming up with neat solutions for this and that, and saying how great it would be if we all had cryptography and online secure storage and stuff. How come no one ever thinks: what are the bastards likely to get up to with this neat new stuff, and how can I prevent them from doing this in the first place.
The world (and the net particularly) is not full of decent, unselfish, philanthropic people. It is full of slash-and-burn arseholes who will happily spoil everything for everybody (themselves included) as long as their short-term desires are met.
As I see it the difference between me and some ivory-tower do-gooder is that they have faith in humanity: they'll be diligent, noble, unselfish and charitable. I have faith in people: faith that they'll be lazy, screw up, not give a shit about the next guy, and doing this while complaining about how they are being shafted and that they are the victim in all this really.
You know I'm right...
Gary
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors - Plato