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Interview with Brewster Kahle

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the got-your-back-man dept.

Netmonger writes "A fascinating interview with the man behind The Wayback Machine. Some specs from the article: "It's 150-odd standard PC cases, with four drives in each.. 'Over 100 terabytes.. As plain text in book form, that'd be over 3000 miles of shelf space.." All I can say is.. Wow!"

17 of 195 comments (clear)

  1. How many by FunkSoulBrother · · Score: 4, Funny

    How many miles of shelf space equal one Library of Congress? Lets use standard units here people!

  2. What a great way... by Randolpho · · Score: 2, Funny

    to get old pr0n! :D

    --
    "Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised."
    -Marilyn Manson
  3. Re:Wow! by cybermace5 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yes. Yes it does still exist. That will be $5.00.

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  4. stupid Joe Six-Pack metaphors by p_rotator · · Score: 4, Funny


    As plain text in book form, that'd be over 3000 miles of shelf space.."

    Huh? How about "If all data was spoken at once, it would be as loud as 674 jet engines!" Or "If this archive were a planet, it would be as large as Jupiter!"

    1. Re:stupid Joe Six-Pack metaphors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
      What about just leaving it at 100 Terabites?


      What is that, Pacman's system of measuring storage?

    2. Re:stupid Joe Six-Pack metaphors by jaraxle · · Score: 2, Funny

      That's "Doctor" Evil. I didn't go to seven years of medical school to be called "Mister"... thank you.

  5. Is this thing backed up? by TheSHAD0W · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'd hate to see the history of the net destroyed if the sprinkler system goes off in their server room...

  6. Kahle? by Prince_Ali · · Score: 3, Funny

    Who is this Kahle guy? I know for a fact that it is Mr. Peabody who is behind the way-back machine. I was with him when he visited Nobel.

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    Slashdotter are stupid and biased.
  7. I don't understand terabytes.... by nebenfun · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Over 100 terabytes.. As plain text in book form, that'd be over 3000 miles of shelf space.."

    I don't understand terabyte or the shelf space analogy...
    I need to know how many banana's.

    nbfn

    1. Re:I don't understand terabytes.... by gid · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well since bananas can't directly hold data that well since they rot so quickly, well have to use those bananas to store data by some other indirect means.

      So, how many bananas would it take to feed all the monkeys needed to store the data? Monkey's aren't that smart so lets approximate each monkey can hold 4k worth of data.

      100 TB = 100 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 KB = 107374182400 KB

      107374182400 KB / 4 = 26843545600 monkeys

      Now we'd want redundancy so lets have triplictate monkeys for all our data, in case one dies, or runs away, or simply forgets.

      26843545600 * 3 = 80530636800 monkeys

      But now want want to figure out how many bannas they're gonna eat, lets say 5 bananas a day per monkey?

      80530636800 * 5 = 402653184000 bananas to feel all monkeys per day

      402653184000 * 365 = 146968412160000 bananas to feed all monkeys per year

      146,968,412,160,000 or 146 trillion bananas per year, which is probably just slightly over the nation debt.

      Overall, I think your method of using bananas to store all this data is quite ridiculous. The latency and dataloss would be unbearable. Plus think of all the poop these monkeys would create, and you'd NEVER be able to get PETA off your back.

  8. Silly Me! by Cap'n+Canuck · · Score: 3, Funny

    And here I thought it was Mr. Peabody that invented the Wayback Machine. No, hang on, it was Al Gore...

    But seriously, unless you know about this project, and the fact that you can ask to remove data from the archives (though there's no reference as to how to actually do it), it means that your Internet past can haunt you forever.

    Or at least until simultaneous attacks occur on Cairo and San Francisco...

  9. Re:A lot of internet information is crap... by 0xdeadbeef · · Score: 4, Funny

    You don't consider the archiving of pr0n a noble cause? Don't be so selfish, man, think of future generations!

    I mean, hell, forget pr0n, just imagine the blackmail value for the kids of 2020, to be able to dig up pictures of their parents on amihotornot.

  10. Picture of a Picture by paughsw · · Score: 4, Funny

    I put in www.archive.org into the wayback machine and my computer exploded!

  11. Re:100 Terabytes! by jasoncart · · Score: 2, Funny

    Lets hope they arn't using those IBM disks

  12. Re:A lot of internet information is crap... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Fuckery duckery doo
    Fuck shit ass hell damn poo
    A cock and nutsack
    And boobs and asscrack
    Fuckery duckery doo

  13. Re:100 Terabytes! by product+byproduct · · Score: 3, Funny

    For comparison I did a quick price check and for 3000 miles of shelf space on 5x26.25" bookcases (best price/size ratio I could find), that's about $29M worth of bookcases. Using harddisk drives was a smart decision.

  14. Re:How many....answer by Kong+the+Medium · · Score: 2, Funny

    = 23.42 Bills of constitution? + div. amend.

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