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Mailing Disks is Faster than Uploading Data

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the data-access-versus-data-excess dept.

CowboyRobot writes "Who would ever, in this time of the greatest interconnectivity in human history, go back to shipping bytes around via snail mail as a preferred means of data transfer? Jim Gray would do it, that's who. And we're not just talking about Zip disks, no sir. We're talking about shipping entire hard drives, or even complete computer systems, packed full of disks. David Patterson (one of the developers of both RISC and RAID) interviews ACM Turing Award winner Jim Gray." Back in school we always had a saying, "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon filled with backup tapes." Seems like that still holds true.

11 of 581 comments (clear)

  1. Andy Tannenbaum by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon filled with backup tapes."

    "Hurtling station wagon", "8-track tapes".

  2. Wrong Standard! by theGreater · · Score: 5, Funny

    Darn you people! How the heck am I supposed to get a proper astrophysical mental image if you consistently refuse to put things in terms of multiples of VW bugs (the old ones, not the faux ones).

    -theGreater

    1. Re:Wrong Standard! by I+Like+Swords!!! · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sorry, that must be in the metric system or something...

      --
      .unsigged
  3. We had a saying back in school too... by Capital_Z · · Score: 5, Funny
    We had a saying back in school too --

    "If you're driving a station wagon around you ain't doin' too well with the ladies"

  4. OOoooh high ping by Ribo99 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Of course playing Quake would be out of the question I would think

    --
    I wear pants.
  5. Yeah, but the latency's pretty bad... by privaria · · Score: 5, Funny

    PING privaria.org (64.33.49.48) 56(84) bytes of data.
    64 bytes from privaria.org (64.33.49.48): icmp_seq=2 ttl=242 time=2 days, 7 hrs, 37 min
    64 bytes from privaria.org (64.33.49.48): icmp_seq=1 ttl=242 time=2 days, 17 hrs, 14 min
    64 bytes from privaria.org (64.33.49.48): icmp_seq=3 ttl=242 time=3 days, 2 hrs, 41 min

  6. From the interview by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    Of course, we could put the Library of Congress holdings on it or 10,000 movies

    10,000 movies? The MPAA would like to have a word with him..

    --
    Trolling is a art,
  7. Ping by felonious · · Score: 5, Funny

    The ping on a station wagon sucks and don't even get me started on the routes...

    --
    You aren't free to do anything, until you've lost everything.
  8. Next on /. by Wrexen · · Score: 5, Funny

    This week: You can make a trade-off between latency and throughput!
    Next week: Cars that can haul less can be more fuel-effiecent!
    The week after: Algorithms that use more memory, but are faster to execute!

    Wonders never cease!

  9. Re:Netflix by appcoal · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not for very much longer. The RIAA's lawyers have just discovered that the U.S. Postal Service is in fact a p2p network. (Not to mention the highway system.)

  10. Re:Tapes too... by MyHair · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just try to play Quake3 that way. Actually it starts to help. Play for a while and you start getting kills from rockets you fired 3 maps earlier.