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GmailFS - The Google File System
Scott Granneman writes "Looking to use that new Gmail account for something really innovative? How about combining it with a brand new filesystem for Linux? Then GmailFS might be the answer: 'GmailFS provides a mountable Linux filesystem which uses your Gmail account as its storage medium. ... GmailFS supports most file operations such as read, write, open, close, stat, symlink, link, unlink, truncate and rename.'"
They're supporters of Linux. Somehow, it doesn't seem like a very "on the spoke" maneuver to aggravate them.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
Why do men climb mountains, why do they explore new lands, why do they explore space or the depths of the oceans. Mankind does it because it's there (or can be done).
there are far more elegant ways to do network storage.
people are just blinded by that Gigabyte figure.
would you use a pop3 box to store your files? no.
would you go climbing the mount everest barefoot just because you can? no.
Exercise caution when modding this message up: the author acts like a jerk when his karma is excellent.
Gmail can allow up to 1GB storage based on the fact that not all email accounts are going to get anywhere near the limit, if GmailFS becomes real, Gmail would become unsustainable (and where is the Ad revenue?) and in summery Google will get very angry and pull the plug in a mean way. On another note, I'm surprised that having direct access to the root folders of a gmail account (like it's a pop/imap account) is even possible.
An old adage that applies quite well even to the Internet age.
Gmail generates ad revenue, but abusing the account in this way both deprives Google of ad revenue as well and costs them network traffic and will likely increase their disk usage.
This is like that cool neighboor of yours that says you can borrow his tools and then you go over take everything you can find as well as set up a sign in your front lawn for others to join "the fun".
Goolgle won't leave this intact long and I don't blame them a bit.
I
Now this is hacking. An off the wall idea and dare I say it, something uniqu, turned inot reality.
Kids, look at this as an example of what sideways thinking can do. I love it - more because the true spirit of hacking is proven alive, rather than what it does.
Although, that's pretty cool too.
And I can already do that by emailing to myself the zip file of my day's work.
I'm a sci-fi vegan: I don't want the aliens to think we have as much right to live as the fried chickens we eat.
1. 10% of gmail users use linux.
2.Most linux users use firefox or mozilla
3.Many users use adblock extension on mozilla(i doubt this)
4.google ads dont reach users anyways(who clicks anyway)
5.Most ppl wont use GmailFs.(I have 80GB hd...why another slow 1 GB)
6.GmailFS is used by 0.1% of gmail users
7.Google doesnt care
8.Profit.................oops
DO no evil google , u will get geek support
I'm going to try to use this thing for backups of my config files. Its the perfect solution for that, can be automated in cron to do daily backups for example (unlike most web-based storage things)
Posted by a Debian GNU/Linux user
3) Google installs a filter that detects people using GMail in that way and closes such accounts with out warning, since such people have violated the TOS that has been clearly posted since the start. Affected people go crying to Google wanting un-backed-up data back, but Google declares that was "your problem".
(i guess i should have selected "plain old text")
no, IE is probably the buggy one. it compensates for IDIOTIC web designer mistakes, like a double in the html page which creates the huge row. this is your culprit:
<TR HEIGHT="676" CELLPADDING="0" ALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="820">
and not mozilla.
One can create a crosscrypt container file so one can have transparent encryption.
there's something wrong with the Windows and/or Linux filesystems.
What exactly are you refering to with Linux filesystems? Linux has many different choices of file systems to choose from and each has advantages and disadvantages.
As far as I know, none of the existing filesystems for Linux can mount your Gmail storage space so I'd say you missed the entire point of the story headline and the article itself.
Or maybe I did..
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
Nope, cant. He is virtualizing a space, but he only access the account as normal http. Worse: even he strip the feature from html, not optimized xml api queries :(
-Woof woof woof!
Storage is Storage. ...Unless they didn't actually want/expect people to use that gig of space.
The same thing many have gone through with "unlimited internet access" and "unlimited bandwidth".
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
How the fuck would they use the DMCA?
Why the fuck would they use the DMCA?
Watch this Heartland Institute video
I'm not a google groupie but... Google is a big company, if you sign up for gmail, chances are 2 years from now gmail will still be there and will be operating with reasonable quality, just like Yahoo and hotmail. Other smaller or less known companies can offer 4GB mail accounts and it still won't be the same: there is no guarantee that they'll be around in a year or that the level of service won't drop... and changing email addresses is a pain.
Google will care about this because they have to *pay* for all that storage.
With normal people, they can pay for it with ad revenue.
With a file system, they cannot.
Please don't pony out the idea that the ads will still get d/l or clicked on or whatever. If you're an advertiser, you are only willing to pay for human beings seeing your ad or clicking on it, out of their own free will. Otherwise, it's not worth paying for. If it becomes known that x% of ad clicks are actually automated gmail filesystem users, then ad buyers will pressure google for lower prices.
There's no free lunch.
Except for offline backup (which you could already manually use GMail for) this is not very useful. Even for that it isn't really useful since Google could cancel you account if they don't like how you use it.
This is really just expression of "I could do it".
Even so, if they used the gimick of 1 G of email for marketing but expected nobody to use it, tough, they don't get to completely control how you use their product.
As far as the XM-PCR, this is just the like a VCR for XM radio. How is this an abuse? The recording is analog, all the program does is allow a time shift. These are all things that anybody could do manually for a long time. Should we take away VCRs and Tivo just because broadcasters would prefer we had to watch TV under their rules?
You already have the capacity but not the right to sell or distribute most of the content that XM transmits.
They did not go "out of their way". They did it to sell more subscriptions.
This program actually makes XM radio more marketable.
When you create a product, you do not get to regulate every thing your customers do with it. Soon we will have Kellogs telling us that we cannot make our own rice krispie bars (i.e. we have to buy their Rice Krispie Treats) with the box of cereal we bought as this violates the "license".
Because that's too dangerous.
/dev/mem for it) at some point, if there's any stupid userspace programs; sensitive data could be swapped; etc.
If you put swap on gmail, what do you think's going to happen? Your root password will be in swap (grep through
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3) Google puts a bandwidth limit on each account
Assuming you're using Gmail for legitimate emailing, you won't be tranferring your entire GB of email back and forth every month. So just impose a 1 or 2 GB monthly transfer limit and you're covered.
In the registration form you can only choose Germany, Austria or Switzerland; is it possible to sign up if you live anywhere else? Without lying, that is?
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It isn't storage--its the massive number of data transfers a second. If you use Gmail as a file system, you're interacting with Gmail as you would with a hard drive. And that means you're using not just bandwidth, but server power. And if a few ten thousand /.ers did this, Google would have to add hundreds of extra servers--yet they would earn nothing off ads to pay for what normally would support millions of email users.
The GmailFS is a cute little technological achievement, but it's not what Gmail is for and I'm afraid that if any significant number of people use GmailFS that Gmail is going to suffer TOS adjustments that will affect everyone.
And this is all that matters because...?
Because all that matters in life is what you, personally, can get away with?
Because it's alright to be an asshole unless you get caught?
Because other people's wishes about their own property are only worth respecting if they're willing to punish you for not respecting them?
I think the technical concept here is very neat. But when your neat hack needs someone else's computer to run on, it seems to me like you ought to be at least a little considerate of the other person's wishes. Whether or not they are actually going to police your behavior on that count.
Thank you, you are confirming exactly what I said. It's sad that some people see things like this as "fair game." GmailFS is an abuse of a free service being provided by Gmail for an entirely different purpose. It's like the old "freakers" that used Black Boxes to get free calls on the long distance network decades ago. Yes, they could do it, but should they?
Even so, it's one thing for AT&T to have an adequate security system in place--but in the case of GmailFS we're not talking about Google having inadequate security in place. We're talking about Google lacking anti-abuse algorithms in place. It's sad that it's not the script kiddies that are going to force Google to have to put limits on their service, but their "friends" in the geek community.
Part of being part of technology isn't just doing everything you can do but doing only those things we should do. Google has generally been well-received in the geek/Linux community. Are we go to say "thanks" by abusing the free service they are providing?
Phreaking is a very important part of computing history. Also don't forget that Apple Computers was partially found with money made on manufacture of blue boxes.
It's sad that it's not the script kiddies that are going to force Google to have to put limits on their service, but their "friends" in the geek community.
Considering the inherent performance limitations of GmailFS, I don't suppose its use will become widespread. It's a neat tool to have when needed, though.
Part of being part of technology isn't just doing everything you can do but doing only those things we should do.
Who decides this part?