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iPod Shuffle RAID

ricercar writes "So, what do you do when you and some friends are all getting iPod Shuffles? You make a RAID array out of them, of course! The original intent was to actually install OS X on the RAID and boot from that, but the OS X (Panther, 10.3.5) Installer wouldn't allow it."

45 of 324 comments (clear)

  1. If you could install it by TheKidWho · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What would the boot times be like?

    Wait, anyone know of any flash hard drives for PCs/Macs that work via SATA? This would be interesting to do, almost instant boot.

    1. Re:If you could install it by bigtallmofo · · Score: 4, Informative

      I tried this a number of years ago. In fact, there's an CF->IDE interface board that is very inexpensive that I purchased. Turned out that CF was much slower than my hard drive.

      Might be interesting to try it again with today's professional flash memory, but with readily available CF memory from about 3 years ago, I was able to install a Windows OS on it but it was slower than my hard drive.

      If you really want something like this, there are memory drives that use actual battery-backed up RAM (take your pick of varities) that are as you would expect lightning quick. Last I checked though Bitmicro's Site, they were very expensive.

      --
      I'm a big tall mofo.
    2. Re:If you could install it by b1t+r0t · · Score: 5, Informative
      Um, you don't have DMA on flash media because you address it just like RAM.

      Um, actually you don't. Linear flash went out of style years ago, as any Newton owner can tell you. With the exception of flash cards for older Cisco gear, all flash cards these days use an ATA interface. Anything that uses a non-PCMCIA slot (CF, MMC, SD, XD, SonyStick) is 100% ATA.

      --

      --
      "Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
      "Open source is evil." - Microsoft
  2. RAID Array? by CrankyFool · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't think I could afford that without going to the ATM Machine and using my PIN Number to withdraw more money!

    1. Re:RAID Array? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Maybe I'd get this if I RTFA'd the article...

    2. Re:RAID Array? by Bin_jammin · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's the new official description, issued from the Department of Redundancy Department

    3. Re:RAID Array? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      No, for totally failing to get the joke, just like you.

  3. Awesome Hack! by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Funny
    This, however underscores the difference between geeks and non-geeks:
    "So, what do you do when you and some friends are all getting iPod Shuffles? You make a RAID array out of them, of course!
    Among non-geeks such inspiration usually begins with acohol and ends with an entry in the Darwin Awards.
    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    1. Re:Awesome Hack! by lakiolen · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'd like to see whatever it is that would get one into the Darwin Awards using the Shuffle.

      Being a nerd and all....

      --


      What are you expecting to find here?
    2. Re:Awesome Hack! by TheKidWho · · Score: 4, Funny

      Warning: Do not eat iPod shuffle!

      I await for the first person to eat one!

    3. Re:Awesome Hack! by ackthpt · · Score: 4, Funny
      I'm guessing the idea of a RAID of iPod Shuffles began with alcohol too.

      In my experience it's hard NOT to ruin delicate fiddly hardware and NOT to mangle code or scripts when under the influence. It's also somewhat less rewarding, should I pull it off.

      A RAID of 40GB iPods would be orders of magnitude more useful, but if you've got that kind of money you'd be better off buying an Xserve RAID; you can get a 1 TB unit for the price you'd pay for a 600GB iPod RAID, without the rats nest of firewire cables (not to mention the really slow performance).

      I can see it now ... Darwin Award entry:

      He got into jogging for his health, but found the running tedius and therefore got an iPod. That was pretty good, but then he considered the advantages of hauling around a 1 TB server and all the speakers and all the batteries necessary for Full Dolby Surround. In the end, he tripped and his liver was crushed by the whole apparatus.
      --

      A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    4. Re:Awesome Hack! by Bilestoad · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Among geeks the only insipration you need is "because it was there!". Witness cheap RAID on Mac that works, driven by a Mac mini:

      "The Mac mini Maxi"
      http://www.appletalk.com.au/articles/index.php?a rt icle=4433

  4. Steps to success by iluvcapra · · Score: 4, Funny
    1. Read joke on slashdot
    2. Implement joke on slashdot
    3. ???
    4. PROFIT!!!
    --
    Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
  5. hackaday.com by Unreal7000 · · Score: 5, Informative

    This and other hacks can be found at hackaday.com

    --
    "If it has screws, it was meant to be taken apart."
  6. Injustice by DisasterDoctor · · Score: 5, Funny

    That is unfair. The Apple Store is sold out of them for weeks, and I can't buy one for my wife for Valentine's Day, and these guys have so many they are making a RAID with them.

    Where is the justice? :-)

  7. The best feature by gUmbi · · Score: 5, Funny

    And the best part is that every file request is randomized! You'll rediscover the data you already own and haven't worked with in years!

  8. Very James Bond by Idimmu+Xul · · Score: 5, Interesting

    doing this with 2 normal usb key drives, a raid array with the striped data on them, you could save all kinds of secret stuff on them which would be useless unless you had both drives!

    It could replace those security systems where 2 people have a key and there are 2 locks which must be opened at the same time for it to work.. just have 2 usb keys stripped, with a pgp key on them, which must be then inserted in to the security system at the same time for it to work or something

    i dunno, im just spouting things!

    --
    The problem with slashdot is that most of its users were bullied and stuffed into lockers as kids!
  9. iApache by mushupork · · Score: 5, Funny

    Site's been slashdotted...or the damn battery died again!

    --
    Currently bidding on sig
  10. Re:No one cares by magarity · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sure you can make a RAID array out of anything but making one out of storage devices on a CPU-intensive polled bus is exceptionally ludicrous.

  11. Re:Linux by bonch · · Score: 5, Funny

    You could use it as a portable music player.

    Oh.

  12. RAID? by null+etc. · · Score: 4, Funny

    Thanks to the RIAA, I want to avoid anything having to do with digital music players and "raids".

  13. Re:redundant redundant and again, redundant by ultramk · · Score: 5, Funny

    ok... I'm not usually a fan of moderation meta-humor, but this is a gem!

    Whoever moderated this post "Redundant" is an evil, evil person...

    m-

    --
    You catch enchiladas by picking them up behind the head and holding them underwater until they don't kick anymore -VeGas
  14. Gave up because the installer wouldn't let them? by DoctorPhish · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's hardly the right attitude from a supposed hacker.
    When Solaris 10 wouldn't allow installation on my Ultra1, I hex-edited the ISO, reburned, and installed anyways (and that only took me one evening).
    It's SOFTware for crying out loud! Show some initiative!

  15. Yeah by sulli · · Score: 4, Funny

    But this guy ate his iPod shuffle.

    --

    sulli
    RTFJ.
  16. Cluster Computing For Better Sound? by zoomba · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now that we can do a RAID Array, I want to see someone turn it into a beowulf cluster. Imagine the sound processing power we could harness by chaining 400 iPods together! Music listening would never be the same again!

    Ooh, ooh! I know! Setup an Uber iPod (uPod) add in wireless (wiPod? because!). If we got normal iPods with built-in wireless in the future, we could have one hell of a distributed computing network :) Either that or a really expensive geek tracking system

    Useless tech implementations rock :)

  17. Re:No one cares by MexicanMenace · · Score: 5, Funny

    Can you make a raid array out of me, Greg?

  18. Re:Instead of OS X... by punkass · · Score: 4, Funny

    can I mod you "not hugged enough as a kid"?

    --
    "Nobody owns the fucking words man." - James Dean
  19. Re:Write life of flash again? by jnd3 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Most NOR-flash is rated for at least 100,000 erase cycles. And some of the newer AMD flash devices have a minimum 1,000,000 erase cycle guarantee per sector. Even erasing the entire flash 100 times a day would give you about 27 years of life.

  20. Re:Spoiled kids these days... by operagost · · Score: 5, Funny

    Tape? Hmph! Back in my day, we used punch cards! I was the junior operator, so they made me shuffle them. My forearms looked like Popeye's by the time I got promoted to lead assistant over-junior peon. No to mention the ferocious paper cuts! But no one was faster, no siree. I got 30 bytes a second on the read I/Os. Writes were a little slower though, because I had to punch the holes with a dull pencil.

    --

    Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
  21. As seen on Pinky & The Brain by JLavezzo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Brain: Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Pinky?

    Pinky: Yeah, Brain, but if we could get that many iPod Shuffles and set them up as a RAID device would we still be able to listen to music on them?

    Brain: stares blankly at Pinky

  22. Re:No one cares by operagost · · Score: 4, Funny

    I once made a RAID array out of Chinese guys working abacuses. The clacking drove me nuts, but boy howdy was I glad when one caught fire and the rest kept my SQL server going without missing a beat.

    --

    Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
  23. continues by JLavezzo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Brain: Pinky, have you been reading Slashdot again?

  24. Re:No one cares by jthayden · · Score: 5, Funny

    So? You can make a raid array out of anything

    Not out of expensive disks

  25. Re:Spoiled kids these days... by EvilTwinSkippy · · Score: 4, Funny
    You had cards?

    Damn you had it easy. We just had punches back in my day. Our fists would get bloody entering in the simplest of instructions. And then, after every operation, we had to punch everything in again to check it.

    --
    "Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
    --Dr.W.Edwards Deming
  26. Re:Spoiled kids these days... by mrisaacs · · Score: 5, Funny

    You had punches? Back in my day we applied the charges to the core manually. One finger in the socket...timing was everything! What's left of my hair still stands on end...

    --
    ...carrier dead.....
  27. It's obvious what their problem was ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The Shuffles kept returning the boot blocks in a random order!

  28. Re:Instead of OS X... by biglig2 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Yeah, man, we don't want to hear about insane and pointless misuse of hardware unless Linux is involved!

    Heh, OK, let's get round that by thinking of a use for this... in fact I know a good one.

    RAID 5 your very sensitive data onto say 5 shuffles. Then unplug them and all five people take one each.

    You then can't access the data on those sticks unless you are quorate - 4 or more people needed to mount the volume.

    Hmmm, I was trying to think of an example of what to put on this and all I could think of was terrorist plans. Does this make it a bad idea?

    --
    ~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
  29. Re:Linux by BaseLineNL · · Score: 4, Funny

    Of course I have no idea what one can do with a linux iPod shuffle.

    You can impress the ladies with it.

  30. Bwahahaha! by ggvaidya · · Score: 4, Funny

    And lo, for the Darkness which feeds on Slashdot arose in wrath, and spake thus: "Mention an ancient near-dead Slashdot 'joke', do you, boy? Feel the force of the Slashdot as it falls upon thee!"

    And then the Darkness descended, and a storm of nerds fell upon the thread, and tore it hither and thither with their teeth and keyboards and mice, and the jokes made were of a putridness hitherto unknown even in the dark ASCII-porn and GNAA-filled underbelly of Slashdot.

    Yea, and verily was there a gnashing of teeth and a banging of heads as Natalie Portman, petrified and covered in hot grits, reminded YOU that all your old Korean ladies were now belong to us ... in Japan! And all, as one, welcomed their new Slashdot overlords - except in Nebraska, where a million Slashdot editors cried out in torment, and were silenced.

    And lo, for in this time of despair a glimmer of hope appeared, as finally was revealed the Secret Concealed from all since time immemorial, the unknown last-but-one step in the great Slashdot Business Plan. The answer was found to be simp...

    ATH+++
    NO CARRIER

  31. Re:Instead of OS X... by chill · · Score: 5, Funny

    I now have this vision of 4 scruffy terrorists in a room, three iPods hooked in to the array and the 4th guy listening to some U2 track and going "what? What'd I do?"

    -Charles

    --
    Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
  32. Re:Instead of OS X... by jacobcaz · · Score: 4, Interesting
    • Hmmm, I was trying to think of an example of what to put on this and all I could think of was terrorist plans. Does this make it a bad idea?
    How about corporate secrets? You know, like how the Coca Cola formula is supposed to be stashed in several bank vaults in Atlanta?

    If you have 1/5th of the data (plus parity) you can even duplicate your iPod Shuffle as needed to keep the data intact.

    Just make sure that 4 out of your 5 all fly on the same plane or travel in the same car (or really, attend the same conference) with their share of the data.

    You can also scale it up and down (4 drives needing 3 or 25 drives needing 24).

    The only downside with RAID5 is that you can only lose 1 device, so with larger numbers you need a higher and higher majority of your group to unlock the data.

    Another idea is to RAID the data and form a tontine using iPod Shuffles. It worked for Abe Simpson.

  33. Re:Instead of OS X... by natrius · · Score: 5, Funny

    But wouldn't they want to know how to assemble an atomic bomb?

  34. Re:Spoiled kids these days... by jacksonj04 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sockets? You had actual sockets? What I would have given for a socket, we had to drop spanners across the bus bars!

    If anybody goes "Spanners? You had spanners?" then I'm gonna lynch them.

    --
    How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?
  35. Re:Spoiled kids these days... by Further82 · · Score: 5, Funny

    You had a cell? Back in my day all matter and energy in the universe was compressed into a point smaller than those tiny transistors you punk kids use as a sorry excuse for a switch! You can imagine it was pretty tough to program in that cramped enviornment, infact, that thing you people have misnamed the Big Bang was actully Lepton slacking off, he spun left when he was supposed to spin right, the whole thing crashed, that bastard.

  36. Re:Spoiled kids these days... by Servo · · Score: 4, Funny

    You had a universe? Back in my day there was nothing. You had to be God to come up with matter and energy just to log in to the system first. Ever wonder why there are so many different variations on string theory? God used a buggy copy of Fortran to write those functions and never bothered to fix it since "the old way was good enough".

    --
    A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over. -Benjamin Franklin