I helped build the Google approach to storing data.
There is no way Google would ever use optical media to do that.
Or Amazon, or WordPress, or Facebook.
At Google, all data is stored three times, and if there is any fault in one
copy, that disk is replaced and the data copied from the other two copies.
Google stores my data for free.
It is impact resistant, and backed up three times.
While it is true that a Blu-Ray disk might last longer than I will (30 years from
now) storing the data in the cloud can last even longer, since the data is maintained
and the disks replaced when they fail.
I don't see how free backups in the cloud are ripping anyone off. They cost less than
the disks and the safe-deposit box fees. And accessing data on a disk in a safe at a
bank can take days, whereas the data in the cloud is available 24/7.
If you want to move data around, an optical disk sucks when compared to either a
thumb drive or the cloud. You can mail the thumb drive, or you can simply email the
URL of the data in the cloud.
You might have recorded a lot of video onto Blu Ray disks. A lot of people recorded
a lot of data onto 9 track tape, and it is now useless and unavailable to them because
they don't have an ancient tape drive to play it on. The same goes for floppy disks,
VHS, Betamax, cassette tapes, 8 tracks, and many other physical media that are no
longer in use. In the cloud you don't worry about the data being stored on some disk
you won't be able to read in 10 years. It gets copied into the latest data centers.
Your disk might last 30 years, but in 10 years you won't have anything to read it on.
The thumb drive is not for storing archives of data you will never have time to read.
Save that for the cloud. But for transferring data, it is a lot better than a Blu Ray
disk. It doesn't get scratched, it has no moving parts, it is many times faster to read,
and you can fit a handful of them in your pocket, and you can re-use them.
Archive.org stores their data on hard drives, just like all the other data centers do.
Storing it on $13,000 worth of Blu Ray disks would be incredibly stupid.
How long would it take you to find the data you wanted?
Let alone copy it. Especially if it is in a bank vault on a Friday night. Or in your car
on a hot day.
At Google I helped NASA develop techniques to store terabytes of data per second
from satellites. We never considered putting that data on Blu Ray disks. :-) The cheapest
way to store data today is in the cloud. Google buys hard drives for a lot less than you or
I can buy them, and then lets you use them for free.
I don't even use Blu Ray for watching videos.
I have a media server, and my data is stored on a few hard drives around the house,
and in the cloud. If I want to loan someone a video, several fit nicely on a thumb drive.
When you have more data than you have time to process it, the time to find the data
and access it is important. It is easy to store more video than you can ever find the
time to watch. But if you want to watch a video, searching for the file on a hard drive
is a lot easier than trying to find it in a pile of Blu Ray boxes. Did you file it under
science fiction, adventure, or horror? A search doesn't care -- it can be all three.
If you made the video yourself, posting the 1080p to YouTube means you can pull
it up on your phone at a restaurant, and it doesn't take a wall of shelves to store it.
And sending the URL to your friends is fast and simple. Burning a new Blu Ray disk
costs you time and money, and you can't do it on your phone.
-----
Get a free science project every week! "http://scitoys.com/newsletter.html"On Thu, Dec 1, 2011 at 3:23 PM, Thomas Stowe <stowe.thomas@gmail.com> wrote:
A) It's not spam, it's me being friendly to geeks.On 12/1/2011 4:53 PM, leaking pen wrote:
> simon, to burn movies to play in portable players? only thing I've
> used blank dvds for for a while.
>
> That said, I think is is rather creative spam.
>
> On Thu, Dec 1, 2011 at 3:45 PM, Simon Quellen Field <sfield@scitoys.com> wrote:
>> With 32 gigabyte flash cards going for $36, why would anyone bother
>> with disks anymore? Why use a slow, huge, one-time-use thing that can
>> only hold single-digit gigabytes when the 32 gb microSDHC card in my phone
>> is smaller than my baby fingernail, re-writable, and I don't need a huge
>> disk
>> reader? In a pinch, I can even read the data on the phone itself.
>>
>> For a little less money, you can get a 32 gb thumb drive that fits easily in
>> your
>> pocket, plugs into any USB port, and is much faster. And you can use it more
>> than 50 times, unlike the big old-fashioned plastic disks.
>>
>> -----
>> Get a free science project every week! "http://scitoys.com/newsletter.html"
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Dec 1, 2011 at 2:22 PM, Cathal Garvey <cathalgarvey@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>> I gotta say, you're right. This isn't the place. :P
>>>
>>> On 01/12/11 21:48, Thomas Stowe wrote:
>>>> Vinpower Digital 25GB 4X BD-R 50 Packs Disc Model OQBDR04LT-50
>>>> Item #: N82E16817607054
>>>>
>>>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817607054
>>>>
>>>> 30.99 + tax + free UPS 3 day shipping
>>>>
>>>> Vinpower Digital 25GB 4X BD-R 50 Packs Disc Model OQBDR04LT-50 : 30.99 +
>>>> tax + free UPS 3 day shipping
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The information transmitted in this communication is intended only for
>>>> the
>>>> person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential
>>>> and/or privileged information. Any review, retransmission,
>>>> dissemination,
>>>> copying or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this
>>>> information, or any part thereof, by persons or entities other than the
>>>> intended recipient, is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you
>>>> received this in error, please contact the sender immediately and delete
>>>> and please destroy this communication and all copies thereof, including
>>>> all
>>>> attachments.
>>>>
>>>> Thomas C. Stowe
>>>> Email/GChat/MS Live Messenger: stowe.thomas@gmail.com
>>>> Texas Computer Services: http://www.txpcservices.com
>>>> Portfolio/VCard/Resume: http://www.thomasstowe.info
>>>> Blog: http://www.sc3ne.com
>>>> Survive2 Survivalism Information: http://www.survive2.com
>>>> Phone/SMS/VoiceMail: +1-210-704-7289
>>>> Skype: thomasstowe
>>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> www.indiebiotech.com
>>> twitter.com/onetruecathal
>>> joindiaspora.com/u/cathalgarvey
>>> PGP Public Key: http://bit.ly/CathalGKey
>>>
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B) Who would use disks? An amazing amount of people who love their data.
Who's an idiot who uses only hard disks? Do you have kids and a wife? Do
you even care about your data? If you depend on an online backup, you're
getting ripped off. Yes, hard drives can be nearly the same price as
blurays, however this promotion I found on SlickDeals that linked me to
NewEgg earlier makes it more cost effective. We're talking about
1,250GB, that's 1.25 TB! for $31 + tax! That's Chump Change! You're nuts
to talk badly about a deal like that. Is that your first computer? Do
you even know what today's optical media is capable of? Not only is it
about as much weight as hard disk media, pound for pound but it's not
impact sensitive and has a "warranty" longer than any hard drive you've
bought or will likely buy in the near future.
It won't last a century, but it'll probably last 2x-3x as long as any
hard drive you have. That said, if you want anything to actually be
around in the future, use optical media. You can drop it, bury it, keep
it in a storage unit or safety deposit box and never need to worry about
any of the things you do with hard drive media. Like, impact
sensitivity, "accidents", acts of god wiping our your drives. Please,
tell us the reasons using disks is inferior to a 32GB flash drive again?
Many people, especially scientists, have much, much much more valuable
data than you could possibly fit on a flash drive. Good luck with that,
until someone steals it, your car or whatever you keep it in if that's
your idea of backup. How about something that can store all of
Arxiv.org, mirrors of your favorite websites and probably your entire
video and document collection to boot? What's really cool, if you have
no budget, you could backup the entire archive.org text collection (.5
petabytes) for around $13,000.
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