Re: [ARSCLIST] Hard disk drives and DAT

[Karl Miller <karl.miller@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tom,

http://uw.physics.wisc.edu/~himpsel/memory.html is interesting reading. I was musing in something of a science fiction mode, but we do have some practical limits and economics to consider. I am also fond of reminding folks of the Jonas Palm article, The Digital Black Hole.

I just wonder about the need for selectivity and how many bits we can effectively manage. I also think about the links that we all create and how information begets information...just musing...

Karl

Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: Hi Karl:

Won't happen. There are now 1 terrabyte drive units. Density per drive unit will keep increasing, 
which keep management, well, manageable.  However, as density increases, the need for redundancy and 
active management becomes all the more important and obvious.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Karl Miller" 
To: 
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2007 7:47 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Hard disk drives and DAT


> When I think of the current state of things (as per Tom's note below) I am reminded of an act that 
> appeared with some frequency on the old Ed Sullivan show. One of the "tricks" was to keep a number 
> of plates spinning at the end of a stick. You were always kept in suspense thinking that one of 
> the plates would slow down and eventually fall off the stick. Somehow I see that as a great 
> representation of the job of those would manage (preserve) large data files.
> The problem is, that we keep adding more plates to the trick...Just as we have a formula for the 
> theoretical limits of storage, I wonder if there is some equation which will describe the point in 
> time when we no longer have the resources to keep the plates spinning and one by one they all fall 
> down.
>
> Karl
>
> Tom Fine  wrote: I hope Richard and/or Parker and/or Spec Bros. jump 
> in here. The ONLY answer is managed and
> constantly migrated storage. You simply cannot live by the old "put it on a shelf in a clean, cool
> room" idea anymore. Digital storage must be in constant motion -- literally since hard drives have
> been known to fail or never start up again if left idle on a shelf (ask around Hollywood, everyone
> has a horror story or two). You have to plan to have a "living" hard drive array that is 
> redundant,
> preferably with a constantly mirrored clone at a different location, and plan on swapping out 
> drives
> every XX hours of use or at worst when they inevitably fail. There are firms that do this on an
> out-source basis, I think. I believe the 90's dot-bomb term was "storage farms." Some of them are
> actually located in old bomb shelters and missle bunkers.
>
> -- Tom Fine
>