SneakerNet Lives!!
Great update on the old "SneakerNet" idea from Wired
How do you get 120 terabytes of data -- the equivalent of 123,000 iPod shuffles (roughly 30 million songs) -- from A to B? For the most part, the old-fashioned way: via a sneakernet. It's not glamorous, but Google engineers hope to at least end the arduous process of transferring massive quantities of data -- which can literally take weeks to upload onto the internet -- with something affectionately called "FedExNet" by the scientists who use it.
As the old saying goes:
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of quarter-inch tapes
To which I would add something I heard once somewhere
... nor a 747 full of CDROMS ...
Not that I would advocate that approach - because I once heard a story about an advertising agency that sent its magtapes across London via cycle courier - until the day the courier had a flat and decided to get the Underground instead ...
UPDATE: I found the Wiki on SneakerNet and had nostalgic fits at this - this is how I populated my Amiga with early FOSS software and the like ...
When home broadband access was less common, many people downloaded large files over their workplace networks and took them home by sneakernet.
I have a hackish tale to tell about how I had to accomplish this using a SUN workstation, a BBC B and an Amiga - but luckily for those of you who are not interested in "hackish tales" it is too small to fit into the margin of this weblog ...
Tags: sneakernet, fedexnet, google, wired, bandwidth