[tech] Burner vs. Diablo 2 (Re: [ucc] AGM Minutes)

[Nick Bannon]

You're putting a lot of effort into finding things to object to. ::-(

Do you agree that a CD burner in the UCC is useful for more than just
filez?

If so, do you agree that a fast and convenient one is, generally
speaking, better than a slow and inconvenient one?

You might very well disagree about whether it's worth money or effort
to improve the current setup, but that's a separate matter.

On Sun, Mar 24, 2002 at 10:17:59PM +0800, David Manchester wrote:
[...]
> What does does it need fast ethernet for?
> You're not burning over the wire... the burner's only 4x.
> 
> Why does it need so much disk?
> If you're backing up home directories, no-one's going to have much
> over 650MB, so where is the 9GB needed?

It's a bad idea to burn over the wire, so people need to put things on
temporary disc instead. They probably want to transfer more stuff while
the first one's burning and they need to have room to make an image from
the second lot as well. Hence 2GB as a minimum.

For CD backup purposes, it's nice to make a partition's worth of images
and then burn them over a period of days, deleting as you go. Hence
9GB. For tape backups it's nice to create archives on disk then stream
them to tape. Hence 9GB.

As for the fast ethernet - do you prefer transferring ISO images' worth
of stuff over fast ethernet or standard ethernet?

> The DDS-2 drive on morwong works.

It's good to have that confirmed.

> If you need to back things up in chunks larger than one CD, 
> then use the 4mm drive. DDS-2 tapes are craploads cheaper than DLTs.

We already have enough tapes to do a backup or three - we don't need to
buy any. People don't seem bothered enough to do a backup that spans
tapes, whereas I know I would personally be willing to do a backup onto
one suitably large tape. I also like DLTs. ::-)

> Simon might remain in the UK.
> I expect the DLT will go with him if he returns to collect his 
> belongings.

I expect so. However, I'm happy to make use of it, while it's here, if
we have everything we need to make it go. (Actually, we already do,
over the network, anyway. Guess I should give it a shot)

If we need to restore a DLT and no longer have access to it, there's a
number of drives on and off campus that are suitable.

[...]
> I can't see how -any- of that makes a dedicated non-linux machine
> less useful for home directory backups.

I'm not sure why you think I would say such a thing, or what home
directory backups specifically have to do with it. It was a statement
about why UNIX machines are good for manipulating filesystems.

[...]
> Grates? At $12.00/year?
[...]

Sure it does, even though it doesn't stop me from using CD-R's. I don't
like throwing things away if I don't have to. <shrug> By that argument,
all CD-RW's are worthless.

(You might think that all CD-RW's are worthless, but it's been nice
to create a test disc, realise that it's broken, and try again
without throwing it away)

Nick.

-- 
   Nick Bannon   | "I made this letter longer than usual because
nick-sig at rcpt.to | I lack the time to make it shorter." - Pascal