A riddle of sorts: You need to move up to 10 Gig of Data around the World...

[Karsten]

So here is the challenge:

-You need to move 10 Gig of Data on a regular basis.
-Network or Internet Connection is NOT available
-DVD's are NOT an option
-Shipping whole computers is out of the question as well

What do you suggest?

Memory sticks only go to 1 Gig
Removable HD's are too expensive

What else is there?

 

[dnuggett]

Thats easy. Tape drives.


Next.........

 

[Crusty]

Tapes?

 

[f95toli]

DDS4-tapes.

Reasonably fast (unless you have to search for data), cheap and available everywhere.
20-40 GB

AIT-3 is probaby even better, 160 GB (i think) but slightly more expensive.

 

[imported_Nail]

Network or Internet Connection is NOT available

Where are we sending this stuff? Peru?

DVD's are NOT an option

So we'll use CD's. And what machine that can process 10 gigs of data can't be equipped with a DVD-ROM drive?

Shipping whole computers is out of the question as well

So just ship the hard drive.

Memory sticks only go to 1 Gig

So ship ten of them.

Removable HD's are too expensive

Too expensive for what? We need ten gigs, yet the budget doesn't allow it? A 10 gig drive costs much less than any other solution.

What else is there?

Well, what do you suggest? You're obviously expecting a certain answer, as your criteria makes no sense whatsoever.

 

[imported_Nail]

Memory tubes! We could ship a few hundred million of those overseas.

 

[sao123]

So heres the challenge.
Your stranded in antartica by yourself and you have to get to the hawaii, Before you freeze and run out of food.
Your missing 1 arm and 2 legs.
Airplanes cannot be used because the earth has run out of petrolium.
Boats are not an option.
Shipping yourslelf via mail or UPS is out of the question also.

How do you do it?





Now to answer your question...
1) Implement data transmission "over the power grid" technology
2) Switch to MainFrame Systems using miles of coax cabling & Dummy Terminals
3) Pen, Paper & mail courier.
4) Hire lots of cute female interns who will wear short skirts and try to send data using the original can and string method.
5) Forget data transmission, Outsource to a consultant in India or Japan... Let them figure it out...
Quit your job and pimp out your cute interns for large amounts of money.

You cant be serious with this question.

 

[klaviernista]

radio or satellite transmission.

 

[Karsten]

What am I looking for...

This is acctually a question I got put on me by my boss. So it is for work!

I agree with most of you, although I am not quite sure whats with the hostile post. It's a retorical question and I wanted to hear if someone knows something I don't.

Tape is not an option either by the way.

Thanks for helping.

Karsten

 

[imported_Nail]

This is acctually a question I got put on me by my boss. So it is for work!

Tell him to go f*ck himself, you quit.

 

[TStep]

Originally posted by: sao123
So heres the challenge.
Your stranded in antartica by yourself and you have to get to the hawaii, Before you freeze and run out of food.
Your missing 1 arm and 2 legs.
Airplanes cannot be used because the earth has run out of petrolium.
Boats are not an option.
Shipping yourslelf via mail or UPS is out of the question also.

How do you do it?


1) Have Scotty beam you there.
2) Lay on you back in the water, hold a shirt in both your remaining hand and your mouth, extend your arm vertically thereby creating a sail and float there.
3) Eat alot of beans and utilize natural jet propusion in the water lighting the expulsed methane to keep you warm enroute.
4) Get chummy with a Dolphin and hitch a ride sharing both warmth and eating raw seal and fish along the way.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Karsten
What am I looking for...

This is acctually a question I got put on me by my boss. So it is for work!

I agree with most of you, although I am not quite sure whats with the hostile post. It's a retorical question and I wanted to hear if someone knows something I don't.

Tape is not an option either by the way.

Thanks for helping.

Karsten

What do you mean "tape is not an option"? If you can't use DVDs, tapes, or hard drives, what do you want us to say? You can use CD-ROMs (10GB ~= 16 CDs), I guess... or set up a satellite internet link to the remote machine (though this would be slow).

Also, you mean this is not a rhetorical question, ie you actually want an answer.

Maybe if you could provide more details (especially on why you've ruled out some of these options...), we could be more helpful.

 

[Karsten]

Thanks all for replying.

I simply wanted to see if I was forgetting about something. Hey.... maybe IOMEGA had come out with a 10$ part that does 10gig. I simply wanted to see if I am right in my opinion that it can not be done.

Not quite sure why I seemed to offend some people with this?! If you don't care for a question (and I didn't say you had to either read or answer it) then just leave it be!

Thanks for some of the valuable input from most of the posters. You just assured me that there is no simple solution and more planing (ie DVD seems to be the best solution, although painful in some circumstances).

Thanks

 

[TuxDave]

At least you could've given reason why things are not an option. It's kinda annoying to ask for suggestions, get answers, and then simply say NO... try again.

 

[f95toli]

No. there are no $10 solutions.
But a DDS-4 tape costs around $40, do you think your company can afford that?

If DVD, tape, CDs and so does not work (for some unknown reason), why woudl ANYTHING work-

If Iomega would come up with a 10 Gb part it would probably be somehing similar to a zip-drive, why would that be better?

 

[sao123]

I was not offended... I thought I'd offer a remotely humorous & sarcastic answer to an impossible question. I apologize.

Seriously, there is no free or even low cost solution to transmit that large of an amount of data regularly all over the world.

 

[JHutch]

And a hard drive is probably the cheapest option once you take time and reliability into account. Heck, a secretary can perform a drag and drop and copy the 10 GB to a hard drive, then wrap it in bubble wrap and hand it to the cute UPS driver. No geeks needed.

Now, if you want a different answer, you have to tell us WHY things like DVD, TAPE, HD, etc are not viable. We can assume that Net is too slow or not available, but if a computer can read 10GB of anything, it can handle a cheap DVD drive or a HD...

JHutch

 

[dkozloski]

If 10 gigs of your data isn't worth $40 you better find another job. Garbage collection costs more than that. If your work product has so little value you might as well be pasting toothpicks on tomcats and selling them for porcupines.

 

[wacki]

Originally posted by: f95toli
No. there are no $10 solutions.
But a DDS-4 tape costs around $40, do you think your company can afford that?

If DVD, tape, CDs and so does not work (for some unknown reason), why woudl ANYTHING work-

If Iomega would come up with a 10 Gb part it would probably be somehing similar to a zip-drive, why would that be better?

Actually there is a $10 option $7.65 to be exact.

20/40gig Tape

 

[f95toli]

I wonder why DDS4 tapes are so expensive where I live?
(there are $25 tapes but they are not as reliable)
I use DDS4 in an autoloader at work (backup) so I buy tapes quite often

well, I am not paying so who cares

 

[DrPizza]

why would the hard drive have to be an external one? Just pick up a cheap internal 10GB hard drive, and send it back and forth.

 

[SmoiL]

Punch-Cards

 

[BullyCanadian]

Nomad Zen, Ipod, etc... HD based Music PLayers

 

[Bookmage]

IPOD????

I'd look at getting an internal hard drive in a removable enclosure. Assuming this is for a company of any decent size with any decent form of Help Desk/Tech support, there should be someone on both ends who can pop open the case of a computer and install a mobile rack. If not, then USB2/Firewire external enclosure is also cost effecient. Other than that, CDRs, DVDrs, or some form of Tape backup would be your other solutions.
Depending on the purpose, distance, and actual physical limitations (not user incompatabilities), DVDrs are your 10$ solution. For the media anyways...

 

[everman]

Well you could try pidgeons. 2.27 Mbps but rather short distance and very high latency.
http://science.slashdot.org/science/04/03/31/2224227.shtml?tid=126&tid=133&tid=186&tid=95
http://www.notes.co.il/benbasat/5240.asp