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The Telecom Digest for June 13, 2013
Volume 32 : Issue 128 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Re: Credibility Crunch for Tech Companies Over Prism (PV)
Re: Credibility Crunch for Tech Companies Over Prism (Thad Floryan)
Re: Price-gouging cable companies are our latter-day robber barons (T)

====== 31 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======

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Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 14:10:06 -0500 From: pv+usenet@pobox.com (PV) To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Credibility Crunch for Tech Companies Over Prism Message-ID: <QJOdnVcE5pkTWiXMnZ2dnUVZ_h6dnZ2d@supernews.com> Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com> writes: >Everything is now being stored at the NSA's Utah facility which has >a yottabyte capacity (1 trillion terabytes or 1 quadrillion gigabytes) Um, a yottabyte is a quadrillion terabytes - you're off by 3 orders of magnitude. I know people have thrown around the idea of the Utah facility being yottabyte class storage, but that's about the technology they're using (such as ZFS as you mentioned), not what they actually have. A yottabyte is a couple hundred times larger than the entire estimated size of the internet. There is no present technology that could pack that much data into their datacenter and still access it. A solid block of micro-SD cards with the cases removed wouldn't fit. * -- * PV Something like badgers, something like lizards, and something like corkscrews.
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 15:27:55 -0700 From: Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Credibility Crunch for Tech Companies Over Prism Message-ID: <51B8F5EB.3060907@thadlabs.com> On 6/12/2013 12:10 PM, PV wrote: > Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com> writes: >> Everything is now being stored at the NSA's Utah facility which has >> a yottabyte capacity (1 trillion terabytes or 1 quadrillion gigabytes) > > Um, a yottabyte is a quadrillion terabytes - you're off by 3 orders > of magnitude. Oops, you're right. Thank you for the catch -- a second set of eyes is always helpful! :-) Using this URL as a reference and doubly-checked elsewhere: http://highscalability.com/blog/2012/9/11/how-big-is-a-petabyte-exabyte-zettabyte-or-a-yottabyte.html I created the following table (with a printed copy on the wall beside my desk) that others may find useful, too. A fixed-width font should be used to view or print this: Byte (8 bits): 1 byte Kilobyte: 1,000 bytes Megabyte: 1,000,000 bytes Gigabyte: 1,000,000,000 bytes Terabyte: 1,000,000,000,000 bytes Petabyte: 1,000,000,000,000,000 bytes Exabyte: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes Zettabyte: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes Yottabyte: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes Xenottabyte: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes Shilentnobyte: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes Domegemegrottebyte: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes > I know people have thrown around the idea of the Utah facility being > yottabyte class storage, but that's about the technology they're using > (such as ZFS as you mentioned), not what they actually have. A yottabyte > is a couple hundred times larger than the entire estimated size of the > internet. There is no present technology that could pack that much data > into their datacenter and still access it. A solid block of micro-SD > cards with the cases removed wouldn't fit. * Further checking reveals these ZFS limits confirmed by multiple sources: Max. file size: 2^64 bytes (16 Exabytes) Max. number of files: 2^48 Max. filename length: 255 bytes Max. volume size: 2^64 bytes (16 Exabytes) I'm sending email to the sources from which I found incorrect information; thank you again for your reply. Thad
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 20:41:59 -0400 From: T <kd1s.nospam@cox.nospam.net> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Price-gouging cable companies are our latter-day robber barons Message-ID: <MPG.2c22df6311dbe5a9989e0a@news.eternal-september.org> In article <p06240815cdda7f6926e4@[10.0.1.13]>, monty@roscom.com says... > > Price-gouging cable companies are our latter-day robber barons > > Monopolistic cable providers make internet access an unaffordable > luxury for tens of millions of Americans > > Heidi Moore > guardian.co.uk > 4 June 2013 > > Last year, about 1% of American households cut off their internet > service. That's not as surprising as experts may suggest. > > The internet - which promised to connect all Americans with > everything from educational opportunities to Facebook status updates > - has become, unfortunately, a luxury even for the middle class. > Cable companies that have functioned as oligopolies have made it that > way. > > [Moderator snip] > > Yet, strangely, internet access - which is a necessity in homes where > children get their homework online and parents may telecommute - has > become the splashiest purchase of all. In many big cities, internet > access can easily become a budgetary sinkhole for families. Think of > $100 a month for cable and internet, another $50 a month for a > smartphone, $40 a month for an iPad or a similar device; if you > travel, add $70 a month for some kind of wireless hotspot like > Verizon's Mi-Fi. > > ... > > > http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/04/price-gouging-cable-companies > If you read Susan Crawford's "Captive Audicence" you'll see she lays out what it really costs the providers to provide the service. For net service it's not ever 3% of what they charge you. So they could essentially charge you $10 a month for good net service and still make a profit. And I'm hoping Google eventually wires up the entire U.S. It would put a shot across the bow of the likes of Verizon, at&t, Cox, Comcast et al. I mean, you've got options with Google like pay a $300 construction charge and get 3mbps/1mpbs service in perpetuity. Or pay for higher bandwidth. But it would FORCE in my case Verizon and Cox to play nicely.
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