Ohio. Intern. Backup tapes. (via Slashdot).



  • This gem, freshly posted to Slashdot. 'nuff said.



  • hahahaha, fork bomb... nice sig.



  • While I could possible accept their "cost-efficient" implementation of an off-site backup, not encrypting, or for that matter,
    backuping the data is shockingly incompetent.
    Of course, the bad guy is the intern carrying out stupid instructions. Was he supposed to fight back the thieves?



  • To quote the article:

    he'd put the data tapes "on top of his TV, so that he would remember to bring them back on the following day."

    Now, correctly if I'm wrong, but isn't a powerful electromagnet not the best place to leave magnetically stored data?



  • @SpoonMeiser said:

    Now, correctly if I'm wrong, but isn't a powerful electromagnet not the best place to leave magnetically stored data?

    It ensures nobody can read if after they stole it, (good chance they also stole the magnetic source then). Unless you have one of those new cool flat TVs, which ofcourse then balancing a tape on is pretty much art on it own. Which then, would be stolen ofcourse, because art sells.

    There you have it, do not let people bring tapes to there homes, as it will get sold off as art. 

     

    Good chance he didn't even know what was on the backup. I wouldn't mind bringing an copy of our work archive to my home. If it gets stolen... well, no real problems. Mostly opensource and very hardware bounded stuff.



  • Tapes

    Nah, normal consumer-level cassette tapes and VHS tapes can take sitting on top of a TV...why would a server tape be any different? They should be MORE robust, not less.


     



  • @Benanov said:

    Nah, normal consumer-level cassette tapes and VHS tapes can take sitting on top of a TV...why would a server tape be any different? They should be MORE robust, not less.

     

     

    I disagree on grounds of (a) data density (b) increased sensitivity to error.

    Taking (a) first, the tapes used to do backups have much more data packed per cm² of tape than VHS or audio cassette tapes do.   It makes it far easier for a given bit of magnetic flux to wipe out a significant chunk of data. 

    As for (b), analogue recordings, such as VHS or audio cassettes will not be significantly adversely affected if a level is lowered or raised slightly.  The noise floor will rise as a result, but the basic concept is still intact.  Digital recordings, however, may incorporate such densifying devices such as a multi-level modulation scheme, where a slight change in a level may cause a significant change in several bits.  Making matters worse, a change in one bit can mean a huge difference, because numbers often reference things that are not necessarily adjacent.

    A good example of non-adjacency is to look at my telephone area code.  It's 518.  Flip a bit on the end of that number and it becomes 519, which is not even in the same country.  (518 is eastern upstate New York; 519 is western Ontario)



     



  • @danlock2 said:

    hahahaha, fork bomb... nice sig.
    Sadly,I've seen that sig used as an example of perl "line noise". Some people don't realize that no matter how compressed perl code can seem, no language has a more compact syntax for spawning processes (and rearranging file descriptors, for that matter) than sh.



  • @danlock2 said:

    hahahaha, fork bomb... nice sig.

      It's a fork bomb AND it's a mega-smiley!



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