28 Dec
2000
28 Dec
'00
11:24 p.m.
Before they willy-nilly implement a mechanism that prevents you from copying
your data from drive to drive, they'd better come up with backup software
that works 100 % of the time in 100% of circumstances. Just now they've
only achieved 10% in each category.
Moreover, they'd better make certain their drives have an actual worst-case
time before failure of at least 100 years, since someone somewhere is
entitled to be able to use his data that long.
This may mean that OS and application vendors actually have to prove that
their stuff works, under all possible conditions. That means test intervals
on the order of 100 months per unit. Can you imagine testing a multitasking
system to a depth of, say, 2^32 input combinations in all possible states?
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Lawson" <jpl15(a)panix.com>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2000 9:43 PM
Subject: IDE Cloning thanks and a 'second that thought'
Many thanks to all who took the time to help me out with the IDE clone
question. I will attempt to perform the operation on the Computerworld
site, and if that don't work ( and I see no reason why it shouldn't) I'll
get down a copy of Ghost from the Net and use that. Thanks again y'all.
On the Proposal to Individually Brand (R/O) all mass storage units for
Personal Computers:
FEH!!!! FEH!!!! FEHFEHFEHFEHFEH!!!
I would think it might be something to consider, to salt away a
reasonable quantity of large-ish drives, against the day when Large Male
Sibling requires that the contents of your filesystem be scrutinized once
each day, for "...material which evidences a substantial deviation from
accepted societal norms and mores, or any data appearing to fail the Anti
Terrorism, Child Protection, Dissident, Criminal, Unauthorized
Encryption, Sensitive and Classified Data, and Alien Infiltration
Sieve Monitor, as provided for in the Comprehensive Homogenous Data
Interchange, Content, and Format Act of 2005 et.seq."
And I neither wiegh 300 pounds, have a full unkempt beard, or collect
guns, or even own one. I ain't got nothing to hide, it's just the *idea*
of how easily such schemes lead down the slippery slope into a subtle kind
of 'fascism' for want of a better word.
Taken along with the rapidly-forgotten little bit of intelligence that
Our US Supreme Court has apparently sanctioned selective 'convenient'
disenfranchisment, and nobody seems to much care...
Sigh. I'm getting Old and Cranky and Way, Way off topic.
Happy NuYeer to All
John