NaibofTabr

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The various channels are human-curated and occasionally live dj-ed. I’ve found several new artists I like just by listening for awhile and picking out things that strike me.

It’s a hydrodam in Cambodia

There are very few cases I can think of for location data more precise than a postal code. Active navigation is the only one that occurs immediately.

Most apps that collect location data are doing so because they can, not because they really need it for anything. Most of the time, verifying that a user is within the country that they’re supposed to be should be enough for geolocation security.

Banning sales of the information won’t accomplish anything except increase the market value.

Banning the collection of such information is required.

Blender. It’s been almost 20 years now since I started working with it, and the time I spent learning it was worth every minute. It is an incredibly powerful tool.

What makes you feel valued?

…and is that something that can be delivered remotely, through a screen?

I ask this not because I necessarily want or expect a specific answer, but because everyone who reads my comment should stop and spend a few minutes considering what the answer is for them personally.

And then think about what you think the answer might be for other people in your life, and what makes them feel valued.

What can you do, to make that happen more often for yourself, and for others? Personally, I think nothing is quite as rewarding as making someone else feel valued.

Talk to your family. Talk to your friends. They want to hear from you, even if they’re busy.

First and most important:

In the context of long-term data storage
ALL DRIVES ARE CONSUMABLES

I can’t emphasize this enough. If you only skim the rest of my post, re-read the above line and accept it as fundamental truth. “Long-term” means 1+ years, by the way.

It does not matter what type of drive you buy, how much you spend on it, who manufactured it, etc. The drive will fail at some point, probably when you’re least prepared for it. You need to plan around that. You need to plan for the drive being completely useless and the data on it unrecoverable post-failure. Wasting time and money to acquire the fanciest most bulletproof drives on the market is a pointless resource pit, and has more to do with dick-measuring contests between data-hoarders.

Knife geeks buy $500+ patterned steel chef’s knives with ebony handles and finely ground edges and bla bla bla. Professional kitchens buy the basic Victorinox with the plastic handle. Why? Because they actually use it, not mount it on a wall to look pretty.

The knife is a consumable, not an heirloom. So are your storage drives. We call them “spinning rust” for a reason.

The solution to drive failure is redundancy. Period.

Unfortunately, this reality runs counter to the desire to maximize available storage. Do not follow the path of desire, that way lies data loss and outer darkness. Fault-tolerant is your watchword. Component failure is unpredictable, no matter how much money you spend. A random manufacturing defect will ruin your day when you least expect it.

A minimum safe layout is to have 2 live copies of data (one active, one mirror), hot standby for 1 copy (immediate swap-in when the active or mirror fails), and cold standby on the shelf to replace the hot standby when it enters service.

Note that this does not describe a specific number of disks, but copies of data. The minimum to implement this is 4 disks of identical storage capacity (2 live, 1 hot standby, 1 on the shelf) and a server with slots for 3 disks. If your storage needs expand beyond the capacity of 1 disk, then you need to scale up by the same ratio. A disk is indivisible - having two copies of the same data on a disk does not give you any redundancy value. (I won’t get into striping and mucking about with weird RAID choices in this post because it’s too long already, but basically it’s not worth it - the KISS principle applies, especially in small configurations)

This means you only get to use 25% of the storage capacity that you buy. Them’s the breaks. Anything less and you’re not taking your data longevity seriously, you might as well just get a consumer-grade external drive and call it a day.

Buy 4 disks, it doesn’t matter what they are or how much they cost (though if you’re buying used make sure you get a SMART report from the seller and you understand what it means) but keep in mind that your storage capacity is just 1 of the disks. And buy a server that can keep 3 of them online and automatically swap in the standby when one of the disks fails. Spend more money on the server than the disks, it will last longer.

Remember, long-term is a question of when, not if.