jr conlin's ink stained banana

Ok, first off, no i won't. i don't like macs. i don't like what they do to developers (OpenDoc, GameSprokets, etc.) i don't find their interfaces any more or less confusing than any other system, and i don't think they build very good hardware either. Plus, i understand that a few folks don't have such high opinions of Leopard.

Second, note that unlike every other "news" item, i can't dismiss this one. It's there for however long Apple is willing to pony up cash to show it to me. This, one assumes, differs from the various other ads being displayed on this page only in how much Apple was willing to pony up.

You know, it's not like i really used Facebook for much before, but i'm finding even less reasons to use them now.

It's supposed to get near freezing tonight. Last year when it did that, i lost the bougainvillea. i'm a bit less concerned about losing this vine since it's supposed to be hardier than a near tropical plant, but still, i'm not taking chances.

Plus, it's festive.

[Author's note: The following is meaningless to anyone other than myself and is here solely for historical purposes only.]

It's often quite interesting to see how little changes can greatly affect a very complex system.

And i mean that in the Chinese sense of interesting.

It's also interesting to see how entropy is not just a universal constant, but for some, a personal goal.

yar!

Currently, i'm on DSL which according to the brochure offers 512Kbps uploads. Allowing for the same sorts of uplink issues as downlink figure about 434kbps optimal upload speeds. That means that a 100MB file will take (1024*100)/434 ~= 236 seconds ~= 4 minutes to upload.

That's noteworthy because according to various bits of backup software, my main PC is using about 33% of it's drive capacity and is clocking in around 50GB. i can squeeze things down about 20% by using aggressive compression and get the data to about 40GB. So, doing the math, it's (40*(1024*1024))/434 =~ 96643 seconds =~ 27 hours to push that much content out of my machine and into the network. And again, that's on a perfect net where there's no trunk congestion.

For those not necessarily up on their chronograph skills, that kinda precludes doing a daily backup.

For those of you on Cable, your uplink datarates are around 1.1mbps, effectively doubling upload times. Hooray, it'll take you about 13 hours to push 40GBs.

Mind you, even pushing a 2GB truecrypt file through the intertubes can take more than a bit of time and my experiences there range from 2 to 8 hours to do it, even on the very high speed link we have at work.

Balance that against having a 120GB, self contained USB drive i can pick up for about $90 from Fry's and can push data through the cable at about 4-10X what i can push through the broadband link. The drive is small enough that i can literally carry it with me wherever i go (and thus solving the dual location / what to do when your house burns down problem).

So, short of having a bunch of files i want to distribute to friends, family, or the world, why, exactly, would i be interested in a set of 1GB online storage facilities? Considering the vast majority of shared files my friends and family tend to shuffle about are photos attached to emails, i get the feeling they're not really thinking in terms of efficient bandwidth usage.

There must be some sort of appeal that i'm missing somewhere. i swear that this is the same thinking that had people buying kitty litter on-line.

i would like to dispel any and all rumors that for about four hours today, i was replaced by a monkey.

It was more like six.

He paid amazingly well.

Provided you like grapes.

Surprisingly, very few folks seemed to notice.