That's still 100 years which is a lot better than the data being talked about here.

There was a documentry on the radio this week about the loss of letter writing as a form and how alarmed biographers were getting because it's getting very hard to trace someone's life, thoughts, actions etc without a paper trail as stuff like emails, digital photos etc generally get lost when someone dies.

Personally, I find the increasing rate of loss quite alarming - so much of our lives are digital and so little is properly curated with a view to future access. We know so much about the past from old documents, often hundreds if not thousands of years old but these days we're hard pushed to find something published ten years ago.

Are there cloud storage providers that can do this for the above example of an approx. 2 TB data set, and provide complete security?

Cloud and complete security together is an oxymoron.

I remember thinking WTF but to be fair, it was a huge hit and they sold a ton to small/medium businesses and non gamers at home.

I'm amazed at the hostility here towards anyone who suggests self control and healthy eating and the amount of comments suggesting if you can't get time to excercise, popping a pill to offset your overeating is good. Seriously? You guys are all in denial. really. In the UK there's a TV show called 'Secret Eaters'. Each week they get some fat people who are mystified as to why they can't lose weight. They get them to record what they eat for a week and film them for a week. They then compare what they said/thought they ate compared to what they really ate. In almost every case they were scarfing more than twice the calories they claimed. One guy was going on about his healthy eating, breakfast cereals, healthy option for lunch sandwich, home cooked evening meal full of vegetables. He reckoned he got through 1800 calories a day so why wasn't he losing weight? The film of him showed he was actually getting through 4-5000 a day and on Sunday, 9000. One thing that really surprised him was a cheese sauce that he put on his vegetables (yeah, I know) that ended up as being 1500 cals on its own.

This. There is absolutely no point taking medication (FFS) to control your bad habits. As soon as you stop taking them, you'll revert back. It's not difficult. Eat less, move more. The only caveat being there is some some recent evidence that some people do genuinely have more trouble with this than others but it doesn't make the advice any different. Grow a pair, stop blaming other people for your own bad eating habits, take control of your life and stop being conned by all the faddy diets aimed at quick fixes. There are no quick fixes, just good, healthy ways to eat.

More info on 850 boot process here http://www.atarimania.com/faq-atari-400-800-xl-xe-what-is-the-atari-850-interface-module_38.htmlSpecifically, if no response from drive 1, the 850 responds as if it was a disk drive.

Seriously, chill out, you seem way too angry and uptight about this. You're also attributing meanings to things I've said which simply aren't there. Anyway, some examples back at you: http://www.atarimuseum.com/computers/8BITS/XL/xlperipherals/1030.html
"Just like the Atari 850 interface, the Atari 1030 modem had not only its device driver in ROM which would automatically upload into the computers memory, but also its software as well. The Atari 1030 came with an on-board software package called ModemLink which would automatically upload into the computers memory. "

So both driver and software loaded during boot. Also.. http://www.geocities.ws/SiliconValley/Lakes/6757/1030.HTML

The 850 interface did the same i.e. loaded a driver. As I'm sure you know, when booting, the 8bit attempts to boot from a floppy drive, if present. These devices respond to that request as if they were a floppy drive and the 8bit is non the wiser and loads the drivers/progs as needed. That's how the trick was achieved during the boot process.

I still stand by my comments that the OS was very powerful *for it's day*. We're talking 1978/79 here. The only thing that was obviously missing compared to it's peers, such as they were then was the lack of monitor, hence 3rd party OS replacements that added that and better FP performance.

Silly, the land of fascism is Italy

You forgot the US & UK.

" any movement, ideology, or attitude that favors dictatorial government, centralized control of private enterprise, repression of all opposition, and extreme nationalism"

Yep, sounds about right although some definitions mention merging of state and corporate power which is possibly more pertinant.

Bullshit. Atari 8-bitters didn't have enough of an OS to even have such a thing as an autoloaded driver. I should know, that was my first computer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_8-bit_computer_peripherals "Devices on the bus have their own IDs and peripherals can deliver downloadable drivers to the Atari computer during the boot process."

The 8bits actually had a very full and powerful OS for it's day with loadable device drivers and a unified model and I/O structure that allowed different devices to be 'talked' to in much the same way.

so why are you even talking about SIO?

Because the designer himself said he used concepts from SIO when working on USB?

It is dumb, and you are dumb for pushing it so hard.

Bless, ad-hominum attacks.

Atari 810 was released 24/Sep 1979. I was surprised the PET drive was 1979, I thought I'd seen them before that. Obviously not.

Hmmm, you have a point. I think some tweaking is needed to make this more in tune with today.

the Quintopus allows each device to be connected directly to the computer through only three or four feet of cable. This is particularly useful when attempting to use Ultra Speed data transfers.

The Quintopus is an enabler, allowing your choice of personal peripherals to be connected in exciting and innovative ways. It is a green solution, less cabling, better for the planet!

Cable resistance and capacitance are greatly reduced, thereby significantly improving the probability of accurate data transfers.

Advanced!

This means you can switch between multiple combinations of peripherals or computers without the hassle of rearranging I/O cables.

Have it all, the way YOU want. Right Now! No more time consuming chores, more time to be YOU.

SIO could not be hot-plugged, did not auto-load drivers, could not be hubbed, etc.

No one is saying SIO is USB, just it shared some DNA and a designer. On your feature list, Hot plugging, no. Auto-load drivers, yes it could. Some of the modems used that. Hubbed? Sort of. Atari didn't release anything but third parties did such as the Quintopus that turned one SIO into 5. http://nleaudio.com/css/products.htm

In terms of what? The Pet was certainly pre Atari 800 and had those big external floppy boxes but they weren't first either. The interface was totally different. Also, it's not about what was first, as the link noted, the same guy that designed SIO in 1978/79 used some of the same concepts in USB.

Because Wikipedia isn't complete/perfect? Feel free to add the appropriate reference to the page.

I find if I go to plug in a USB connector, it's best to change your mind at the last minute and turn it over because you're *always* wrong first time.