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Data Storage

Submission + - Simple P2P transparent FS replicator for Linux?

mrcgran writes: "I have a group of different Linux boxes (two desktops at home and work, a laptop and a PDA) and I would like to replicate a file system among them with no hassle at all, so that my working set is the same no matter where I am. The perfect solution would be one in which, for each box, I run a background replicator process and point it to some local block device. For each local write access in this device, the replicator asynchronously commands the peers in the group to mirror the action on their own local devices over ssh, stunnel or other secure protocol. Replicators can be added and removed from this group at any time. I might even have two replicators running on the same machine pointing to two different local block devices (RAID1-like). There is no need to replicate at block level, indeed replicating at file level would simplify me resizing the block devices in the future.

I wasn't able to find an open-source solution for the problem above. Pratima, for instance, is asynchronous but it seems to be client-server and difficult to setup in a dynamic group, similarly to DRBD. Lustre is not truly P2P but depends on a master node managing meta operations. Other fail-tolerant file systems are even more difficult to set up. What replication service do you use? Does anyone know of any which might be as useful and hassle-free as the perfect solution above?"
Music

Submission + - RIAA Sues AllofMP3 for $1.65 trillion

Spad writes: "Zeropaid is reporting that as part of its ongoing lawsuit, the RIAA will be seeking the maximum $150,000 per song for each of the 11 million MP3s downloaded from the Russian AllofMP3.com between June and October last year. This amounts to $1.65 trillion, probably a tad more than AllofMP3 has made in its lifetime. A representative of AllofMP3 stated: "AllofMP3 understands that several U.S. record label companies filed a lawsuit against Media Services in New York. This suit is unjustified as AllofMP3 does not operate in New York. Certainly the labels are free to file any suit they wish, despite knowing full well that AllofMP3 operates legally in Russia. In the mean time, AllofMP3 plans to continue to operate legally and comply with all Russian laws.""

Comment Perfect Market vs. Real World (Score 3, Insightful) 31

Something you should consider is "perfect market" vs. "real world".

In a perfect market, outsourcing is the main way of taking advantage of economies of scale. You don't run your own national telecommunications network, you outsource it to the national network. You end up paying (cost - economies of scale + profit). The trick is, if you can reach those economies of scale with your datacenter, and you're a competent bunch, you end up paying (cost - economies of scale). So you can save money. There are obvious security and accountability advantages too.

That's the perfect market. In the real world, these folk charge far more than (cost - economies of scale + profit). They cater to inept organisations who couldn't collaboratively tie their shoes up without a contractor to show them how to do it. So you end up paying (cost_of_incompetents_doing_the_job - economies of scale + profit). The profit part of the equation is miniscule compared to the differences between "cost" and "cost of incompetents doing the job". If the home-grown data center would be big enough (I don't know that it would be, given the brief description in the post), and if it was competently-run, then you can save huge amounts of money by doing it in-house (again, aside from all other benefits).

This post has dealt exclusively with cost. Personally I would consider the other factors (security, accountability) to be the deciding factors, assuming that both options implemented services competently.

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