Comments on: Web based backup services

By: David Stone

David Stone — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:50:14 +0000

I agree with your DVD writing is non-trivial, that issue should be solved within the app you download.

Ending up with a coaster to some extend doesn’t matter (what % you’d need to work out)… after all I’m not talking about a separate service, I’m talking about how the two should work together.

Have you stats from PutPlace (that you can make public) on the time it would take someone on an average connection (256kbps upstream?) to upload 50Gb, e.g. a music collection? Assuming you have a default throttling variable set (do you?) is it approximately a week/month/quarter?

By: Joe Drumgoole

Joe Drumgoole — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:02:24 +0000

Hi Dave,

With most clients (including PutPlace) you can control the amount bandwidth you use. Similarily they are almost all tolerant of interruptions and disconnects. I think there is a market for your solution, but cutting a DVD is a non-trivial task for most home users. Remember if you interrupt it you’ve made a coaster.

My belief is the larger immediately addressable market is in online backup (well I would say that),but I think your idea might have legs further down the line.

By: David Stone

David Stone — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:18:08 +0000

Post Office? Why, any post box will do. Being “careful” is something you have to do with both solutions:

* mind a dvd (i.e. walk away)
* change dvd (oh, so hard)

* bandwidth hog (i.e. loss of work)
* unexpected disruptions (i.e. connection loss / laptop close / pc shutdown)

The list of pro’s & con’s for both solutions would go on. Can I ask how much you’ve got backed up using online back up solutions? I’ll assume you’re using PutPlace

By: Joe Drumgoole

Joe Drumgoole — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:52:58 +0000

David, its a good idea but the transaction costs are quite high, e.g. I have to mind a backup, change DVDs and then get them down to the post office and post them. At every step of the way I have to be careful (people hate being careful).

Compare this to download backup program fire it up to backup my stuff and ignore it. Several days later with no user intervention all my stuff is backed up. I know which model I prefer.

By: David Stone

David Stone — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:31:07 +0000

I did think about that. It’s an easy one to solve (seemingly unless you’re the government), here’s a few ideas:

* Recording delivery
* Said App also encrypts information before writing to CD/DVD, if needs be with private key associated with users account
* Can hash whole CD for extra protection & send back to service before posting to protect against ‘man in middle’ attacks

By: Olly

Olly — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:10:41 +0000

I’ve had this thought before, too. All the recent SHOCK HORROR! PEOPLES DATA LOST BY GOVERNMENT OR LARGE FINANCIAL INSTITUTION! headlines make me wonder if this would actually be a good idea after all.