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May 12, 2004
TechTip: Floppy RAID
There is a very good reason why As the Apple Turns is still the number one apple-related humour site on the web - it is still funny after all this time.
Take the episode today which discusses a RAID made from floppy disks (certainly meets the "inexpensive disk" criteria):
Floppies, as you know, are slower than sludge on ice and have a data capacity roughly on par with a small bundle of twigs held together with a rubber band. This is the lowest-end data storage around-- assuming you can even find them anymore. Well, the guy in question just happens to work for a manufacturer of USB floppy drives, so he grabbed five of them, plugged them into his Bondi Blue iMac running Jaguar, inserted five disks, fired up Disk Utility, and set them up as a striped RAID. Six minutes later, he had a 4.22 MB disk on his Desktop comprised of five whirring floppies. Imagine the noise as he dragged a 3.6 MB file to it-- which copied in a mere 32 seconds, which, in floppy terms, does in fact technically qualify as "turbo lightning speed!!"
Interestingly enough, this guy originally tried to build his floppy RAID under Windows XP, but that "other" operating system wouldn't let him do it. Leave it to Apple, who ditched floppy drives six whole years ago, to allow a use for floppies that's actually cool.
Jack starts out talking about geeky stuff but still finds time to take a swipe at Microslosh - my favourite kind of site :-)
Posted by Ozguru at May 12, 2004 06:00 AM
