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MR: Fill a hard drive, and have it shipped to you - Page 2
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MR: Fill a hard drive, and have it shipped to you

2

Comments

  • DamianDamian Member

    @joepie91 said:
    Because then they can pull data, not just push to it. Having a service that they can only push data to would more or less defeat the point - they might as well just have downloaded/kept it locally then in many cases.

    This. This is what I was trying to convey earlier. Thank you. There's already many services out there where you can push data: AWS, Hubic, etc.

    @JoeMerit said:
    probably not going to be cheap enough for your intended audience

    Our intended audience isn't just LEB/T, but I post it here because there's an enormously diverse usergroup here that's focused on value.

  • @Damian said:
    That would pit us against the giant that is Amazon, and we would not come out ahead.

    Amazon bw costs a lot ;)

  • JoeMeritJoeMerit Veteran

    I think it'll be more than what torrent users are willing to pay.

    And for backups wouldnt BackBlaze be a better service for people? They do the harddrive mailing thing, although whats different is that they copy your data from their cloud storage to the drive before mailing it to you. (and it stays in their cloud storage, so you arent fucked if the drive is damaged/lost.)

  • joepie91 said: Because then they can pull data

    Sure, you can do this with S3/Glacier too.

  • NyrNyr Community Contributor, Veteran

    I think you got a decent idea which has a market, but not sure about how big is that market.

    Since the initial costs aren't really that big if you already got colo space, I would say go ahead with it :)

  • Idea, looks good, however check this , why people would use that service for and make a tailor made solution, also include pen drives, easy to fill easy to ship.

  • FYI - Amazon Glacier uses 3-layer Blu-ray Discs for customer data.
    https://bit.ly/amazon-glacier-blu-ray

    Thanked by 1deadbeef
  • deadbeefdeadbeef Member
    edited May 2015

    @hwdsl2 said:
    FYI - Amazon Glacier uses 3-layer Blu-ray Discs for customer data.
    https://bit.ly/amazon-glacier-blu-ray

    --

    Not single discs either, but something like the otherwise inexplicable Panasonic 12 disc cartridge shown at this year’s Creative Storage conference. That’s 1.2TB in a small, stable cartridge with RAID so a disc can fail and the data can still be read. And since the discs weigh ≈16 grams, 12 weigh 192g.

    So sweeeeeeeeeet!!!!

  • This is a cool idea, but like @linuxthefish said, I'd want to know the drive was brand new, and not previously used (or at least a price discount if you get a second hand drive).

    Also you should have various harddrives, like the super cheap budget harddrives, and more expensive (but more reliable) harddrives.

  • joepie91joepie91 Member, Patron Provider

    @eric1212 said:
    Sure, you can do this with S3/Glacier too.

    How?

  • joepie91joepie91 Member, Patron Provider
    edited May 2015

    So, I've talked to a friend of mine in Iceland about this a bit, and this is roughly what he had to say (paraphrased):

    Your target audience would probably be people with poor internet connections or inevitable data caps (eg. Iceland in areas without FttH Hringdu coverage, rural areas in the US, other islands, ...). Shipping, especially internationally, is a concern - shipping a drive to Iceland, for example, would likely cost 50% of the drive cost itself, due to the both the shipping costs themselves and high import taxes.

    Upping the connection to 1gbps (incoming) might make it interesting to people who cannot get more than, say, 100mbps at home, ie. a larger target audience. Similarly, for places with high shipping costs and import taxes, larger drives (eg. 8TB) are more interesting as the relative cost is lower. Data loss is a concern.

    Thanked by 1deadbeef
  • rds100rds100 Member

    I had a similar idea in the past, but there were two things that made me not do it:
    1. International shipping + customs hassle, etc.
    2. Potential liability when shipping a drive full of god knows what (Child Porn anyone?)

  • rds100 said: 2. Potential liability when shipping a drive full of god knows what (Child Porn anyone?)

    Setup an encrypted partition by default?

  • joepie91joepie91 Member, Patron Provider
    edited May 2015

    rds100 said: 2. Potential liability when shipping a drive full of god knows what (Child Porn anyone?)

    Hmm. I actually wonder whether carrier protections apply when the medium is a HDD rather than fibers. You're still doing effectively the same thing, no?

  • rds100rds100 Member
    edited May 2015

    joepie91 said: Hmm. I actually wonder whether carrier protections apply when the medium is a HDD rather than fibers. You're still doing effectively the same thing, no?

    >

    Yes, a good question. I am not sure that carrier protection applies when shipping recorded medium. It's not just a packet that passes through your network. It's something that you actively participate in.

  • joepie91joepie91 Member, Patron Provider

    rds100 said: Yes, a good question. I am not sure that carrier protection applies when shipping recorded medium. It's not just a packet that passes through your network. It's something that you actively participate in.

    I don't know about that. You could argue the same for a mail carrier - you're still neutrally passing through contents, without being aware of the contents, as a service provider.

  • rds100rds100 Member
    edited May 2015

    @joepie91 a mail carrier is a different thing. He is not selling the HDD, he is just transporting it. In this case you would be selling a HDD full of data. In the end if it is ever brought to court you will probably get away with it, but there is still a chance that you will be harrassed by law enforcement in the process. You know how they love to say "we busted a child porn distribution network".

  • joepie91joepie91 Member, Patron Provider
    edited May 2015

    @rds100 said:
    joepie91 a mail carrier is a different thing. He is not selling the HDD, he is just transporting it. In this case you would be selling a HDD full of data. In the end if it is ever brought to court you will probably get away with it, but there is still a chance that you will be harrassed by law enforcement in the process. You know how they love to say "we busted a child porn distribution network".

    Fair point :)

    The Dutch proverb "having your rights and getting your rights are two entirely different things" (literally translated) comes to mind.

  • lbftlbft Member

    Damian said: I've bounced this off my attorney and he suggests that safe harbor should cover us, especially if we don't know what's on the drive.

    If nothing else, the Feds should love that you're effectively verifying a physical address for the person who abuses such a service for illegal material (and they can always arrest at the point of delivery, as they have done many times for drug shipments).

  • I really don't see the point of this. Pay a monthly fee and then on top of that pay more than retail price of a new drive for a used one.

  • shovenoseshovenose Member, Host Rep

    I think there should be a small discount for used drives. Like 1% discount per 1,000 hours on the drive.

    Thanked by 1inthecloudblog
  • Would you accept drives and do symmetrical connections ?

  • cassacassa Member

    @eric1212 said:
    Sure, you can do this with S3/Glacier too.

    Seeding movies Linux ISO's isn't

    Thanked by 1inthecloudblog
  • AnthonySmithAnthonySmith Member, Patron Provider
    edited May 2015

    The idea in isolation is great however I am really struggling to think of an actual use for it other than torrents.

    Maybe if you offered some sort of iSCSI connection + super express shipping option at a premium like DHL/Fedex 24 hour international (where available) it would be excellent as a backup solution with an optional extra of it being put in to a USB enclosure?

    And now I have finished typing that is a great idea... shut up and take my money?

    Thanked by 1deadbeef
  • RobJudRobJud Member

    Doesn't the raspberry pi have limits to which Linux distro's that can be installed on it? Or has that changed?

  • edited May 2015

    @Damian Make sure you look at the CCL when shipping to various countries.

    Reference EAR Regs.

  • @RobJud said:
    Doesn't the raspberry pi have limits to which Linux distro's that can be installed on it? Or has that changed?

    Afaik win 10 works

  • 10/10 would use.

  • ztecztec Member

    It sounds really cool and the prices you mention really make sense to me as a consumer as well. But I have no use for it at the moment.

  • @Abdussamad said:
    I really don't see the point of this. Pay a monthly fee and then on top of that pay more than retail price of a new drive for a used one.

    Maybe the monthly fee could go towards paying for the drive, kind of like "rent-to-own" servers. So if you pay the monthly fee over a year, you only pay like 20% (random example) of the drive cost.

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