mass storage

[Scot <scot%devi -dot- hci -dot- com -dot- au -at- KYOKO -dot- MPX -dot- COM -dot- AU>]

This is my first post to this list, so I'll intorduce myself to say that I'm
a technical communication project manager at HCI Consulting in Sydney. sorry
for the munged address in the header, we're waiting for the DNS to be
upadted. ;)

At 10:31 PM 1/05/95 -0400, Paul David Marvel wrote:

>One of the biggest problems with working at university computing sites is
>storing your work--you can't fit a multimedia presentation on a floppy and
>leaving your work on the LAN is risky. Syquest drives are great for
>storing huge files. They also solve a lot of problems. For example, if you
>want to use a font that's not on the school's system, you can buy it
>yourself, store it on the syquest, and use it in your presentations.

At the university that I attend, the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS),
were I am doing a communications degree (a liberal arts/fine arts/media
production/journalism type course), the multimedia dept. doesn't have mass
storage and its a pain in butt, to say the least. We get fixed disk
allocations on a departmental server and these are backed up onto tape at
semester's end - a pain if you want to take a demo of your stuff!

However, for its Protools studios the Sound/Radio production section has
these really neat Sony 1.2 gigabyte MO (magneto-optical) cartridges. They
store 600Mb a side (and yes you take them out and turn them over to use the
other side). These are pretty good, and fast enough for realtime 4 audio
track playback (but not 8). You might like to consider something like this
for storage - they'll hold almost a CD per side. However I checked out their
price (thinking it might be good idea for work) and found out that they cost
about AU$4500 retail for the drive alone - which is easily twice or three
times the price of an IBM PC clone (which starts at about AU$1100), if you
need a AU-USA cost comparison. The blank 5.25" cartidges are about AU$200
ex-tax. They seem more robust than Syquest cartridges.

A cost efficient method for starving students might be DAT or 8mm tape
backup. The drive is cheaper for the University if budgets are tight too.
The problem with CD-ROM burners is the blanks are non-reusable, although you
can buy a box of ten for the price of a MO cartridge. Another consideration
might be those 230Mb 3.5" MO cartridges.

ciao, scot.



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HCI Consulting               Better Communications Better Management.
(61-2)247-3437 (ph)                 http://www.hci.com.au/management/
(61-2)247-5160 (fax)           GPO Box 4846 Sydney NSW 2001 Australia
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The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of HCI
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