[Olpc-open] RE: [mass storage] Is it possible to substitute flash?

[Xavier Alvarez]

On Wednesday 17 January 2007 12:42, Brian Deyo wrote:
BD>   Why involve a school server to do backups when a 512mb SD
BD> card would work just as well?
BD>
BD>   I know keeping the cost down is a major hurdle, but
BD> including a SD card for every laptop couldn't add that much
BD> to the cost if the cards were purchased in bulk.

This will largely depend on what price you get and the rate of 
loss of the SD cards...

BD>
BD>   The cards included with the laptop could automatically
BD> perform a synchronization with the main storage on startup. 
BD> Most kids would probably leave the cards inside the slot
BD> anyway, and therefore would have a backup handy.

Still the issue of user-friendliness, ease of use and level of 
transparency remains to be tackled, right?


BD>
BD>   The obvious problem with this idea is children misplacing
BD> the SD cards.  So if we're going to involve the school in
BD> the backup procedure anyway, why not make them responsible
BD> for keeping the stacks of SD cards?  This would cut down on
BD> any costs associated with a server that has "large hard
BD> drives."  A label-maker and a stack of SD cards don't 
BD> require the same maintenance and training an onsite server
BD> would require either.

What will the loss-rate be? 5%, 10%, 50%? per month? per year? 
This things are small and kids can be quite careless, not to 
mention that they will probably end up using them as 
yet-another-mean to transfer things around (iow, they'll lend 
them amongst themselves or 'outsiders') so keeping track of who 
has what could end up being an administrative nightmare... and 
quite costly.

In the end, I would bet that the SD-stack reposition scheme will 
outpace the cost of having a server.

Finally, you have the SD-as-currency issue. How many of those SDs 
will really be lost, compared to traded, bought and sold? And if 
you start with a replacement stack, it's quite easy to imagine a 
large-scale operation to divert those things... color-coding them 
will not work :(


BD>
BD>
BD> Brian Deyo

-- 
XA
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Don't Panic!  The Answer is 42