a new happening - the Traveling Terabyte Project

[theprez98]

Re: a new happening - the Traveling Terabyte Project

I'd rather revive this thread than have the TTB sound like a fedex project. :-)

Some thoughts:

- How many TTBs can be in the field at once and still maintain command and control?
- Do you want to accept donations for folks wishing to see more TTBs out there?
- Will a TTB drive be ready to deploy by the end of Defcon or will only the copying be done?
-What else is there to think about?

Will astcell's picture with the TTB be shown to the Defcon hordes during one of this year's presentations?

[astcell]

Re: a new happening - the Traveling Terabyte Project

How about pool2girl instead?

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: a new happening - the Traveling Terabyte Project

How many TTBs can be in the field at once and still maintain command and control?

well, we're already past the 1TB size in terms of sheer data. right now i have the orginal, OD Green TTB back home and am giving it a good once-over. when the Tan TTB (which right now is a mirror of the green) comes back to me (i was told that would be happening very soon, but that was a week or so ago so i don't know what happened there) i think i'm going to split the content along the following lines:

Knowledge

• Con presentation videos
• Humongous collection of non-fiction audiobooks and lectures
• The documentary film and educational show archive
• Rainbow Hash Tables
• coWPAtty tables
• perhaps applications, utilities, live distro ISOs, and other such tools

Entertainment

• The newly invigorated movie archive
• My TVRip collection (about half a dozen shows and then another dozen or so that i've gotten for friends and neighbors)
• Music archives that i and others have donated
• The fiction section of my obscenely huge audiobook archive
• sadly, i'm told, one isn't supposed to send Pr0n downrange, tho god knows how the fuck the brass thinks people are supposed to survive away from home that long without jacking off

this division should allow for each volume to operate at around 75% capacity for now, giving plenty of room for growth and expansion. i would predict that we could pretty easily manage a nearly infinite number of TTBs in this configuration (id like to keep the Green/Tan system and designate one color as knowledge the other as entertainment, as seen above)

i would manage a centrally-located listing of all the most recent content collections on each TTB... the master archive would live state-side. folks who have circulating TTBs would be free at almost any time to send one back to home base for an update, but then it has to go to the next party in the list. thus, in a way, each person is free to say "i'm next and i want it faster" or "i'm next but i'm willing to wait an extra week or two for it to be topped-off with the latest content."

anyone who is interested in setting up a PHP forum somewhere? i would forsee anyone who becomes part of the chain getting issued a user account that would allow them to track progress, check the latest stats on where the TTBs are and what's on them, make addition requests, etc.

Do you want to accept donations for folks wishing to see more TTBs out there?

while i would gladly accept donations, i would be leery of anything that smacks of "sponsorship" in a very corporate way. (in a previous conversation i had alluded to Mr. Burns and Lindsay Nagel selling ad space on the walls of the Simpson's church, hehe... i want to avoid that sort of feeling)

however, i think that if anyone wishes to "donate" to the project perhaps the best way would be acquiring the parts for (or the funds for) a new TTB case. (do you guys know that with prices from my suppliers dropping all the time i can now assemble a fully-ruggedized TTB volume for under $500? that includes drives, enclosures, Pelican case w/ foam, power adapters, etc.)

whomever makes such a "donation" would of course gain recognition and thanks and could also be the first stop on the new case's run out into the wild. all they'd have to do is promise to not selfishly keep this new content archive the moment it arrives... they'd have to send it out to the next recipient.

Will a TTB drive be ready to deploy by the end of Defcon or will only the copying be done?

oh, i hope to have both of them reorganized and ready to accept any other content there at defcon, then they can both be deployed out again. maybe we make two annual periods of maintenance... mid-summer and mid-winter. then with all TTBs checked and updated, they come to con (defcon and shmoocon) where folks can pull from them, add to them, etc etc... then they deploy out on the last day.

What else is there to think about?

getting the website totally up and running and getting a forum in place on said site.

[astcell]

Re: a new happening - the Traveling Terabyte Project

Looks good. For knowledge/entertainment would you put one drive of each color in the kit, or keep the colors matching?

I told the folks at "the office" today about the drives. One asked how much it would cost to get one. I explained that they are not for sale but rather make the rounds for the troops. You can buy one to put in the system or you can receive one for free and send it onwards after that. They loved it!

Yes a PHP board would be great. Get folks signing up and track those puppies all over the world.

[renderman]

Re: a new happening - the Traveling Terabyte Project

Just re-read the entire thread and was reminded of how much can be accomplished by a community collaborating. I've sadly noticed over the years that as people find more meaningful employment and their hobbies become their jobs, they seem to collaborate and share less outside of 'the company' and the community knowledge suffers.

Projects like this remind me that not all is lost and that for good projects with good intentions, people can come together to 'git 'er done'

ThePrez98 will be speaking about the TTB at the CoWF extravaganza at con and I'm assuming it will be available somewhere to copy content to it. I'm making a point to add the large set of WPA tables to the mix if there's a spare 40 gig handy.

[Deviant Ollam]

some last minute photos before defcon... the TTB home base

so i've somehow managed to find time in this last week of pre-defcon madness to put together something that has been on my list for a while... a proper home base for the traveling terabyte project.

instead of building a span or RAID set out of the drives i procured for this phase of the project, i opted to keep them all separate so as to better manage the specific space limits of each volume.

built with enough power and cooling to survive most ordeals, and a paint job for some added style befitting the project, i plan to maintain a master copy of each volume of the two terabytes i've now made with the split described above. at any time folks will now be able to send a TTB back to home base to be topped-off and updated.

i envision a process for donations to be uploaded and maybe even a voting system for content to be removed when things get too full. the "entertainment" terabyte is already reaching capacity again, even after i broke off the whole "knowledge" section completely. i'll find a way to post a full list soon of what is on each volume. both cases will be at defcon for people to see, and perhaps download from, before they head off again on their journey.

[theprez98]

Re: some last minute photos before defcon... the TTB home base

so i've somehow managed to find time in this last week of pre-defcon madness to put together something that has been on my list for a while... a proper home base for the traveling terabyte project.

instead of building a span or RAID set out of the drives i procured for this phase of the project, i opted to keep them all separate so as to better manage the specific space limits of each volume.

built with enough power and cooling to survive most ordeals, and a paint job for some added style befitting the project, i plan to maintain a master copy of each volume of the two terabytes i've now made with the split described above. at any time folks will now be able to send a TTB back to home base to be topped-off and updated.

i envision a process for donations to be uploaded and maybe even a voting system for content to be removed when things get too full. the "entertainment" terabyte is already reaching capacity again, even after i broke off the whole "knowledge" section completely. i'll find a way to post a full list soon of what is on each volume. both cases will be at defcon for people to see, and perhaps download from, before they head off again on their journey.

Nice addition...time to add another slide or two to the presentation. ;-)

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: some last minute photos before defcon... the TTB home base

Nice addition...time to add another slide or two to the presentation. ;-)

hey, i thought it was just a quick mention and that was all... don't get all crazy about it, you'll make me turn all red if i show up.

seriously, all i did was come up with an idea and the original implementation... it's the community as a whole that deserves all the respect and praise for the support they gave it and the energy with which they've embraced it. i just love being a part of it all.

[Thorn]

Re: some last minute photos before defcon... the TTB home base

so i've somehow managed to find time in this last week of pre-defcon madness to put together something that has been on my list for a while... a proper home base for the traveling terabyte project.

instead of building a span or RAID set out of the drives i procured for this phase of the project, i opted to keep them all separate so as to better manage the specific space limits of each volume.

built with enough power and cooling to survive most ordeals, and a paint job for some added style befitting the project, i plan to maintain a master copy of each volume of the two terabytes i've now made with the split described above. at any time folks will now be able to send a TTB back to home base to be topped-off and updated.

That's wild. Can you give us some info on what's in it? There seems to be two SATA controller cards, and the drives are obviously a 75GB IDE and four 500GB SATA, but what is the chassis, motherboard, cooling, power supply, etc.?

i envision a process for donations to be uploaded and maybe even a voting system for content to be removed when things get too full. the "entertainment" terabyte is already reaching capacity again, even after i broke off the whole "knowledge" section completely. i'll find a way to post a full list soon of what is on each volume. both cases will be at defcon for people to see, and perhaps download from, before they head off again on their journey.

A voting system would be very cool A "suggestion list" would also be a nice addition, so that you could gauge what others might like even if they themselves don't have the content to add.

[astcell]

Re: a new happening - the Traveling Terabyte Project

This Friday I plan to present the TTB to the US MARINES stationed here in Tajikistan. They have been told about it and are very eager to taste US culture once again. I will have photos as well. It is not very often that cameras are allowed in here.

Maybe I can write up a quick blurb about how the TTB got here, it can be combined with the overall mission and the past drive successes, and we can release the article and photos for printing and syndication? I sure would like to see more about the TTB in places other than here, but getting on slashdot last year was awesome.

I was thinking from here the TTB can head to Kabul. Considering the enormous amount of data it is not likely folks can simply copy the information (and that is NOT the intent anyway) and the drives may stay resident for a couple months until the file views are exhausted. Maybe at that time TTB01 and TTB02 can trade places with one another.

This is going to be fun. For last year I simply mailed the drive to its overseas recipient. This year I get to personally hand it to them.

Deviant, I can get you deviant@travelingterabyte.org if you wish, just say the word.

Thanks for all the classical music. Now that's thinking outside the Bachs.

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: a new happening - the Traveling Terabyte Project

I will have photos as well. It is not very often that cameras are allowed in here.

well, don't do anything that will contravene security directives... but i'd totally love that! i have always wished for more action shots and photos of the drives hooked up at various places, either desks and workstations in field offices or next to a laptop in some bunk or tent.

is not likely folks can simply copy the information (and that is NOT the intent anyway)

yes, of... course. i mean, that would certainly have never been my intention either with this project. wink, wink. grin, grin. nudge, nudge. say no more.

This year I get to personally hand it to them.

kick ass. i'd love to be a fly on the wall for those hand-offs.

Deviant, I can get you deviant@travelingterabyte.org if you wish, just say the word.

absolutely. you can forward it to my primary email, deviant [åt] deviating [döt] net

Thanks for all the classical music. Now that's thinking outside the Bachs.

my pleasure. i really didn't think that my music collection had a respectable "classical" section. are you looking at one of the other folks' archives which are included on there?

[mouseling]

Re: a new happening - the Traveling Terabyte Project

I love hearing about this. Astcell please take lots of pictures, so we can see who gets them.

Also, Deviant, I just got hold of some new(old) things you can add to the TTBs if you like. I now have all 10 years of the NPR radio show "This American Life" and several years of Jean Shephard's WOR radio show. Shephard wrote and narrated "A Christmas Story" and this radio show ran in the '50s and has all the same twisted humor.

As for classical music - I can help with that too. When you've got time, come over and look through Tyler's collection.

-mouse

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: a new happening - the Traveling Terabyte Project

Jean Shephard's WOR radio show. Shephard wrote and narrated "A Christmas Story" and this radio show ran in the '50s and has all the same twisted humor.

yes, i know Shephard... wasn't aware of his radio show, though. sounds great. and i'd love to raid the classical music collection, too.

[astcell]

Re: a new happening - the Traveling Terabyte Project

well, don't do anything that will contravene security directives... but i'd totally love that! i have always wished for more action shots and photos of the drives hooked up at various places, either desks and workstations in field offices or next to a laptop in some bunk or tent.

I will not compromise security. I have asked permission for pictures in some places and when approved I will shoot away. I got one of the guys holding the drives just as they got them but I will go back for "action" shots. I am afraid there is no tent here, they have a nice building.

yes, of... course. i mean, that would certainly have never been my intention either with this project. wink, wink. grin, grin. nudge, nudge. say no more.

They have also offered to add on some local music and maybe other stuff. They will make a folder based on their name and rank. They were so tanked when I gave it to them! They wondered about how to report back to me and all. I gave them the basics but they are pretty much on their own and they love it. Expect USMC stickers on the drive soon enough. :>

kick ass. i'd love to be a fly on the wall for those hand-offs.

Well I could sign you in for a day. The plane ticket here and the visa to get in country, well I can't help you there. :>

absolutely. you can forward it to my primary email, deviant [åt] deviating [döt] net

It's set up. Try it in 24 hours. :-)

my pleasure. i really didn't think that my music collection had a respectable "classical" section. are you looking at one of the other folks' archives which are included on there?

Hmmm maybe. Okay I will work on pics later this week and a short story. I already have a writer who wants to do interviews on this so I will send him your way.

[DaKahuna]

Re: a new happening - the Traveling Terabyte Project

Good publicity for the hacker community. Bet you will not see that on NBC, ABC or CBS !