Fluff: Question for Computer Guru's

jeanniebeanz

Would it be possible to create a "backup" copy of even one tenth of the Internet and store it on a computer system somewhere?

I say that is in no way possible, and I've got a bet going... lol

J

Actually, there's no reason you couldn't do this. You'd need a huge storage capability, or a bunch of little ones. But in the end, the internet is just a bunch of computers networked together. If you gathered a number of computers equal to 1/10th of all the computers on the internet and copied the date over, you'd have it.

Of course in practice it would be a daunting task. Google stores copies of 8 billion pages, but that's only a fraction of what's available. And even at that, they don't store all the images, EXE files, and other non-text files available.

So I think you COULD do it, but I don't think anyone WOULD do it.

Does that mean you lose? How much is the bet? If you split it with me, I'll change my answer!

Dave

AuldSoul

I say it would be impossible. By the time you figure out how much one tenth of the Internet is, you will have to restart your calculation because the gross volume of data will have changed significantly. It is THEORETICALLY possible, but only under certain circumstances that could NEVER exist in reality. It requires a starting set of knowledge that no one possesses, how much data is on the Internet?

It's like asking if you could harness a tenth of the wind on earth.

AuldSoul

Finally-Free

If you had the storage space, bandwidth, technology, and expertise it would take a very long time. By the time you backed up 10% of it much of the content would have changed, and much more would have been added. When I managed the network for a web hosting company we were adding roughly 2,000 new sites every month. And that was a small company.

W

AlmostAtheist

Good point, AS! And since the bet said "the Internet" and not "the current state OF the Internet" I think you've got it.

Vote me "impossible" too, given this view.

Dave

magoo

................................ wasn't it John Kerry who "invented" the internet.....bet he could tell ya !

magoo

free2beme

No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just when you think you have 10% it would keep growing. Besides, 100% of the internet is on your computer right now. All you have to do is access it. No different then files on your harddrive, you are not looking at all your files at all times either.

AuldSoul

magoo,

It was Al Gore who said he invented the Internet. To be fair, he did head up an effort that paved the way for it to happen, then again, the folks who laid the asphalt didn't invent the Interstate.

AuldSoul

dmouse

I think it has actually been done - in that the internet has been archived:

http://www.archive.org/

*******************************************************************************

How large is the Archive?

The Internet Archive Wayback Machine contains approximately 1 petabyte of data and is currently growing at a rate of 20 terabytes per month. This eclipses the amount of text contained in the world's largest libraries, including the Library of Congress. If you tried to place the entire contents of the archive onto floppy disks (we don't recommend this!) and laid them end to end, it would stretch from New York, past Los Angeles, and halfway to Hawaii.

What type of machinery is used in this Internet Archive?

Much of the Internet Archive is stored on hundreds of slightly modified x86 servers. The computers run on the Linux operating system. Each computer has 512Mb of memory and can hold just over 1 Terabyte of data on ATA disks. However we are developing a new way of storing our data on a smaller machine. Each machine will store 1 terabyte.

****************************************************************************

It's interesting to look back at the Watchtower site from a few years ago but unfortunately the archive site allows individual websites to exclude themselves - so of course any info that may cause embarrassment (like how the disfellowshipped are treated) has been blocked by the WBTS :-(

greendawn

Personally I doubt that you could download even one tenth of the data that is stored on all internet linked computers in the world there are simply too many Gigas of data. I have around 100GB stored on mine and there are hundreds of millions of PCs in the world. The largest capacity Hard Disks at present are 500GB.

Fluff: Question for Computer Guru's

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