Proposed System Would Use Lots of Data (Total Information Awareness)

Guardian UK ^ | 5-19-03 | Michael J. Sniffen

[dogbyte12]

WASHINGTON (AP) - To track and thwart terrorists, the Pentagon wants to give U.S. agents fingertip access to records from around the world that could fill the Library of Congress more than 50 times. The library's collection includes more than 18 million books.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency says in its documents that it is trying to design software that could access and analyze an unprecedented amount of data, ``measured in petabytes.''

In computer jargon, a byte is what it takes electronically to represent one letter of the alphabet. A petabyte is a quadrillion, or 1,000,000,000,000,000, bytes.

Most personal computers now come with storage space for two to 20 gigabytes of information. A petabyte is 1 million times larger than a gigabyte.

Such an accumulation of data would dwarf most existing databases.

One of the largest databases on the Internet is 100 terabytes and contains an archive of five years' worth of Web pages. But that's just a tenth of one petabyte.

Several years ago Microsoft's Bill Gates put a vast collection of satellite photos of the earth's surface on a huge Web site he called the TerraServer. That site stores 3.3 terabytes.

The data the Pentagon envisions would include all kinds of visual and text files in various formats. But if it were all simple text, one petabyte would contain enough room for almost 40 pages of information on each of the more than 6.2 billion human beings on Earth.

[dogbyte12]

Heck of a big database they are taking about here.

[proxy_user]

I suggest you call your DBA right now and ask what he recommends for a primary extent size.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

So? With storage capacity going up and costs going down who cares how large it is? The question is how they get it, where they get it, and what they do with it? Personally, I would rather this administration have all the known information in the universe than for the Clintons to have those FBI files. It all boils down to how honest and honorable those who run this country are. That is why we are a nation of laws, not men. (Supposedly)

[detsaoT]

Sounds like it's time to buy stock in Oracle... Let's kick off the Buy Larry Another Boat campaign again! Wheeeee!

:) ttt

[Blue Screen of Death]

Field #24 Political Affiliation
Field #25 Voted for Hillary (Y/N)
Field #26 If field #25 = "N" then date of execution

[dirtboy]

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency says in its documents that it is trying to design software that could access and analyze an unprecedented amount of data, ``measured in petabytes.''

When the story about TIA broke I figured it would be multi-petabyte. I work with stuff in the multi-terabyte range and that's pretty dang large.

[joesnuffy]

Field #26 If field #25 = "N" then date of execution

date with madam guillotine? Yikes...mark of the hildabeast

[Pan_Yans Wife]

"I would rather this administration have all the known information in the universe than for the Clintons to have those FBI files."

Sounds great, until someone like Hillary or Gore are elected in the future, right?

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Right, and that was the point I was trying to make, as clumsy as it was.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Upon re-reading, I see my error. You were not as clumsy as I was poor at discerning your point. Sorry. :(

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

OFFICIAL BUMP(TOPIC)LIST

[RightWhale]

petabytes

How much space does a petabyte take up? We know megabyte, gigabyte, terabyte, and now the new word petabyte. A petabyte is just a million CDs. AOL mails out that much every day. No big deal. After petabyte is exabyte, from the Greek prefix exo- meaning excess.

[dirtboy]

AOL mails out that much every day.

They mail out a million copies of the same information. Now, try putting together a structured database with half a CD's worth of information for every person in the country. Make sure it all matches together, clean up bad data from your input sources, and deliver it in something resembling realtime.

[RightWhale]

Make sure it all matches together, clean up bad data from your input sources, and deliver it in something resembling realtime.

Close to my job description. Closer to a gigabyte than a petabyte, but same idea.

[dirtboy]

Close to my job description. Closer to a gigabyte than a petabyte, but same idea.

Used to work on the gigabyte level, now I'm up to the terabyte world. IMO the real issue boils down to the fact that the IRS can't even successfully implement tax systems where 99 percent of the data they receive has a common linking key (SSN or tax id). The Pentagon can't even keep track of their civilian contractors. Yet somehow someone in the fedgov thinks they can create this monstrosity which, as envisioned, would require data feeds from every business in the country, all 22 million of them.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

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