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Why wouldn't you compare it to Dropbox? It makes total sense. As a photographer wouldn't I just drag my photos to a dropbox folder and it would be backed up? I

by jtchang 14y ago

Why wouldn't you compare it to Dropbox? It makes total sense. As a photographer wouldn't I just drag my photos to a dropbox folder and it would be backed up? I generate a lot of data but not an incredible amount that it can't be backed up through a consumer internet connection. Now the problem that I face and would like to solve eventually is video editing storage and retrieval. Ever wondered how raw video gets sent around today? Through FedEx in removable hard drives. The sheer amount of raw data is staggering when making any sort of film. Then storing it for archival. All a pain. 1TB of video is common these days. I have a few ideas to solve this and I think videographers would want a solution.

mey 14y ago
I had this weird idea a few years back when couchdb first came out to slice up A/V into "frames" where each frame was a document, then do document syncs to multiple sites as a transfer mechanism. Problem? Slow as hell....
- modarts 14y ago
  I could imagine! Were you base64 encoding the frames?
rheide 14y ago
Digital photography is just about entering the realm of being transportable over the internet. I've enjoyed many trips over the last 5 years and have taken many photos, up to about 1TB worth. Backing that up over my home connection takes about 2 months, which I'd say is just about acceptable for something that doesn't need to be available online immediately, and has already been backed up to a local solution.
001sky 14y ago
It would be great to have a drop-box like solution, but I am wondering if the scale (@ say, ~100GB+) works, though? Consider this guys experience with the data limits on Comcast: http://chris.pirillo.com/comcast-250gb-cap-avoid-dropbox-or-online-backup/ http://chris.pirillo.com/comcast-250gb-cap-avoid-dropbox-or-....
ekianjo 14y ago
Backing up online has two issues: 1) cost. Dropbox does not offer very high storage solutions so far. I have 3TB of videos and photos, where am I going to store it ? 2) access speed and upload speed. Especially upload. It takes forever to upload, unless maybe you have fiber connection... The technical solution for most people is just not there yet. It's way cheaper to backup on a solid drive and store it at your friend's.
- vilya 14y ago
  There are a few online backup services which let you mail them a disk if uploading would take too long. A quick bit of googling found Mosaic Archive (http://www.mosaicarchive.com/online-photo-backup/ http://www.mosaicarchive.com/online-photo-backup/), for example. I haven't used them & don't know anything about them, but their website says they provide this service. I'm sure there are others too.
tghw 14y ago
Aside from the other points here, Dropbox is much more expensive to get to the amount of storage most photogs have. On top of that, you have to either alter your workflow to be entirely within the Dropbox folder or have a duplicate set, which is prohibitive on a laptop.
jonnathanson 14y ago
"Now the problem that I face and would like to solve eventually is video editing storage and retrieval." There are a few solutions out there that address this issue. But they are in the B2B space, mainly positioned to large advertising agencies and production companies, and priced accordingly. AFAIK, there isn't a fantastic consumer-oriented (or even prosumer-oriented) solution in the market. I'm actually surprised that Apple hasn't tried to address this problem, as an adjunct to its video editing software and its cloud service. Maybe it's looked into the problem and didn't find it big enough to warrant the sky-high IRR it probably requires of a project. But the idea could make sense for a startup. I imagine you could position this tool to videographers, sure, but also to the growing number of people trying to turn semi-pro at YouTube and other video sites. If your solution is good enough, Google seems like a likely acquirer; these days it's allocating a lot of resources toward building tools to help its prosumer YouTube producers.

by jtchang 14y ago

mey 14y ago

I had this weird idea a few years back when couchdb first came out to slice up A/V into "frames" where each frame was a document, then do document syncs to multiple sites as a transfer mechanism. Problem? Slow as hell....

modarts 14y ago
I could imagine! Were you base64 encoding the frames?

rheide 14y ago

Digital photography is just about entering the realm of being transportable over the internet. I've enjoyed many trips over the last 5 years and have taken many photos, up to about 1TB worth. Backing that up over my home connection takes about 2 months, which I'd say is just about acceptable for something that doesn't need to be available online immediately, and has already been backed up to a local solution.

001sky 14y ago

It would be great to have a drop-box like solution, but I am wondering if the scale (@ say, ~100GB+) works, though? Consider this guys experience with the data limits on Comcast: http://chris.pirillo.com/comcast-250gb-cap-avoid-dropbox-or-online-backup/ http://chris.pirillo.com/comcast-250gb-cap-avoid-dropbox-or-....

ekianjo 14y ago

Backing up online has two issues: 1) cost. Dropbox does not offer very high storage solutions so far. I have 3TB of videos and photos, where am I going to store it ? 2) access speed and upload speed. Especially upload. It takes forever to upload, unless maybe you have fiber connection... The technical solution for most people is just not there yet. It's way cheaper to backup on a solid drive and store it at your friend's.

vilya 14y ago
There are a few online backup services which let you mail them a disk if uploading would take too long. A quick bit of googling found Mosaic Archive (http://www.mosaicarchive.com/online-photo-backup/ http://www.mosaicarchive.com/online-photo-backup/), for example. I haven't used them & don't know anything about them, but their website says they provide this service. I'm sure there are others too.

tghw 14y ago

Aside from the other points here, Dropbox is much more expensive to get to the amount of storage most photogs have. On top of that, you have to either alter your workflow to be entirely within the Dropbox folder or have a duplicate set, which is prohibitive on a laptop.

jonnathanson 14y ago

"Now the problem that I face and would like to solve eventually is video editing storage and retrieval." There are a few solutions out there that address this issue. But they are in the B2B space, mainly positioned to large advertising agencies and production companies, and priced accordingly. AFAIK, there isn't a fantastic consumer-oriented (or even prosumer-oriented) solution in the market. I'm actually surprised that Apple hasn't tried to address this problem, as an adjunct to its video editing software and its cloud service. Maybe it's looked into the problem and didn't find it big enough to warrant the sky-high IRR it probably requires of a project. But the idea could make sense for a startup. I imagine you could position this tool to videographers, sure, but also to the growing number of people trying to turn semi-pro at YouTube and other video sites. If your solution is good enough, Google seems like a likely acquirer; these days it's allocating a lot of resources toward building tools to help its prosumer YouTube producers.