Re: Favorite Tom Lane quotes

Hi,

> "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of
> tapes hurtling down the highway." -Tanenbaum, Andrew S.
> (1996). Computer Networks. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 83.
> ISBN 0-13-349945-6.
>
> A modern chrysler town and country(1) has a cargo capacity of
> 140.1 cubic feet(2) letting it carry 17163 LTO4 (3) tapes at
> 800GB each.
> Thats 13730TB. Say it has to get from San Francisco to LA
> (about 6 hrs according to google maps directions(4)), that
> gives 2288TB/hour, or 5.1 terabit/second.

That seems to be kind of a joke, but I heard that the french CNES (spatial agency) is doing some huge database replication between two sites thanks to big trucks carrying the data once a month, because current network devices transfer rates do not allow them to do remote replication through the network. Or maybe the reasons to this method are not only technical but economical.
I have no detailed information on this, and it's more a rumour than a verified information, but should somebody know more on the subject, i'd be interested in hearing it.

Vincent