Re: [TUHS] History repeating itself (was: Unix v6 problem with /tmp)

On 27 Jul 2016 21:03 -0400, from pechter(a)gmail.com (William Pechter): I remember when this newfangled thing called "the cloud" started becoming _the_ thing that was being talked about recently, and I kept asking myself how on Earth that's anything new. Large timeshared systems fell out of favor basically when local systems with adequate storage and processing capabilities became affordable, and now large timeshared systems - under a different name, mind you, because history does not repeat itself, it rhymes - have become favorable again (despite the fact that essentially _any_ desktop system today has processing capabilities not entirely dissimilar to a supercomputer of twenty years ago). But this time, very often it's _actually_ _someone else's computer_; it's not just sitting in some other department within the company. I'll admit, it's awfully convenient at times, but it's hardly something _new_. Now all that's really missing is that stationwagon loaded with tapes for regular large-scale data transfer, and with some of the discussions going on in the last few years I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if sneakernet has seen a rebound at least in some places. -- Michael Kjörling • https://michael.kjorling.se • michael(a)kjorling.se “People who think they know everything really annoy those of us who know we don’t.” (Bjarne Stroustrup)