photo sharing and upload picture albums photo forums search pictures popular photos photography help login
Canon DSLR Challenge | all galleries >> Challenge 61: Perspective (host: Sharon Lips) >> Exhibition > Petafile*
previous | next
10-2005 Jason

Petafile*

One of my first photos with my Canon Elan 7e, taken during my B&W Photo 101 class. There's a lot wrong with it, but I still really like it. The neg is actually much better, this is a pretty rotten scan of it.

I was so stressed out that week from having to work a bunch of 14-hour days and still make time for class. Being creative with no sleep wasn't easy, and then the delirium set in and this shot sort of created itself. Shortly after they changed the rules, and no cameras are allowed inside the data center anymore.


other sizes: small medium original auto
share
Canon DSLR Challenge22-Feb-2006 13:16
I feel the need to vote for this one as I work as a software engineer for IBM, working in storage (big disk systems rather than tape). Last year I was working where they design these tape systems. -- Richard Hopkins
elips19-Feb-2006 23:23
Really good perspective here, Jason, it just draws us right in! And I like your title, too! Great shot! ~Sharon
Guest 15-Feb-2006 17:18
Hah, wait a minute, I just realized you asked "when" and not "where" in your question. I took it last October-ish, if memory serves correctly. I'm suffering from CRS these days.
Canon DSLR Challenge15-Feb-2006 00:36
Thanks, Jason...I've given it some thought, and I choose life! Maybe I'm remembering the development stages of that technology before it went to market. I knew a few of the early players but never was involved. .. Lew (retired B'mer)
Guest 14-Feb-2006 23:24
Lew, I'd tell you but then I'd have to kill you. :) Seriously, given that it's not "our" hardware it's likely it's an infraction just to have photographed it without asking. I'll just say that it's in a data center somewhere around Chicago, IL.

The technology in play is much more recent than the 80's. IBM still sells these units to very large customers. The tapes have increased in storage size, and the drives have increased in speed, and the design is simple and elegant enough to scale quite well even in today's technology storm. There's a resurgence of backup-to-disk as disk is dirt cheap these days, but tape is still a really good fit for a lot of customers.
Canon DSLR Challenge14-Feb-2006 19:12
A very interesting--and now apparently inaccessible--view, Jason. When did you take the original photo? I remember this technology from the 1980s but have never seen an installation. .. Lew
Guest 14-Feb-2006 18:09
Oh, for the non-technical, this is a giant robotic tape library. What you see all the way down at the end is one of the loader arms mounted to a pole that moves back and forth. If the libary were fully populated, it would be well over a few petabytes of data. Maybe we could pool our money and buy one of these for pBase, and then we wouldn't have to make our entries so small? ;)