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Microcap & Penny Stocks : Syncronys Softcorp (SYCR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LaShark who wrote (27057)	2/20/1998 3:14:00 AM
From: Kashish King	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 30240

In the real world information flows.ÿ It comes in the daily stream of work and in the bursts of acquisition when you install the next program.ÿ Just as some information flows in, other information flows out into obsolescence. By its nature, information flow cares little for fixed boundaries. I think what Mark is fumbling to say here is that the working set of documents and application software is dynamic and not well suited to a static storage model. There are several technologies which address this issue and most of them are based on information accompanying the files themselves: archive information built into the file system. The incremental updates from CD-ROM or via the Internet make use of these simple data structures to refresh and/or eliminate stale components. In the PC world, information is generally treated as a fixed object.ÿ Files have fixed locations.ÿ These files are then stored on media of fixed size and usually of fixed location. Further, they usually remain in the same place regardless of time. PCs storage systems were not designed with information flow in mind. As with most operating systems, PCs included and 'speshly networked PCs, information is generally not treated as fixed objects; rather, users acquire, transform and communicate information in an extremely dynamic system of in-memory components and services. The persistent storage of those objects is really another issue altogether. I don't think it's proper or correct to designate components and applications as information so I'll just use the term information bearing components or simply objects. What are the effects of this informational Fixed/Fluid duality? We have all heard of Murphy's corollary, "Disk space usage always expands to disk capacity". There is no duality, there are only varying degrees of fluidity but the notion of usage rising to meet capacity is worth keeping in mind as we consider the bogus solution which follows. When one considers informational flow on fixed drives, errors generated when running into boundaries are a natural consequence. The common solution to this is to get a bigger hard drive, manually delete, or run an uninstaller-type program. However, all of these solutions are stop-gap in that they don't solve the core problem of fixed file systems in a world of information flow. Well, again, let's not confuse the already dynamic nature of software with the much slower undercurrent through secondary storage. I'm just not comfortable with this information flow being tossed around as though the normal flow of objects is through the hard-disk: it isn't, that's why they call it storage. In any event, lets add these comments to our shopping cart as we proceed with the bogus solution which follows. We had usage rising to meet capacity and now uninstalling, deleting or adding drives as not solving the problem. The BigDisk product was the first product on the PC market to attack this problem from the perspective of information flow.ÿ With BigDisk you can add information to a drive and the files will automatically flow to where there is available space while maintaining the illusion of a fixed file system. It demonstrates that the problem of information flow on fixed file systems can be solved in an elegant and stable way. The so-called problem of information flow you are describing is that of exhausting disk capacity; we already went over the fact that this is an underlying flow problem related to secondary, persistent storage and not a general problem of information flow. That's the only context where any discussion of BigDisk makes sense. Now, we already have the statement that buying another disk is only a stop-gap measure, so where is this other storage going to magically come from? Turns out BigDisk doesn't save you from having to buy another hard-disk, does it? What does it do? It moves files from one place to another without telling you. In fact, it's a trivial matter to move entire applications with myriad utilities available for that purpose. SMART FILES: THINK FLUID Think, marketing B.S., period. Given all of the ramifications for backup software and such, those users with multiple multi-gigabyte hard-disks ought to consider leaving the file system as it was designed and using any of the myriad partitioning tools out there which provide an effortless means of managing your disks without losing control. I have to say in closing that although BigDisk doesn't appear to be the cruel comedy represented by Windrenalin and other such products it does belong on the Syncrony's product list: Started By: A. Sarig Date: Oct 1 1996 4:28AM EST Replies: 27065 I'm following SYCR for some time. I was facinated by their ability to run on hot air, and the entire "professional" magazines and test lab (PC magazine and up) bought their bogus claims on Win95 RAM doubler. They had to give back $12.5M to avoid FTC action. And they paid.