9/14    So, if there's a massive destructive earthquake and all the
        buildings on campus are destroyed, does csua have a backup
        somewhere off campus?  I doubt it.  So, basically, soda.csua
        might be down for a long long time.  Now, suppose this earthquake
        strikes the building where the server for yahoo or google is.  Do
        you think they have a backup off site, so that even in a natural
        disaster their email and other services would continue relatively
        uninterupted.
        \_ Kubi had something like this for personal files. It was part
           of his Ocean Store project. One of his greatest fears was
           having his PhD thesis run over by a giant truck so the idea
           was to distribute your personal data encrypted on peer-to-peer
           networks (if you trust your personal data to be stored on p2p).
        \_ Heh heh.  I'm guessing you're either an undergrad or have never
           worked in industry.    *giggle*  Seriously, though, both companies
           definitely have multiple clusters in greatly separated colos.  The
           reasons for this have as much to do with effiency as they do with
           safety/redundancy.  I know one of those companies has at least 4:
           3 in the US and at least one in the UK.
           \_ Although one major corporation (whose name rhymes with Bicrosoft)
              did have all of its name servers on the same subnet a few years
              back. Just because a company is big doesn't mean its network is
              designed intelligently, particularly for companies that were
              well-established before the Internet boom. -gm
              \_ I've worked for 3 software companies in my time, and 2 of
                 them kept offsite backups in multiple non-earthquake states,
                 while the third had (I believe) only one.  It's pretty
                 common practice nowadays, despite the absurdity of other
                 companies *coughcoughmicrosoftcough*.  Two other companies
                 that I worked for didn't, but then, both of them were 3 or
                 4 man operations, and backups consisted of me copying
                 everything onto a cd and taking it home.
        \_ soda hall is a fairly new building. and I think soda's
           rack is bolted to the floor. Sounds like it might be okay.
           \_ You make the assumption that the servers are somehow actually
              secured to the rack.  Shame on you! - jvarga
              \_ Are you a student or an alum? I have no idea who you are.
                 In case you were/are a stuff, have you been properly
                 trained and indoctrinated by the alumni?