+Criminal Posted April 17, 2003 Posted April 17, 2003 If one thousand people send in $30 to become charter members, (or throbbing members or whatever), then shouldn't geocaching.com have $30,000 to buy a server that doesn't hang for minutes or give a "This page cannot be displayed" message? Next time I'm in Seattle I want to see this PITAPOS server. Anybody know the address? http://fp1.centurytel.net/Criminal_Page/
+Quetzalteco Posted April 17, 2003 Posted April 17, 2003 You obviously are not in IT huh? Well, when you are talking about infrastructure, $30K is like $10 in your pocket. With all the hits that Groundspeak and GeoCaching get (I don't have a clue as to how many), you should probably have 2-3 web servers for load balancing and fault tolerance. That's about $5-$7.5K for the web servers. Now you need a database server, well, you should actually have two for fault tolerance and redundancy, etc. Now these are much larger machines so we will price them out at about $7500 each. These would be fairly low end machines. DB servers can be very pricy - upwards of $60K for one. That's the computers, now lets look at software, if Jeremy and gang are using Linux, then there should be very few costs here, but there still might be some. If they are using Windows, then lets add $15K for software licenses. Firewall - we need redundant firewalls, how much are Cisco PIX? Depending on the number of sessions, they can be as much as $25K each - you should have two for redundancy. Switches, we will need some 1G switches, the can run about $4K. Backup, well depending on how much data there is, a decent backup drive (don't forget the media) would start from $2K (plus another $2K for media) but is more likely $7500 and another $2-3K for the media. What else? Oh yeah, the connectivity. Did you realize that all of this equipment would fill an entire rack. They cost about $1K/month or more in a co-location facility. If it's in some garage, then you have power, multiple T1's, etc which would run probably about $3K/month. So let's add all of this up. Web Servers $7500 Database servers $15000 Software $15000 (for Microsoft) Firewalls $20000 (10K for each we will estimate) Switches $4000 Backup $9500 Total Capital $71000 Total Annual $12000-$36000 Wow! That's a lot more than $30K (if they have 1000 charter members). Also don't forget that some people pay $3/month. /cw aka : Chris Williams Caching in the North Bay and beyond... sonomarin.net
+Allen_L Posted April 17, 2003 Posted April 17, 2003 Plus I think Jeremy and the rest of TPTB at geocaching.com would like to eat every once in a while.
+zoltig Posted April 17, 2003 Posted April 17, 2003 They do eat. The frozen burritos and the cheesy spread.
+Renegade Knight Posted April 17, 2003 Posted April 17, 2003 You forgot the pipeline. Nice fat servers with all kinds of capacity and no bandwidth is like drinking through a coffee stirring straw. ===================== Wherever you go there you are.
+Quetzalteco Posted April 17, 2003 Posted April 17, 2003 Yes, that was poorly implied with the co-location charges. /cw aka : Chris Williams Caching in the North Bay and beyond... sonomarin.net
+DeerChaser & Company Posted April 17, 2003 Posted April 17, 2003 then lets go round up some members!!!!!!!!1 Rino 110 MeriGreen 128
+welch Posted April 17, 2003 Posted April 17, 2003 quote:Originally posted by Criminal:If one thousand people send in $30 to become charter members, (or throbbing members or whatever), then shouldn't geocaching.com have $30,000 to buy a server that doesn't hang for minutes or give a "This page cannot be displayed" message? Next time I'm in Seattle I want to see this PITAPOS server. Anybody know the address? Well you could go by this address from the contact us page: Groundspeak PMB 243 15600 NE 8th Street, Suite B1 Bellevue, WA 98008 (206) 302-7721 I would guess someone there could point you in the right direction. Theres an idea, start charging for tours... (Hey, its an idea, maybe not a good one, but an idea )
+erik88l-r Posted April 17, 2003 Posted April 17, 2003 quote: I would guess someone there could point you in the right direction. Just don't disturb the little guy on the main hamster wheel. Jeremy tells me that's what keeps it all powered, and we don't want to mess with the power source. Also don't do anything to make the cat rub against the server. That's worse than sunspots. ~erik~
+Bloencustoms Posted April 17, 2003 Posted April 17, 2003 I'd like to propose a new rule that if you title a thread with a dollar amount (example $30,000) it had better be about a cache you just placed across the street from my house containing that amount. "Searching with my good eye closed"
+Mopar Posted April 17, 2003 Posted April 17, 2003 You might also check out www.infopop.com and see how much they charge per month for the forums your posting to. I suspect that would kill your $30k in about a year, or less. Last I heard, the forums are getting something like a million pageviews a month, and something like 15-20 million a month for the website. With all those maps, photos, and avatars, plus the waypoint dowloads, thats an AWESOME amount of bandwidth. Tae-Kwon-Leap is not a path to a door, but a road leading forever towards the horizon.
+GEO*Trailblazer 1 Posted April 17, 2003 Posted April 17, 2003 I WOULDN'T CARE IF THEY WERE GETTING $$$$300,000,000.00 THEY DO A GREAT JOB AS FAR AS I CAN TELL. TO PROVIDE THE SERVICE TO KEEP THINGS ALL UP TO DATE AS WELL AS COULD BE EXPECTED FROM ME....THE VOLUNTEER WORK THAT TAKES PLACE AS WELL.. ENOUGH ONTHIS I PUT MY $$$$$$ in. WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS *GEOTRYAGAIN* http://www.msnusers.com/MissouriTrails
+LaPaglia Posted April 17, 2003 Posted April 17, 2003 quote:Originally posted by Quetzalteco:You obviously are not in IT huh? Well, when you are talking about infrastructure, $30K is like $10 in your pocket. With all the hits that Groundspeak and GeoCaching get (I don't have a clue as to how many), you should probably have 2-3 web servers for load balancing and fault tolerance. That's about $5-$7.5K for the web servers. Now you need a database server, well, you should actually have two for fault tolerance and redundancy, etc. Now these are much larger machines so we will price them out at about $7500 each. These would be fairly low end machines. DB servers can be very pricy - upwards of $60K for one. That's the computers, now lets look at software, if Jeremy and gang are using Linux, then there should be very few costs here, but there still might be some. If they are using Windows, then lets add $15K for software licenses. Firewall - we need redundant firewalls, how much are Cisco PIX? Depending on the number of sessions, they can be as much as $25K each - you should have two for redundancy. Switches, we will need some 1G switches, the can run about $4K. Backup, well depending on how much data there is, a decent backup drive (don't forget the media) would start from $2K (plus another $2K for media) but is more likely $7500 and another $2-3K for the media. What else? Oh yeah, the connectivity. Did you realize that all of this equipment would fill an entire rack. They cost about $1K/month or more in a co-location facility. If it's in some garage, then you have power, multiple T1's, etc which would run probably about $3K/month. So let's add all of this up. Web Servers $7500 Database servers $15000 Software $15000 (for Microsoft) Firewalls $20000 (10K for each we will estimate) Switches $4000 Backup $9500 Total Capital $71000 Total Annual $12000-$36000 Wow! That's a lot more than $30K (if they have 1000 charter members). Also don't forget that some people pay $3/month. /cw aka : Chris Williams Caching in the North Bay and beyond... http://www.sonomarin.net<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Chris, This is the best response to a question I have seen in a long time. Lots of facts and very little if any sarcasim. WELL DONE!! Michael Lapaglia Muga Muchu (forget yourself, focus)
+Criminal Posted April 17, 2003 Author Posted April 17, 2003 This is very edge-a-ma-cational for me, I appreciate all the responses. I just get frustrated when I click on something and the little progress bar hangs for two or three minutes. So how many paying (or "charter" or "Throbbing" or whatever) members are there? I though Jeremy was still doing this in his spare time. http://fp1.centurytel.net/Criminal_Page/
+TinSparrow Posted April 18, 2003 Posted April 18, 2003 quote:Originally posted by zoltig:They do eat. The frozen burritos and the cheesy spread. The way that I heard it, all they had to eat was the food that had been confiscated from other caches. I don't know what the hamster in the little is eating.
+brdad Posted April 18, 2003 Posted April 18, 2003 Don't forget Jeremy's recent $15,000 binge in Las Vegas. And I bet you guys thought he's been quiet because he was working on a new site... On the road of life there are people in cars and people getting hit by cars.
+TinSparrow Posted April 18, 2003 Posted April 18, 2003 quote:Originally posted by brdad:Don't forget Jeremy's recent $15,000 binge in Las Vegas. And I bet you guys thought he's been quiet because he was working on a new site... You may recall that in the early days of Federal Express, the Founder CEO recognized that he did not have enough cash to make payroll, and he took company funds to Vegas and won enough to keep the company afloat. I'm sure that Jeremy's alledged presence in Vegas is all about trying to afford the contract programmers who are working on the map pages, or something else very similar.
+TeamVE Posted April 18, 2003 Posted April 18, 2003 quote:Originally posted by welch:Theres an idea, start charging for tours... (Hey, its an idea, maybe not a good one, but an idea ) How about a cache in the lobby? ---------------------------------- ---------------------------------- "The number you have reached is imaginary, please rotate your phone 90 degrees and try again... <beeeeep>"
Recommended Posts