nemilar

Not to spam, but hopefully this information is useful for some HN'ers. Our startup, http://velobit.com, provides caching as well.

Alas, it is not open source, but it does have some differentiators over bcache/dm-cache. The primary pro's of those two are that they are FOSS.

Major downsides are they they are kernel patches. DM-Cache is a little more difficult as well, in the sense that it is in the DM layer, so you're creating a new device when you apply caching. Contrast with our startup, where we insert ourselves directly into the existing devices (so no need to modify fstab, etc..). Of course, I like to think we have other major differentiators as well, but I won't go on and on about them here..

That being said, this caching (especially SSD-as-caching) space is huge right now, even though it doesn't get much attention in the hot-tech startup world.

I realize that the post is making an analogy, but it's based on fact. I worked in a car shop for a few months, and we charged a premium for "exotic" cars - something like 2x the cost of normal service. The reason was entirely on the insurance costs for handling those customers' vehicles.

This may be a silly question, but I don't understand why the bandwidth is so low. I understand the latency will be high, since you're limited by the speed of light; but wouldn't you be able to get more bandwidth just by increasing the spectrum of light used, as well as the baud of the transmitter/receiver?

This may actually be much easier in a rural area, as opposed to urban/suburban.

Rural landowners have large tracts of land, and the land is in fewer hands. You need less individuals to buy-in, since a single buy-in on the project can mean miles of line.

You don't need a jackhammer to dig up sidewalks and streets, and you (presumably) don't need as many (if any) permits; you don't need to take as much care not to disrupt existing utilities, and you don't need to worry so much about noise and other regulations.