title: Block-Based Distributed File Systems

authors: McGregor, Anthony James

subjects: Distributed file systems

abstract: Distributed file systems have become popular because they allow information to be shared be between computers in a natural way. A distributed file system often forms a central building block in a distributed system.

Currently most distributed file systems are built using a communications interface that transfers messages about files between machines. This thesis proposes a different, lower level, communications interface. This `block-based' interface exchanges information about the blocks that make up the file but not about the files themselves. No other distributed file system is built this way.

By demonstrating that a distributed file system can be implemented in a block-based manner, this thesis opens the way for many advances in distributed file systems. These include a reduction of the processing required at the server, uniformity in managing file blocks and fine-grained placement and replication of data. The simple communications model also lends itself to efficient implementation both at the server and in the communications protocols that support the interface. These advantages come at the cost of a more complex client implementation and the need for a lower level consistency mechanism. 
A block-based distributed file system (BB-NFS) has been implemented. BB-NFS provides the Unix file system interface and demonstrates the feasibility and implementability of the block-based approach. Experience with the implementation lead to the development of a lock cache mechanism which gives a large improvement in the performance of the prototype. Although it has not been directly measured it is plausible that the prototype will perform better than the file based approach.

The block-based approach has much to offer future distributed file system developers. This thesis introduces the approach and its advantages, demonstrates its feasibility and shows that it can be implemented in a way that performs well.

text: Block-Based Distributed File Systems Distributed file systems have become popular because they allow information to be shared be between computers in a natural way. A distributed file system often forms a central building block in a distributed system.

Currently most distributed file systems are built using a communications interface that transfers messages about files between machines. This thesis proposes a different, lower level, communications interface. This `block-based' interface exchanges information about the blocks that make up the file but not about the files themselves. No other distributed file system is built this way.

By demonstrating that a distributed file system can be implemented in a block-based manner, this thesis opens the way for many advances in distributed file systems. These include a reduction of the processing required at the server, uniformity in managing file blocks and fine-grained placement and replication of data. The simple communications model also lends itself to efficient implementation both at the server and in the communications protocols that support the interface. These advantages come at the cost of a more complex client implementation and the need for a lower level consistency mechanism. 
A block-based distributed file system (BB-NFS) has been implemented. BB-NFS provides the Unix file system interface and demonstrates the feasibility and implementability of the block-based approach. Experience with the implementation lead to the development of a lock cache mechanism which gives a large improvement in the performance of the prototype. Although it has not been directly measured it is plausible that the prototype will perform better than the file based approach.

The block-based approach has much to offer future distributed file system developers. This thesis introduces the approach and its advantages, demonstrates its feasibility and shows that it can be implemented in a way that performs well.

year: 1997

title: Renegotiating the terms of engagement: Public relations, marketing, and contemporary challenges

authors: McKie, David

subjects: Complexity

abstract: Territorial disputes between public relations and marketing are nothing new. At the end of the first decade of the 21st century, Hutton (2010) refocused them as a matter of survival in the face of marketing attempts "to include or subsume much or all of public relations" (p. 509). In addition to aligning with his call to resist marketing imperialism, this article seeks to renegotiate traditional turf wars between the two fields through a review of recent significant marketing books. Advocating a complexity-based perspective, it argues that evolving disciplines, like evolving species, need to respond not only to each other but also to the wider environment and that requires cooperation as well as competition. It also draws on complexity thinking as a resource for improving disciplinary intersections and for adapting to the uncertain and turbulent conditions of the present.

text: Renegotiating the terms of engagement: Public relations, marketing, and contemporary challenges Territorial disputes between public relations and marketing are nothing new. At the end of the first decade of the 21st century, Hutton (2010) refocused them as a matter of survival in the face of marketing attempts "to include or subsume much or all of public relations" (p. 509). In addition to aligning with his call to resist marketing imperialism, this article seeks to renegotiate traditional turf wars between the two fields through a review of recent significant marketing books. Advocating a complexity-based perspective, it argues that evolving disciplines, like evolving species, need to respond not only to each other but also to the wider environment and that requires cooperation as well as competition. It also draws on complexity thinking as a resource for improving disciplinary intersections and for adapting to the uncertain and turbulent conditions of the present.

year: 2012

title: Telling “Us” in the “Days Destined to You: Response Life-Telling: Indigenous Oral Autobiography and the Performance of Relation

authors: Mahuika, Nepia

subjects: Arts & Humanities

abstract: This “tau-utuutu” (responsive) protocol feels familiar to me.² My turn to speak, to respond, to share in a conversation with Warren Cariou’s stimulating essay on “Life-Telling,” Indigenous autobiography, and Dovie Thomason. It reminds me of how life-telling, orality, and history, interweave and work in my tribal universe. At home, we take turns speaking. We inherit our words, we respond, carve, and weave new narratives—make them ours. Where I come from, lives are frequently “told,” sung, cried, carved, and performed, through tribal conversations, a chorus of textured tones, sometimes in a grand debate within which our personal and collective pasts, presents, and futures converge and diverge.³ I am glad, then, to be invited, to add my voice to this present discussion. It feels natural . . . normal . . . Native.

text: Telling “Us” in the “Days Destined to You: Response Life-Telling: Indigenous Oral Autobiography and the Performance of Relation This “tau-utuutu” (responsive) protocol feels familiar to me.² My turn to speak, to respond, to share in a conversation with Warren Cariou’s stimulating essay on “Life-Telling,” Indigenous autobiography, and Dovie Thomason. It reminds me of how life-telling, orality, and history, interweave and work in my tribal universe. At home, we take turns speaking. We inherit our words, we respond, carve, and weave new narratives—make them ours. Where I come from, lives are frequently “told,” sung, cried, carved, and performed, through tribal conversations, a chorus of textured tones, sometimes in a grand debate within which our personal and collective pasts, presents, and futures converge and diverge.³ I am glad, then, to be invited, to add my voice to this present discussion. It feels natural . . . normal . . . Native.

year: 2016