Saturday, May 29, 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
About three terabytes of storage capacity, sitting on my desk today. Cost: about $200.
The IBM 3370 Direct Access Storage drive, circa 1979. This was the type of drive connected to the IBM 4341 computer - the first large-scale machine I worked on in my career. To match the three terabytes of capacity above, it would take over 6,000 3370 cabinets at a cost of $210,000,000. Since that weighs about 1,750 tons (so does a herd of 230 male African elephants), and won't fit on your desk, you'll need about 1.5 acres of climate controlled facility, outfitted with a few hundred Leiberts and more power than most small cities. Figure about a quarter-billion dollars to get the job done.
Of course, the mighty 4341 could only handle a tiny fraction of that capacity. In contrast to the MacBook Pro on my desk connected to the drives above, the 4341 ... well, that's just a silly comparison.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
Sunday, May 2, 2010
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