But that's now what I want to write about today...
...As I held the card in my hand (see photo above), I couldn't help but be amazed by it. The card is smaller than my thumbnail, but it holds 8,000 megabytes of information. That's a lot of "1's" and "0's." In fact, it's the equivalent of roughly 5,555 floppy discs!
My first Windows computer, purchased in the mid to late1990's, wowed everyone I knew because it had TWO 1,000 megabyte hard drives. Two! I could store all kinds of things on there!
Going even further back, the first server we ever had when I was a teacher at Lloyd High School, purchased in about 1994, had a total memory of just over 1,000 megabytes (or a gigabyte, for the less technology savvy). I remember our network technician saying, "With a gigabyte of storage space, you'll NEVER need to replace that server. Every document or file that every student in this school ever created could fit on that thing!"
Ignoring the erroneous prediction, it's amazing that the card I hold in the photo above is able itself to hold eight times as much information as that 90 pound server from 1994. So this teeny, tiny micro-card intrigues me. How much smaller will our storage devices get, and how much more will they hold?
2 comments:
Bryan - I'm constantly amazed by this same subject, as the technology I hold in my hand allows me to be in two places at once, communicate instantly / incessently (sp?), and generally do more than I ever thought possible. To your question, I think we will eventually see (in our lifetime) the seamless ncorporation of storage devices into our daily accompaniments, like clothes, shoes, sports equipment, etc. I think that it's within our grasp to implant cards so small into our bodies that they actually become part of our "operating sytem" and information gathering processes. You know - wake up, and give a command (start coffee pot, or turn on kitchen light, or provide the Reds score). I'm sure my thoughts are elementary, and if I can think of this, just imagine what the young whippersnappers will come up with:-)
A) Rich, I agree with you about where we're headed. I watched a video about a guy who believes that--within 20 years--we'll be able to download our complete memories into a computer, basically "backing up" ourselves. Seem far fetched to me, but then again, I couldn't have imagined YouTube or Facebook 20 years ago.
B) When did you get so smart?!? ;)
Post a Comment