History of Storage
Tuesday, April 08, 2008 - 09:28 AM
This is by no means a comprehensive list, but I think it serves the purpose of showing how much things have changed in such little time.
The history of computer data storage in pictures.
(If you read through the comments, there’s also a great link to a comparative photo of various hard drives on wikipedia.)
My first “real” computer, which I got in 1991, was a Macintosh LC. It came with 2MB of memory (which I upgraded to 4), and a 40MB hard disk. I later added a 230MB (remember, these are megabytes here, not gigabytes) external drive when the technology became available/affordable for around $300.
Now I carry around several gigabytes in my pocket! Seventeen years is a long time when it comes to technology. (Let’s not forget the 2800 baud modem I had at the time, compared to 3.0 DSL service I have now.)
As long as I’m in “old guy reminiscing” mode, I’ll mention that years before the LC, my parents had gotten me a Coleco Adam, which used cassette data storage, similar to what’s shown in the article.
Ouch!
Thursday, April 03, 2008 - 08:21 AM
I love when programmers have a sense of humor. The error I received trying to log in to my Yahoo! mail this morning:
The “LaunchCurlError-28” may be typical programming gibberish, but you gotta love the “Ouch!”.
When Will Michael Dell Eat His Words?
Tuesday, April 01, 2008 - 09:10 AM
When Steve Jobs came back to Apple in 1997 Michael Dell was asked what he would do to save Apple if it were him. His reply?
"What would I do? I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders."
Well, today it’s being reported that Apple has gained 21% of the consumer computer market, and Dell is closing plants and laying people off in order to help the company stay afloat.
I really can’t gloat about this though, knowing that 900 people are losing their jobs, and that that’s just part of the 8,800 total jobs that Dell plans to shed. Ouch.
Gruber, FTW!
Thursday, March 20, 2008 - 11:11 AM
(Sorry for the internet cliché in the title.)
I took issue with Kahney perpetuating the whole iTunes/iPod tie-in myth.
Gruber rips the whole article to shreds.
Doing it Wrong
Wednesday, March 19, 2008 - 08:31 AM
Wired has an interesting article comparing the way things are done at Apple and how that differs from other Silicon Valley companies. The article focuses quite a bit on Steve Jobs’ management style and business philosophy.
It is a pretty balanced, interesting read, even if the author does echo the complete B.S. about the iPod and iTunes being inextricably tied to each other (a favorite lie of tech journalism).
Ironically, Kahney makes an interesting point towards the end of the article:
Amazon’s Kindle e-reader provides seamless access to a proprietary selection of downloadable books, much as the iTunes Music Store provides direct access to an Apple-curated storefront. And the Nintendo Wii, the Sony PlayStation 3, and the Xbox360 each offer users access to self-contained online marketplaces for downloading games and special features.
The iTunes music (and video) store is nothing more than an add-on to the iPod (and AppleTV). It’s a part of the system. (Although, I can use iTunes completely independently from my iPod, and can play non-iTunes purchased music on my iPod.) It’s funny how people don’t attack Nintendo for not making games downloaded from the Virtual Console playable on a Sony PlayStation; it would be ridiculous to suggest that they should. It’s ironic that iTunes is way more open than any of the other services mentioned in the previous paragraph, yet somehow people (tech journalists) can’t bash Apple enough for making the iPod and iTunes work together.
I give Kahney and Wired credit, though; it’s a rare thing in the world of tech journalism to admit when you’re wrong (especially when it comes to Apple). In a sidebar to the main article, they do just that.