computerhardware
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Old Magnetic Tape
Old magnetic tape — it holds 60 megabytes on 620 feet of tape! Wow!
You are viewing stuff tagged with computerhardware.
At this point in time, in the middle of dental school, I’ve spent many many hours in lecture halls. Here’s what I’ve found: a lot of professors are disorganized, and as a result tend to descend into tangential (yet important for the exam!) monologues that stray far from the ugly PowerPoint slide at hand. During these all-too-frequent digressions, one must be ready to transcribe a lot of information very quickly. To accomplish this, I have slowly adopted the use of a laptop during lectures.
Old magnetic tape — it holds 60 megabytes on 620 feet of tape! Wow!
A 128-bit storage can address a rather lot of memory - I can’t explain the boiling oceans thing myself, so onwards with a quote:
To operate at the 10E31 bits/kg limit, however, the entire mass of the computer must be in the form of pure energy. By E=mc2, the rest energy of 136 billion kg is 1.2x10E28 J. The mass of the oceans is about 1.4x10E21 kg. It takes about 4,000 J to raise the temperature of 1 kg of water by 1 degree Celcius, and thus about 400,000 J to heat 1 kg of water from freezing to boiling. The latent heat of vaporization adds another 2 million J/kg. Thus the energy required to boil the oceans is about 2.4x10E6 J/kg * 1.4x10E21 kg = 3.4x10E27 J. Thus, fully populating a 128-bit storage pool would, literally, require more energy than boiling the oceans.
A recent article in PC World about the top 10 worst computers of all time names Packard Bell machines (specifically, those built between 1986-1996) to be the worst ever. Guess what brand of computer we bought in 1992? That’s right! A Packard Bell! It is funny to recall those days, though, when computers were the Next Big Thing. It was amazing that our computer was “multimedia”—pumping out sound and video at the same time! It printed! The screen was in color! We marveled at clips from the San Diego Zoo, and later entertained ourselves playing Where in the World is Carmen San Diego. I learned about ctrl+alt+del, too.
Buckling spring keyboards - These keyboards are what keyboards used to feel like … with buckling spring technology to give you a scientifically proven increase in feedback, generally resulting in faster typing speeds.
Hilarious Hitachi Press Release - Who knew that hard drives could rock like this? Seriously, visit this link and do not stop watching until you get to the disco portion. Brilliant.
Dark Blade - The Most Amazing Computer Ever Built - A guy in Italy, who apparently works in a professional CNC shop, makes this ultimate computer case out of metal. All metal. All custom computer designed and machined. It’s almost done. Follow new developments here.
Here is an interesting fact you didn’t need to know that I learned in physiology: the placement of letters on our keyboards was actually created to slow typing speeds down back when typewriters used to get jammed up. See, typewriters have arms that reach up and smack the letter onto the page: if you get typing too fast, these arms will catch on one another and jam up the typewriter. So, the layout you are currently using was created to trip people up and get them to type more slowly. You know how they sold this new key layout? Look at the top row of keys on your “modern” computer keyboard. What’s the longest word you can spell? Typewriter. Coincidence? Nope. Mostly likely there to help salesmen sell the new typewriter key layout.
Dell XPS Generation 5. Review here.
US Robotics Wireless MAXg - I’ve heard this is a very good card, capable of picking the weak signal your college/coffeeshop is sure to provide.
“Wireless MaxG … relies on less-expensive enhancements such as increased signal strength and more sensitive receivers.” - PCWorld
Got a new mouse today. It’s optical so no dumb trackball lint problems. I can use it on my shirt, too! And picked up some new anti-virus software. Still reading Heretics of Dune. I fear as I have been reading the series that I have not made enough guesses or connections about the plot. Because of this, the information presented later on which was intended to clarify guesses has been passed over by me and only taken at face value. This may detract from my understanding of the plot and the books themselves as a whole. Then again, the time that has passed between books has been long. This could be my problem. A re-read may be in order. I’m awakening from the dream of summer and looking forward to the coming school year. School creates more stress, work, and scheduling than I normally have to deal with. The best plan may be to keep reading books throughout the year; escape literature has a value more than distracting the mind. It seems to enrich while diverting. Time for me to skeedaddle.