Old Tech

[xoxoxoBruce]

From 1949, something I've never heard of.

[Undertoad]

I think high-quality wire recorders were developed in Germany in order to record Hitler's speeches.

Interesting: recording tape, cassette, 8-track, reel-to-reel is just oxides of that same metal of that recording wire, magnetized and read by a head. It's just applied in a thin layer onto a long plastic tape and magnetized and read by a head.

AND videotape is just oxides of that same metal, applied to a thicker plastic tape and magnetized and read by a head.

AND floppy discs are just oxides of that same metal, applied to a plastic disk and magnetized and read by a head.

AND hard drives are just oxides of that same metal, applied to a firm, spinning disk and magnetized and read by a head.

Only when we got to optical disk was it no longer a magnetized surface read by a head. Then, it became pits in metal, read by a laser.

And that's where the story ends, because in the future, everything digital will be kept in solid state memory.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

And that's where the story ends, because in the future, everything digital will be kept in solid state memory.

The story never ends. You are making the mistake today that was made back 40 years ago. Remember early Star Trek? They too thought the future was magnetic tapes.

We know optical is today where magnetics probably were in the 1960s. So what is about to make optical devices obsolete? Numerous technologies exist including and not limited to phase change materials and quantum dots. All based in sub-atomic structures. Semiconductor memory is layers of atomic structures. Too obsolete.

[it]

Both are right...

The technology behind hard drives will very likely continue to evolve, whether on devices or servers ("the cloud" for when you are high and/or marketing).

The situation where you'd need an intermediary storage device rather then simply communicating the information from the source to he goal... That story does kind of end, as long as the internet infrastructure is maintainable, especially now when online security methods can actually make information more secure then a physically held storage device.

I do think we should keep a note here: The internet is infrastructure.
This is not "technological improvements" in the simple sense of figuring how to do things and being able to do it as long as you have the knowledge kept, it's an expensive (estimated at 196 billion USD a year) global endeavor, which relies on a very fragile ecosystem of the global economy, industry, politics, etc. Which IMO puts the sustainability of it through the centuries into question.

It's also very local... To earth. I think it would be interesting to see how the internet adapts to space. Space tourism is in it's infancy and so far it's close enough to always be in range, but it should create some interesting situations in the long term, which might actually require a return for some sort of physical data transfer devices until the infrastructure is set, and even once you do have local infrastructure elsewhere... How do they communicate? The 1st colony on mars wants to poke their earthbound friends on facebook. What do you do?

[xoxoxoBruce]

I've talked to people who don't understand putting stuff on the cloud just means instead of having on your computer, you're putting on someone else's computer.

[it]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

I've talked to people who don't understand putting stuff on the cloud just means instead of having on your computer, you're putting on someone else's computer.

A friend of mine is studying database engineering, and complained everyone thought it sounded boring, so I told her to say she's studying cloud engineering instead... Now her mother thinks shes sending her daughter to the comp-sci department of Hogwarts.

[DanaC]

Hahahahahaha. Cloud engineering. That's awesome, Trace.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

I've talked to people who don't understand putting stuff on the cloud just means instead of having on your computer, you're putting on someone else's computer.

That's a good "Devil's Dictionary" definition:

The Cloud, n. Someone else's computer.

[it]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

That's a good "Devil's Dictionary" definition:

The Cloud, n. Someone else's computer.

Yea I kind of like that one.

Also: Keeping the the Bierce's DD updated... Why is nobody on that?

[BigV]

Have you never heard of the Urban Dictionary? *That's* updated, devilishly so.