19 Dec
2009
19 Dec
'09
6:21 p.m.
On Sat, 19 Dec 2009, Tim Shoppa wrote:
When I got started in computing, a RK05 pack was circa
$200 and
a 8" floppy was circa $5. A researcher or student might have
had a personal RK05 or two and a box of floppies.
Today for the non-inflation-amount of money
I get a couple of Terabyte portable drives for $200 and a cheapie
USB keychain for $5. And they're used for similar purposes (despite
a factor of 5 or more orders of magnuted in byte capacity) as the 30-year
old equivalents. I see things really staying the same in price
and in usage more than changing.
While there is a factor of 5 or more orders of magnitude in byte capacity,
the capacity of what they will hold is unchanged. A non-trivial MS WEIRD
file will no longer fit on a floppy. An OS will not only no longer fit on
a floppy, some won't fit on a CD-ROM!
Data will always expand to fill the available capacity - Boyle's law
MICROS~1 has certainly done their part to keep Moore's law and the
software variant of Boyle's law on track.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com