Humanity is generating data at an exponential rate, but our current methods for storing it are remarkably fragile . Most digital archives rely on magnetic tapes or hard disk drives that degrade within a few years, requiring constant, expensive data migration . However, a recently published study from the Microsoft Research Project Silica Team details an end-to-end system that solves this by writing data directly into glass . Sidebar: Just How Much Data is Out There? If the amount of digital information in the world is something that enters your consciousness, you might want to sit down for this. The global "datasphere" is expanding at an unprecedented rate, currently estimated to be over a staggering 175 zettabytes . To truly visualize the sheer scale of 175 zettabytes, consider these mathematical comparisons: The Baseline: A single zettabyte is the equivalent of one trillion gigabytes . The "sweet spot" for the hard drive in a modern computer is 1 terabyte. It w...
Nearly twenty years ago, I started a blog called The Path is Too Deep, a geeky reference to a rare computer error message. A great deal of life has happened since then, a life I would like to share. So, here again, are some random bits of unfiltered Chris.