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>> Postings for September 2006

Hard disk is golden oldie

Fri, 15 Sep 2006

Not many computer technologies last 50 years (just ask Iomega), but this month we celebrate the golden anniversary of the humble hard disk. My first Mac (an LC 2/40) was blessed with a 40MB disk, which seemed like an awful lot at the time. Even my current PowerBook’s disk is 1,500 times the capacity, while my Power Mac’s boasts well over 6,000 times as much storage.

But back in 1990 I didn’t have 12,000 digital photos, 8,500 MP3s, or iDVD at my beck and call. I had that postage-stamp-sized QuickTime movie of an Apollo rocket’s first five seconds of take-off, half a dozen saved MacPaint doodles, maybe 30 Word documents, and a dodgy copy of QuarkXPress 3.1. 40MB was plenty, thank you very much.

Simon Jary | Read more...


The good thing about exploding batteries

Mon, 04 Sep 2006

Recently, I reported on fears that WiFi could give us all cancer. The possibility appeared remote – indeed figures indicated that we are 100,000 times more likely to be killed by Radio One transmissions than an AirPort connection – but there’s no doubt that the wireless euphoria was dampened somewhat. Suddenly the idea of all of us laptop users shopping at Amazon or bidding on eBay while in our local coffee shop or down the end of the garden took on a less healthy glow.

Talking of glows … just when you thought it was safe to warm your trousered thighs with an underplate of anodized aluminium, along comes an even more scary portable problem: exploding laptops.

Simon Jary | Read more...