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It is thrilling to think that we have created the first document which will likely survive the human race.
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grimwerk: Is there a word for this twisted optimism?
Post-apocalyptic?
After Bluray, I don't really see physical mediums of any capacity catching on. All digital seems to be the way of the future.

Sure, 360 TB is a ton of storage, but by the time this technology is both easy/cheap to manufacture on the grand scale, and by the time we actually have a need for it (super ultra mega highest definition with 72.1 audio channels, and some waffles), what do you think our HDDs and bandwidths will look like?
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kojocel: The article is indeed a good reading, but I recalled I heard this on some local TV a couple of years back, so I did some digging. The Telegraph article is an updated adaptation (an adjusted copy-paste) of an older, but basically the same, Telegraph article from 2011.

The original Telegraph article (2011) here.
I knew I had read similar articles before, I did not know they had simply rehashed the article though.
I've been occasionally hearing about holographic storage since 2004 or so, nobody seems to care until the next time they throw out an arbitrary high number and then they stop caring for another X years.
Discs suck, I don't think I can support that crap anymore no matter how much they hold. Half my old DVDs don't play right anymore, that's way more temporary than DRM.
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wpegg: I get the feeling from the examples stated, the write speed for this is prohibitively slow.

EDIT: The mismatch of storage could either be error by the journalist in the title, or error by the journalist in the calculation. They tend to do both.
Might be 360 GB and not TB ... In witch case it's not that impressive anymore.
It would explain the more then 7 times the 50GB since 7x50 = 350 Gb
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kodeen: what do you think our HDDs and bandwidths will look like?
Cheese, mostly.
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wpegg: I get the feeling from the examples stated, the write speed for this is prohibitively slow.

EDIT: The mismatch of storage could either be error by the journalist in the title, or error by the journalist in the calculation. They tend to do both.
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N0x0ss: Might be 360 GB and not TB ... In witch case it's not that impressive anymore.
It would explain the more then 7 times the 50GB since 7x50 = 350 Gb
Indeed, he left it ambiguous. However as people have pointed out, he was more consistent on the 360TB than the 360GB. Futhermore, 360GB disc is hardly news, that's almost redundant in our throwaway data situation we're in now. You can get a yahoo account with 1TB storage.
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N0x0ss: Might be 360 GB and not TB ... In witch case it's not that impressive anymore.
It would explain the more then 7 times the 50GB since 7x50 = 350 Gb
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wpegg: Indeed, he left it ambiguous. However as people have pointed out, he was more consistent on the 360TB than the 360GB. Futhermore, 360GB disc is hardly news, that's almost redundant in our throwaway data situation we're in now. You can get a yahoo account with 1TB storage.
So he left 2 zeros Out.... Yep, does make a lot more sense.. Since 4 TB Hard-drives are commercially available everywhere nowadays at an affordable price. I really don't see the usefulness of CD-Shaped support anymore anyways, as it requires a lense, where-as Hard-Drive can be directly wired to the PC Hard-Drive/ the TV input port , etc...

I wouldn't be surprised if they start selling movies on protected usb-keys ...
Post edited July 10, 2013 by N0x0ss
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kodeen: After Bluray, I don't really see physical mediums of any capacity catching on. All digital seems to be the way of the future.

Sure, 360 TB is a ton of storage, but by the time this technology is both easy/cheap to manufacture on the grand scale, and by the time we actually have a need for it (super ultra mega highest definition with 72.1 audio channels, and some waffles), what do you think our HDDs and bandwidths will look like?
It's useful for long term archives, like the kind a museum would be interested in (or even, say, a TV channel that wants to keep a copy of all its original recordings). Hard drives don't actually last that long even if you just write once then stick them on a shelf. You have to keep backing up old data to new hard drives.

Sure it might never be that useful for your average consumer like you or me. It does have its uses though.
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ChrisSD: or even, say, a TV channel that wants to keep a copy of all its original recordings
Don't worry, the BBC have sorted that one out. Totally. It's digital media project means that there's no way we can lose that data. It didn't go wrong. They didn't end up with a mess.
Well, supposed he is talking about 360 TB, I guess my por-...ehm, storage problems are solved :P
i can just see it now, someone coming in to ask can you fix this, i dropped it an i want my data back.
I'm the only one here who saw Superman 2!? They imprison Zod and his cronies in glass!?!?! Anyone? You laugh but this little bit of reality may be the harbinger of the little bit of fantasy that is the Krypton penal system.
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chezybezy: i can just see it now, someone coming in to ask can you fix this, i dropped it an i want my data back.
It already happen with external harddrives and laptops.

I would love to have a high capacity glass-based long term storage solution for my stuff - no more magnetic corruption, bitrot, oxidation and mechanical failures.
Post edited July 10, 2013 by Solei
Let's do some math now:

360TB = 360 000 GB (aprox.)
7 x 50 GB = 350 GB
580 000 CDs =
580 000 x 650 MB = 377 000 000 MB = 377 000 GB = 377 TB
580 000 x 700 MB = 406 000 000 MB = 406 000 GB = 406 TB
580 000 x 800 MB = 464 000 000 MB = 464 000 GB = 464 TB

Now, here is the catch:


Previously the scientists created glass storage that could store the equivalent of a Blu-ray Disc – up to 50GB of data – but they now can store more than seven times that.
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Lone3wolf:
Well, 360 TB is more than 7 x 50 GB, so I guess they are right.

Another thing:

They claim it could allow up to 360 terabytes, equivalent to 580,000 CDs, to be stored on a single piece of glass the size of a standard CD.
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Lone3wolf:
That means that maybe they use some kind of compression (better than the 2:1 tape drives can use) that maybe it can go up to 360 TB.

Well, just my 5 cents and thoughts.