Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason. ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-25/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Mark Tyson Social Links Navigation News Editor Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
psyconz At first, my thoughts were about how this has to be the most useless random hacky device that this website has ever listed. Then I thought, well, how many erase-on-read devices have I heard of before? That could actually be useful. Then I realized we have them, actually, en masse, with destructive AI-training book scanning 🤣 Reply
alrighty_then I enjoy articles about people bulding odd stuff because I don't seek this out or hear about it otherwise. Reply
psyconz alrighty_then said: I enjoy articles about people bulding odd stuff because I don't seek this out or hear about it otherwise. Yeah, I enjoy most of Tom's random "Quake on a satellite" or "LLM running on 50 year old hardware" stuff, but this one… 128 bytes. That's just an quantum-mechanically-small amount of storage. But I do appreciate the cool scientific, technical and creative side of this one. Reply
derekullo psyconz said: Yeah, I enjoy most of Tom's random "Quake on a satellite" or "LLM running on 50 year old hardware" stuff, but this one… 128 bytes. That's just an quantum-mechanically-small amount of storage. But I do appreciate the cool scientific, technical and creative side of this one. Each ASCII character / keystroke is a byte so it's essentially about half a twitter post … 280 characters / bytes ^^^ That sentence alone was 116 bytes 😛 Reply
rluker5 I've got one of those brown framed ferrite bead panels on my bookshelf. You can get them on Ebay, but they used to be a lot cheaper. Nice to see one put to use, about as much work as I expected. Would be neat to see someone using magnetic wire for data. Could probably hold a lot more for a longer time. I used to save data on cassette back when my parents had a TI-99/4a and you could likely use any sufficiently precise audio recording method to do the same. Data sounded same as an old phone modem. This guy has one for sale now: https://www.ebay.com/itm/318764798056?_skw=magnetic+wire+recorder&itmmeta=01M17M2AD13NVG97H04TAWVWAS&hash=item4a37dcd068:g:mVMAAeSwSUlqiJTh&itmprp=enc%3AAQALAAAA8GfYFPkwiKCW4ZNSs2u11xBa%2FWI%2BcH6mE%2BrqExfJm%2F4TV8lwAbcErcoJWyi242tr%2FsBfbY%2B9RECeA%2FWFKjsSnux8riFAnX3yMQSxlrMCTffo740kf%2BhT1Wj6PkI0auHzIODNnNiS5f730cSDzrH3vavG6R4guqR%2FVgwUAn0RRArDIPcsryLfnF2Um2zFZL6%2BEDBQTRQfW98WN3QNGZb6egK6U9zfRYbjN1KOJ08kYmlZ4lsmvnu789UCwfeEew4lZ0TNZGleCCmVWGMuCW%2FVnN2lw4sayb2%2BckTO3U%2B9laLbXRzAuA92z0qN9VNtaJofqA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR-KmifSJaAhttps://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/mVMAAeSwSUlqiJTh/s-l1600.webp Reply
abufrejoval psyconz said: At first, my thoughts were about how this has to be the most useless random hacky device that this website has ever listed. Then I thought, well, how many erase-on-read devices have I heard of before? That could actually be useful. Then I realized we have them, actually, en masse, with destructive AI-training book scanning 🤣 that might ignore the fact that reading from DRAM is also destructive… (the RAM chips make up for that on their own) And actually any page activation, whether for read or for write actually causes an overwrite afterwards, apart from the needed refreshes. Yes, it's a bit mind boggling, that core memory might store data for decades, only to have it's data destroyed on reading. But memory–of any kind–typically isn't forever. And actually the fact that stories now don't get to drift constantly with the retelling, is first, an anomaly in human history, and second, perhaps more of an issue than a benefit. Especially when some attribute more value to the written word than hearsay. Reply
abufrejoval The first PDP-11/34 I worked on (around 1983), started with 64k of core memory. That machine was perhaps a bit backward in terms of the underlying technology base with tons of TTL chips to implement the processor and controllers, instead of single chip CPU. But in terms of software RSX-11 was way ahead of anything microcomputers and PCs ran at the time, a true multi-user and multi-tasking OS, even designed for real-(enough)-time industrial control. Since we mostly used it to run a relational database (Datatrieve), it got upgraded to 256K of DRAM soon after: no more stopping and instant restarts of the machine in mid-flight! I seem to remember that one of the earliest luggable laptops, a Grid Compass 1100, used magnetic bubble memory (somewhat similar, not the same) for robust solid state block storage in 1982: it flew in the Shuttle. Columbia data could also be recovered after both the fiery explosion and after having lain in sea water for months: so there is something to be said for the technology. Reply
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/usb-flash-drives/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/usb-flash-drives/magnetic-core-memory-usb-drive-transfers-files-in-sneakernet-first-text-and-image-files-get-moved-between-pcs-via-hugely-constrained-archaic-memory-tech#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/membership
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.