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Storing Data In Cow Guts?
supersandra writes "News.com reports that companies are exploring how to use molten silicon, designer molecules, and even protein globules from cows as data storage media. The media made by Nanochip using molten silicon, called ovonic media, is similar to CDs or DVDs but can store much more data because the tools for reading and writing data could potentially be 25x smaller. Nanochip demonstrated a 1-inch square chip of material that could contain a terabit of data. ZettaCore has created a complex molecule that can retain or release up to eight electrons, exhibiting a voltage level that can be read as data, and thus each molecule can represent 4 bits of data. Another company, NanoMagnetics, uses a magnetic core surrounded by animal protein, and can also achieve a terabit of data per square inch."
And you thought DVD rot was bad!
If it's anything like the data in my secret directory, I forsee an irony overload of epic proportions.
With cows having several stomachs, can you have a RAID then? How do you defragment the drives? Cowto-Bismol? And I'm saying right now I'm not gonna be the one that's going to "retrieve" the drives that aren't needed in the cow anymore.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
Great, now the places that ban USB keys as a 'security risk'
will also ban beef jerky.
>;k
Cow Guts eh..next they will use human brains! ;)
When expecting to find intelligence in a person, do not look at their age but instead look at their IQ and maturity firs
anyone more familiar with kashrut than I know if this would be considered kosher? Like if an observant Jew were to handle the media would he then not be able to have a dairy meal?
This is a serious, if off topic, question. Anyone?
Running a MOO will never be the same.
Makes the whole concept of a "data dump" a lot less appealing.
Feh! The Sumerians were reading goat entrails for information ages before this came along.
Vegans are gonna be forced to use slower, less compatible soy-protein alternatives.
Come on, you expect me to believe that this meat can _think_?
But if you notice only the carbon nanotube idea at the end seems to offer a speed increase which is what we really need. Tons of storage is great but until HDs start increasing in speed significantly they will remain the primary bottleneck in most systems.
I was really impressed until I saw that it said "terabit". As in 1/8 of a terabyte. Which isn't a terrible lot...
:(
1 terabit = 2^40 bits = 1099511627776 bits
1 terabyte = (2^40) * 8 bits = 8796093022208 bits
My Systems
"The cow says 011011010110111101101111!"
achieve a terabit of data per square inch.
yeah. and transfer speeds approaching 1b/sec.
Any idea how slowly RNA encodes a datastream? It ain't quick.
kulakovich
"So if you're thinking of going for your PHD in CompSci, just consider for a moment whether you REALLY want to be combining the math of CompSci, with the Molecular Biology of cow guts."
Instead you can focus on your undergrad CS degree and go straight to combining the long hours of development with the endless bullshit from middle management. :-)
> There is a joke here about cow chips
I'll give it a shot.
"Dude, what's that smell?"
"My system just had a core dump!"
They might mean that it can vary between -8 and +8 inclusive, which gives 17 states, {-8,-7,-6,-5,-4,-3,-2,-1,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8}. You need 16 states for 4 bits, so that would do it. Or maybe you could take advantage of the 17th state by storing data in base-17 rather than hexadecimal - but thats just weird and would require processing to convert. Unfortunately, this will liekly lead to multiple formats depending on how the 17 possible states are mapped to the 16 hexadecimal digits, or whether all 17 states are in fact used to achieve maximum data compression.
Mathematics is not a crime.
You mean [Emily Litella voice]. You should use your [Roseanne Roseannadanana voice] for when you're installing some of this new cow memory into a computer, and you get a itty-bitty glob of cow protein stuck on your fingers! So you try to flick it off the end of your finger, but it just stays there! So you keep flicking it and flicking it, and then you try rolling it around and around on your fingers, and it's just hanging there, and you're looking at this little fleck of cow guts on your finger, and you get so sick to your stomach, that you think you're gonna DIE!
When I visited the Veterinarian Dept. of a local university, I was shown a cow with a window on its side.
Students could open the window at their convenience to check the insides of the cow.
Ugh.
it seems that the (animal) FAT filesysem will be back!
If only they can somehow expand this technology to work with proteins from animals from the ursus or lupine families, then imagine the RAIDs you could create.
A bear-wolf cluster, if you will...
Be careful with the Iomega drives. If someone provides you with a bad cow, it may damage your drive such that it damages all other cows you use. The damage is subtle, but eventually all the data on your cows will be lost.
"I'm sorry teacher, but I put my homework on one of those new super DVDs, and it got MadCow disease."
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
Firstly, up to 8 electrons stored, unless you can detect which of the electrons is being stored, only yields 3 bits (one molecule can have a "value" of 0-8, actually the last one is superfluous). It would take a range of 0-15 electrons to get 4 bits.
As to ovonics, ovum means egg. Maybe it just refers to the shape and biological nature of the globules.
this would look kinda funny on a spec sheet 2.4ghz processor 512mb memory 6.2oz top sirlion Hard drive I wonder if the heat processor could cook the hard drive? mmmmmmmmmm Dataaaaaaaaaaa
"There is only a one in six billion chance that you actually exist"
You could accomplish secure data destruction and give yourself a protein supplement... at the same time!
Sustainability and energy independence essay
So how are the vegetatarian/enviromentalists going to react to this? Are they going to protect the environment or protect the cow?
This guy is way out there
I think we all know what your storing in the cow. If you want to call it "personal data", go for it.
beefing up your computer.
Ooooh! Beef jerky! Rghghgh.. *chomp* *chomp* *gulp* Aahhh!
</Homer>
Hey, has anyone seen our system backup?
<Homer>
D'oh!
</Homer>
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Obviously the animal to use for data storage is the elephant.
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
Well this is the perfect application of my COW programming language! It should run like.. umm.. some really fast thing!
Hexy - a strategy game for iPhone/iPod Touch
Melt humans down and instead of using them for "Soylent Green", use 'em for chips!
Or put another way, use cow chips for chips!
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!