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Digital Big Bang — 161 Exabytes In 2006

Posted by kdawson on from the had-we-but-world-enough-and-room-to-store-it dept.

An anonymous reader tips us to an AP story on a recent study of how much data we are producing. IDC estimates that in 2006 we created, captured, and replicated 161 exabytes of digital information. The last time anyone tried to estimate global information volume, in 2003, researchers at UC Berkeley came up with 5 exabytes. (The current study tries to account for duplicating data — on the same assumptions as the 2003 study it would have come out at 40 exabytes.) By 2010, according to IDC, we will be producing far more data than we will have room to store, closing in on a zettabyte.

14 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. XXX by daddyrief · · Score: 5, Funny

    And half of that is porn...

    --
    "Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies." -Thomas Jefferson
    1. Re:XXX by the-amazing-blob · · Score: 4, Funny

      Way to clog the tubes up, guys. Seriously. :P

    2. Re:XXX by maxume · · Score: 4, Funny

      They upgraded to mpeg4.

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
  2. It was only 9 megs by noewun · · Score: 5, Funny

    Without Slashdot dupes.

    --
    I am a believer of momentum and curves.
  3. Finally, an excuse... by bigforearms · · Score: 5, Funny

    The furry porn gets deleted first.

  4. Sorry, my fault... by slobber · · Score: 5, Funny

    I left cat /dev/urandom running

    --
    "You mortals are so obtuse." -Q
    1. Re:Sorry, my fault... by Dirtside · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yes, but what he didn't say is that he left it running on every computer on earth.

      --
      "Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
  5. Re:How many... by LighterShadeOfBlack · · Score: 5, Funny

    That'd be 1,191,400 Libraries of Congress.

    Honestly, I don't know why the /. editors allow these "scientific articles" that only provide data in these obscure and archaic "byte" measurements. Absurd!

    --
    Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and stupid comments are intentional.
  6. Must be the space donuts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    So the sum total of data has increased by a factor of more than 30 since 2003? I knew Brent Spiner was putting on weight, but damn.

  7. We won't produce more data than can be stored. by ProfessionalCookie · · Score: 4, Funny

    Data that cannot be stored will not be produced because all data that is produced must be stored. Data that is not stored (for however short a time) is not really produced.

    Then again the past no longer exists anyway, the future doesn't exist yet and the present has no duration- so maybe the data never existed anyway. Maybe you don't exist?!?! Awe man maybe I *~/ disappears in a puff of logic*
    ----
    Kudos to Augustine and Adams

    1. Re:We won't produce more data than can be stored. by istartedi · · Score: 4, Funny

      disappears in a puff of logic

      Great. Now we're all going to be inhaling second-hand logic. There ought to be a law...

      --
      For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  8. Re:How many... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    760 billion episodes of anime.In other words, about half the length of a typical Dragonball Z fight scene.

  9. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  10. Dr Evil by steveoc · · Score: 4, Funny

    So DR Evil, after emerging from his suspended animation, would demand a computer big enough to store 100 Megabytes of evil data.