[olug] from slashdot: Credit Card-Size Hard Drive Can Hold 5GB

[andrew]

I think that if we are debating monetary priorities, world hunger, 
racism, aids, cancer and nuclear proliferation edge out a fuel efficient 
SUV in my book.  Alternatives exist for the guzzling SUV.  Most aids 
victims can't switch to pneumonia.  (I could make a worse analogy, but 
that would take precious minutes of my time.)  Unfortunately, money 
isn't spent according to my priority list.

It does sound a lot like vaporware; however, I think you can get those 
usb pocket drives to store 512 MB + and those have been out for over a 
year.  It doesn't seem like an incredible leap to go to 5 gig.  Much 
larger than that and I'd be firmly in the vaporware camp.  I didn't read 
the article (yeah, I'm that guy), but are these solid state?  That would 
be hard to believe, but I suppose possible... though not cheap.  

Please leave your shoes on. ; )

andrew
andrew at einer.org

put in my place by smart folk daily:  einer.org/forums

Eric Penne wrote:

>Credit to slashdot but the link is from PCWorld.
>http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,108816,tk,dn011603X,00.asp
>
>
>I'll walk out onto a big strong limb here and claim this to be the
>latest thing that everybody will want but nobody will be able to
>purchase.
>
>Vaporware I tell you, Vaporware!  I don't have any inside information
>or anything like that but this really sounds like a load of crap in my
>shoe.
>
>Where do these companies find the venture capital to fund this sort of
>thing.
>
><soapbox opinions (feel free to debate me)>
>We are going to have a war with Iraq.  Bush has it in his head, so be
>it.  It's mostly for oil but there is a little twinge of world peace at
>hand if Saddam is out.  
>
>I'm not blasting anybody in particular after this part or I would be a
>hypocrit.  We need to curb our use of oil (foreign and domestic).  Too
>many cars, not enough pollution prevention.
>
>For under $15 million, a viable (130 mile highway range) battery
>electric vehicle could be produced and sold for about $20,000.  One of
>the big costs with vehicle production is crash testing so it may take
>$20 million.  It costs a lot to crash test a prototype. :)
>
>That same $15 million could be used to fund the changeover for 3 normal
>car lines to use hybrid (like the Honda Civic).
>
>BOOM!  Helping the future!  Less War with oil barons.
>
>How many car lines could've been developed with all the money thrown at
>hyped up crap during the dot com boom/bust.  Enough to satisfy
>everybodies tastes.  Hybrid SUVs, fully battery electric SUVs, hybrid
>cars, battery electric sports cars, etc.
></soapbox>
>
>Instead of looking for a viable company building a real world useable
>product, these venture capitalists are throwing money at hot air and
>wet dreams.  Toss out some new buzzwords: Credit Card size, DVD, hard
>drive, and security.  What do you get?  Prolly $10 - $15 million in
>funding.
>
>I think I need to come up with my own buzzwords for the venture
>capitalists.  Can anybody help me come up with some?  If I get a$5 -
>$10 million, I'll donate 20G to OLUG for improvements.  I might even
>build a building dedicated to OLUG meetings.  I'd hire everybody on the
>list without a job for about 40G/year.  We wouldn't have to do anything
>except hire a good marketing person to kick out some pretty graphs
>occasionally to keep the investors happy.  I wonder how long we could
>survive on the money?
>
>Eric
>
>__________________________________________________
>Do you Yahoo!?
>Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
>http://mailplus.yahoo.com
>_______________________________________________
>OLUG mailing list
>OLUG at olug.org
>http://lists.olug.org/mailman/listinfo/olug
>  
>