Re: Brin: Real inventions since 1970

At 04:48 PM Monday 1/31/2011, KZK wrote:
>Steve Roth asks an interesting question about 
>the number and type of real inventions since the 
>seventies (that aren't just improvements of existing inventions):
>
>http://www.asymptosis.com/name-one-really-big-invention-since-1970-besides-the-internet.html
>
>Optical media? (CD, LaserDisc, DVD, Blu)
>Hard Drives?



Hard drives — in the sense of a rigid substrate 
coated with a magnetic substance — certainly existed in 1970.

This is a type I used in those days:

http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-VINTAGE-DISK-PLATTER-2135-2-THESE-/320621059587

on an IBM 1130:

http://www.ibm1130.net/functional/DiskStorage.html

with a platter about a foot across (about the 
size of a LP record album from the day) inside 
the pictured enclosure (which some compared to a 
pizza carrier) that had a capacity (as measured 
today) of about 1 megabyte.  (And the price this 
guy wants for these two is just about the same 
numerical price they sold for in the early 70s!)

Put a few of them together on a spindle and you got a disk pack:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_IBM_disk_storage


. . . ronn!  :)