Impact of increased storage space.

Yay, another week and another 3 assignments; here's my latest:

Since the invention of digital computing machines such as the Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine,(University of Manchester, 2005)[i] , non-volatile storage has been a requirement as a result of the stored-program concept.(Brookshear et al, 2009, p.102)[ii] As outlined in sections 2.1 to 2.4 of the above text; Machine language in conjunction with computer systems architecture is what is used to accomplish work within any digital processing system; although the machine language, systems interface buses, volatile memory, ie; Random Access Memory (Ram), and non-volatile storage mechanisms may differ from system to system, the one requirement all computing machines maintain is non-volatile storage accessed via a controller. (Brookshear et al, 2009, p.123 – p.125)[iii]

The first paradigm of non-volatile storage utilized was paper tape followed by punch cards followed by cathode ray tubes and eventually magnetic tape, magnetic drums and our current paradigm of magnetic platters.(Computer History Museum, 2006)[iv]

Each shift within the non-volatile storage paradigm increased the amount of storage and thus increased the overall functionality of the available computing systems, since they could operate with faster Input and Output as well as being able to work with ever larger data-sets. The increase in size and flexibility was not without sacrifice, as the impermanence of the current magnetic systems as well as their reduced size has lead to many ethical concerns regarding data disposal and management, as news articles commonly include the loss and potential theft of information on modern hard drives.(BBC News, 2007)[v].

Generally the increase in available storage space has led to larger operating systems; more abstracted programming languages which require less programming time and faster overall systems operation, oddly enough Moore’s law also applies to storage as well as integrated circuitry.

The current shift in paradigm to NAND based flash memory is one of cost, speed, power consumption and size. Current hard disk systems utilize technologies such as Perpendicular Bit Recording (PBR), with Gigantic Magnetorisitive Heads (GMR) to achieve Arial densities up to tens of gigabytes-bytes per square centimeter. (Hitachi, 2007)[vi] a 1 terra byte (1,000,000,000 bytes) drive may be purchased for around one hundred U.S. Dollars, that’s one dollar per gigabyte . (Pricewatch, 2008)[vii]

IBM has stated that as GMR head size becomes reduced to the physical limit the only available method to increase storage is to increase the platter count when utilizing a mechanical drive; hence the reason they sold their storage manufacturing arm to Hitachi.(EETimes India, 2008)[viii]. The limitations of a physical system containing moving parts are that of latency, even though current drives may spin anywhere between 7200RPM and 15,000RPM the motor spinning the platters consumes a large amount of power when compared with the requirements of non-volatile “flash” memory. The main trade off with the current trend in non-volatile flash based NAND memory is that the areal density is lower, the reliability is the same and the cost per gigabyte is more than double that of standard hard disk drives.(ACSL, 2008)[ix]

Since storage has become a commoditized market the motivating factor behind the adoption of any new or existing technology is cost. The primary limitation of a computers use is a function of available computing power in conjunction with its available data set; increase the dataset and the breadth of function increases. This in turn translates into larger more functional applications and operating systems, although the cost of non-volatile flash memory is an order of magnitude higher for solid state systems and only offers a reasonable amount of storage for the same price in design when compared with the current standard of hard disk drives; flash memory’s benefits are lower power consumption, ruggedized systems operation and faster interface latency and throughput. Therefore the current reduction in price of non-volatile flash memory allows mobile applications with longer operational times for devices ranging from multi-media players such as the IPod to ultra thin and light portable computers such as the Mac Book Air. Ultimately this allows a systems designer to specify the storage type by operational environment and application cost sensitivity. Instead of fitting the application to the computer we now design the computer to meet the application.

The changes in data processing and storage interface require new faster bus technologies such as Serial ATA & Serial SCSI; as opposed to the previous parallel buses; these provide higher throughput and more complex controller systems with integrated optimizations like Native Command Queuing.

The architectural changes will allow future operating systems to be ten or more times larger than previous ones; this is due to the increased availability and decreased cost of storage space; which in turn this results in more options & applications for use by the end user. Once systems used to conduct data intensive tasks such as computer aided design, video editing, multi-media production as well as high definition media playback are now economically viable on an inexpensive desktop systems, laptop computers, inexpensive gaming platforms or even hand held devices.

The reduction in cost for storage has modified the way people watch and create movies; purchase and enjoy or produce music and the resulting increased complexity and cost of video games. Users generally use their personal computers to store vast amounts of information. Systems that were once limited to document production, web-browsing and the occasional video game now store entire libraries of Music and Movies. The increased reliance on this storage has brought about issues with personal privacy, and open international piracy of copyrighted works.

As the cost of storage continues to decrease it will allow us to modify the way we entertain ourselves and what kind of information we store; modifying our shopping habits and creating distributed computing environments like “folding @ home” which are theoretically the world’s most powerful supercomputer(Vijay Pand, 2008)[x]; this shift in paradigm has produced self published content often referred to as the Web 2.0(O’Reilly, 2005)[xi] were the data and information we have drives what and how we choose to consume . The increased risk of hardware failure has created larger impacts now it did twenty years ago, where as it once took a fire to destroy your music collection, home videos, books and articles of value including ancient software encoded on punch cards: Where as now the same destruction may be wrought by a single computer virus and an unwary end user.

[i] Manchester University (1998), 50th Anniversary of the Manchester Baby Computer [Online] World Wide Web, Available From http://www.computer50.org/ (Accessed September 30th 2008)

[ii] Glenn Brookshear (Pearson Addison Wesley, 2009) , Computer Science an Overview 10th ed. international. United Kingdom: Pearson Addison Wesley

[iii] Glenn Brookshear (Pearson Addison Wesley, 2009) , Computer Science an Overview 10th ed. international. United Kingdom: Pearson Addison Wesley

[iv] Computer History Museum (2006), Timeline of Computer History [Online] World Wide Web, Available From: http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/?category=cmptr

(Accessed September 30th 2008)

[v] BBC News (2007), Millions of L-Driver Details lost [Online] World Wide Web, Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7147715.stm (Accessed Sep 30th 2008)

[vi] Hitachi (2007), Hitachi achieves nanotechnology mile stone for quadrupling terabyte hard drive [Online] World Wide Web, Available From: http://www.hitachi.com/New/cnews/071015a.html (Accessed Sep 30th 2008)

[vii] Pricewatch (2008), 3.5 sata 1tb listings [Online] World Wide Web, Available From:

http://www.pricewatch.com/hard_removable_drives/sata_1tb.htm (Accessed Sep 30th 2008)

[viii] EETimes India (2008), IBM, Qimoda, Macronix Plot storage tech roadmap [Online] World Wide Web, Available From: http://www.eetindia.co.in/ART_8800440589_1800009_NT_bd0e8ab4.HTM (Accessed September 30th 2008)

[ix] ACSL (2008), Flash Memory vs. HDD who will win?, [Online] World Wide Web, Available from: http://www.storagesearch.com/semico-art1.html (Accessed Sep 30th 2008)

[x] Vjay Pande and Stanford University (2008), Folding at home statistics page [Online] World Wide Web, Available from: http://folding.stanford.edu/English/Stats (Accessed Sep 30th 2008)

[xi] Tim O’Reilly (2005), Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software, [Online] World Wide Web, Available From: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html (Accessed Sep 30th 2005)

My job in 10 Years

So I recently have been accepted into a masters program for the University of Liverpool in Information Technology Security;

It's a "Taught Masters" that takes around 2 years to complete and costs as bout as much as the down payment on a house. Part of the "Asynchronous" learning methods are discussion questions. I much prefer the use of online message boards to do this as it allows one to articulate themselves and then be subject to peer review, with a program like this where students are from around the globe, so far the number of Canadians outnumbers everyone else at 2 out of 16 participants. However we have people from Albania, Nigeria, Germany, Saudi Arabia (Abu Dabi), and the UAE. The age range is around 20 somthing to 30 something, and the first couple modules are the typical "Welcome to our school and here's some information about comptuing science" cash grabs typical of any educational system.

One of my assignments is to awnser the question will my job exist in 10 years and if so what will be diffrent? and how would one train for this poisiton?

I'm posting my awnser here as it was some wirting that came to me at 2:00AM on a wednesday evening; thursday at work was very unproductive.

Dr. Ray Kurtzwell is to Dr. Gordon Moore as Einstein was to Maxwell. Moore’s Law stipulates that every eighteen months computing power doubles, Krutzwell’s addendum is that as the resulting reduction in computing power cost the application breadth widens, and foreseeable sector based trends emerge. We see this in our everyday lives as cell phones begin to replace laptops and laptops begin to replace workstations and as workstations begin to replace superscalar systems once reserved for military and government research facilities. We begin to see features once only thought of by Thinking Machines™, Cray™, SGI™, Sun™ applied to everyday tasks inexpensively. In conjunction with the increasing availability of the Web and the modification of it’s nature to a data driven archtechure will ensure this alone. Humanistic Intelligence will emerge within the next ten years as defined by Steve Mann in 1998, the fashionable accessory of technology is already occurring; this in conjunction with the integration of augmented reality into our daily lives as coined by Prof. Caudell will have major impacts on how and where we work. We may even see the oft quoted “Singularity” as defined by Verner vinge. Dr. Kurtszwell believes that we will integrate computerized systems into our bodies utilizing nanotechnology; Professor Kevin Warwick from the university of Reading has walked about with radar sensors sending information directly to his left median nerve already. The personal area network is a reality; ever increasing open access standards dictate that the available connectivity will increase according to Moore’s law as it applies to the transmission of information. Within the next decade how we interface with the web and the world at large will change; this shift in paradigm will include the ability to communicate in any language instantaneously, the ability to access any information instantaneously; the ability to synthesize the software of life is being developed by Dr. Craig Ventor at U.C. Berkley; the only limitation is available computing power. According to Alvin Toffler’s future shock the rate of change is increasing in a logarithmic fashion, Dr. Kurtzwell statistics back up his argument. So, what kind of training will be required for the information technology security and systems consultant specializing in systems design and architecture? I’d imagine they would have to be conditioned to be creative problem solvers and have a natural desire for self modification and early adoption as well as a thirst for knowledge: Which brings about my next prediction; as people become more connected they will become more exposed; as we integrate more and more of our lives with technology the need for security increases. The ethical considerations become major social issues. The methods used to design systems will be different, the abstraction of concepts will be required but we as controllers will guide computerized systems to administer and design themselves as well as other systems to meet our needs in ieterative fashion. We will manage knowledge instead of systems. As to the interface it will probably be hardwired to our bodies; we as the architects of change must ensure that human investment in technology will not be squandered, nor allow the fictional scenarios of George Orwell, William Gibson, Philip K. Dick or Masamune Shirow to become realities.

Thought's comments and feedback are welcome :D

Oh the Irony of an Exit.

Well since all writing is political in nature; here's a thought?

Why do we blame our administrations for actions that are beyond their control or the result of pure economics?

Should we follow Hyeak-Mises? Or Friedman?

The recent bailout of the American economy has had Bush lambasted by Ahmadinejad at a UN address. Yet the motives behind the $700 Billion bail out affect the foundations of the american economy. Bush's war on terrorisam is helping to bankrupt his countrymen, and for what cheap oil?

I personally believe that house prices are far too high, they have been so for a long time and I have it on good authority that I am right; people that make money with property are stating that it`s over inflated, around 20% or so, and these people are filthy rich. Housing is a highly localized market to various regions, and done on a national scale.

Realtors are trying to sell, (remember they get 2.5% of that high price from the bank) but the market is cooling off and with Ontario in a recession we`ll see it remaining flat for a while. When people purchase a home they are not using thier money but the banks. The banks than transfer that money via a morgtage to home owners, whom rent from said bank at 25 years or so at a given rate of interest that makes the bank quite a bit of money.

The problem is when the bank tries to re-sell that debt to private organizations, I could understand doing commerical asset backed paper (where the income was from commercial organizations) however the mess is a result of bad lending habbits.

As if you didn`t know already the crap in the United States is the result of a combination of bad morgtages and really bad accounting policies (mark to market anyone?).

What I find funny is that this meltdown happened in other places before; was Asia any diffrent in the late 90's? did thier money markets faulter?

And the irony of the situation is that we "The people" blame our governments for bad administration of our respective central banking systems. Yes the only thing your government can do is modify tax policy but that's it, economics is up to you and your behvior your spending patterns. So you lied about your job and bought a house and now you are defaulting on a price you can't afford because the fed screwed the intrest rate (they were asleep at the wheel) and you had a really bad mortgate at some astronomical rate? and it's Bushes Fault? Look in the right place first off and you'll note the man responsible for said mess is retired. (Allen Greenspan)

So back to my point, a recent CTV article lambastes Dalton McGuinty for losing 200,000 jobs in the auto sector in Ontario. The article mentions nothing of the Trust fund fiasco that hollowed a good 35 billion out of our economy; (they are called tax haven's for a reason people), and depreceated our assets in one foul swoop; or how I see no mention of either Bob White or Buzz Hargrove in the article regaring how they devalued GM to the point of bankruptcy over it's life by blackmailing labour rates to astronomincal prices, I`m sorry but you with your high school education do not deserve $65,000 per year to paint a car door or punch in bolts, jobs that can be done by robots. But since your father was an auto worker and you are an auto worker and Buz has banged the table howling "Contract Contract Contract"....now you have no job, how do you feel?

And that GM makes Trucks for everyone? the Auto Market is driven by sales that are financed by firms that charge intrest on loans given to people. If those people are not employed and the used car market saturates your competition and gas prices are crazy high do you really think they will buy a truck? This happened once before in the 70's but apperently no one remembers the oil crisis because the bought SUV's as soon as they could.

Labour will always move to where it is most cost effective; China and India ahve few if any envrionmental policies, they are where North America was in the 50's. Remember we used to put asbestos everywhere? Well they are putting melamine everywhere, diffrent goal's but ultimatley resulting in loss of human life. So eventually regulation rears it's ugly head; I'm remined of how the Comanding Heights series states that in low or bad times the Market get's reeled in by regulation according to the central planning model.

So again it comes to mind, the austrian school of thought is great for it's epic highs but no one like's the prospect of it's lows; then we switch to our centrally planned and over regulated model that we had before.

Yes I understand without these moves we would have serious issues, and I'm not stating that.

What I am saying is perhaps it's time for new models and plans since these ones have issues, so where to begin?

You know the liberals have a plan that has a surplus, I haven't seen anything from the conservatives in responce other than "Image buffing" and "vote buys" with promised spending, where's the writing? I want to be able to call you on your lies if I elect you to office.

And this whole "Getting tough on crime" reeks of american influence, if anyone ever knew or has known anything about crimnal defence law it's usually the case that the "Suspect" is mentally ill and has issues that would normally be covered by healthcare, so money spent on "Secureing" your land will result in a police state (department of homeland security anyone?) where as money spent on "Mental Health" and "Safe use sites" helps take the addicts and unstable and re-contribute a percentage of those a functional socioty. So what's it going to be? It's your vote and remember to use it wisely.