The Information Factories Are Here 126
prostoalex writes, "Wired magazine has coined a new term for the massive data centers built in the Pacific Northwest by Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! Cloudware is, ironically, a return of the centralized data and bandwidth power houses caused by the decentralized and distributed nature of the Internet. George Gilder thinks we're witnessing something monumental: 'According to Bell's law, every decade a new class of computer emerges from a hundredfold drop in the price of processing power. As we approach a billionth of a cent per byte of storage, and pennies per gigabit per second of bandwidth, what kind of machine labors to be born? How will we feed it? How will it be tamed? And how soon will it, in its inevitable turn, become a dinosaur?'"
Losing the difference between here and there (Score:3, Interesting)
The future will eliminate that differentiation. Data will not be 'here' or 'there'. Rather, it will be. Data will simply exist and we will access it as if it were immediately 'here' all the time.
It will take quite a bit more technology to make this a reality, but the Internet is the first baby step away from separation of data repository and the user. Now, users can access data 'there' on a browser which is 'here' with a few keystrokes. In the future, this action of 'getting' data will be eliminated completely.
How I think that will occur is neither here nor there, but I guarantee that this is what will happen.
yeah... (Score:1, Interesting)
death of copyrights (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:power doubles about every two years (Score:4, Interesting)
the benchmark: Content Creation Winstone 2000. it works out all the parts of a pc.
(under windows 2000):
(introduced in May 1997)
intel pentium II 300Mhz
score: 15
(introduced in Oct 1999)
intel pentium III 733Mhz
score: 30
thats 29 months to double
under windows 98SE:
april 1998
intel pentium II 400Mhz
score: 19.5
nov 2000
intel pentium 4 1500Mhz
score: 42
thats 31 months to double
OUTLOOK FOR NEXT FIFTY YEARS
(for thirty month performance doubling rate):
in 30 months: TWICE the performance.
in 60 months: FOUR TIMES the performance.
in 25 years we will have ONE THOUSAND times the performance.
and, in 50 years we will have ONE MILLION TIMES THE PERFORMANCE!!!!!!!
will that finally be enough to make our computers as smart as we are? how many watts of electricity will it consume?
CPUmark99 doubling:
24 months
sysmark 2000 double time: 27 months
ccwinstone04 double times 30 months
Re:Why Gilder Is Telecosmically Wrong (Score:3, Interesting)
How long will it be until we start running into dilemmas concerned with whether data centers or people have priority over available electricity?
Has this already happened?
Once the economy cannot operate without the data centers, do we reach a scenario where keeping the data centers running must have priority over supplying electricity to homes?
At what point do the machines decide that instead of competing with humans for power, humans would make a useful power source?
(hm, interesting..."please type the word in this image: 'autonomy' ")
I have signed up for S3 and EC2 (Score:3, Interesting)
In general, I think that it makes sense to "outsource" basic infrastructure. I used to run my own servers, but after figuring the costs for electricity, bandwidth, and hardware costs, I switched to leasing two managed virtual servers - paying for the CPU, memory, and bandwidth resources that I need. I view Amazon's EC2 service the same way: when I need a lot of CPU time over a short time interval, simply buy it.
Re: death of copyrights (Score:3, Interesting)
Whether it's the MPAA/RIAA, or Microsoft, the meteor has hit the ground. The dinosaurs that cannot adapt may make a lot of noise in their death throes, but they will fade into irrelevance.
I think the
my 2 cents.
[ Parent [slashdot.org] ]
I have a weird related story... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Synonym Myths. (Score:1, Interesting)
The dinosaur metaphor can still work!
The big-ass meteor is a new technology that eliminates the need for data centres. Data centres will go extinct, like the dinosaurs.
Following the meteor strike, mammal species thrive to the present day -- a newer and different technology that is better suited for the post-meteor global climate.
:-)
Solution to air conditioning costs (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:I'm sorry (Score:3, Interesting)
No need to get all worked up, you'll never see it.
I'd say with enough memory on the user's machine, there would be no concern about storing information twice. Just as a BS example, imagine they get something like atomic memory working where a sugar-cube sized device can cache all the information we have. Now imagine that we have perfected quantum teleportation (I know, I know). All data could be replicated and cached instantly and there would be no delay in keeping the massive distributed grid sync'd. In this case, I nod at the OP. The data is just here or even there. It's all just existing.
Of course, the flipside is that tech will just complicate itself into a giant mess. And even though we have instant ISPs, we can't find the Linux driver to make our quantum modem work. Ok, so then you find the driver but the massive amount of traffic causes your 42.0 yottabyte
Because GHOD said so that's why (Score:1, Interesting)
Prior to Wohler's synthesis of urea, NH2-CO-NH2, from ammonium isocyanate, NH4+CNO-, there was a belief that "organic" matter had a mysterious "elan vital" which distinguished it from "inorganic matter". Wohler's synthesis demonstrated the uselessness of these categories.
Still, the idea won't die. It comes back, full of _healthy_ _natural_ _goodness_, again and again. Its persistence is itself a phenomenon worthy of ponderation. My best guess is that culturally we really haven't reconciled ourselves in our heart of hearts to the Earth not being the center of the Universe, and all the rest of the primal superstition.