In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, David Tubbs <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes
<Clip> >While you are venting your spleen at Seattle, >think a little deeper, how could you afford to >buy such a large HDD ? How come I was offered >1Gig RAM for £50 yesterday - the half meg >Expanderram I got in 1980 cost £70 ! ! ! ! >The reason is Gates ever larger operating systems >have created the market for hardware thet bulk >production has brought the price crashing down. > >No I am not an out and out lover of MS, but >credit where it is due, and gratitude. You are right there ... and it was predicted in the computer press around 3 years ago that the price of hard drives, RAM memory, etc would have to drop drastically to make new systems anywhere near affordable. Of course, the other drivers have been the increased use of digital images, sound files and video ... which all eat up those new acres of electronic space. Just a few of these modern files would fill up an entire "old" hard drive of moderate size ... :-( I guess, one day, that there will either be individual storage media, or some centralised storage system, where size will not matter ... it will just about be infinite. The centralised idea is whereby we all stop buying our own individual copies of an OS and the applications for it, and just log in somewhere and use it as and when we like. Just paying a fee, somehow, and be more like the way that we currently access TV and Radio. At work, with a large network, it is a bit like that already. I just log in on any computer anywhere on the site with a roving profile, and use the applications, have a large enough storage available not to have to worry about it, and the OS if free to use because it is provided by the employer. Plus I don't have to concern myself with and maintenance, etc. -- Malcolm Cadman _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm