No more Hard Disks, please.

I pretend to buy a new PC in the next couple of months for the simple reason that I’m not “feeling” my current one (a P4 at 3.2 GHz with 1.5 GB RAM) fast enough. Applications growth with every new version and also websites, consider that a software developer like me uses many medium-to-big applications (IDE, DB, web server, tools for diagramming UML and generate code, automated tests, graphic design, etc.), so more processing power is required and more disk accesses are performed, either for loading/saving files or caching/virtualizing memory pages.

In a way similar to networks, information flow is as fast as the slowest of its components: The Hard Disk, which is a mechanical device, therefore performing at speeds with many orders of magnitude slower than an electronic one. And these hard disks are still around us because the need for space, starting from application files, through huge media files (videos/movies, music and photos and their collections) or data files in workstations.

Primitive Hard Disk

The mechanical nature of hard disks makes them more vulnerable to physical shocks than chips. Also them consume a good amout of electricity for disk rotating and arm-header movements. In comparison, from my personal experiences, I have seen just one RAM failure, but like five times more disk crashes.

I think now is time to change the typical architecture of the PC, which until now uses these memory categories…

• Primary: RAM. The fastest and most expensive.
• Secondary: Hard disk. More capacity with less speed than RAM, but with intermediate cost.
• Tertiary: Removable storage media like DVD, CD or tapes. The slowest and cheaper. Pendrives or other flash devices could be put here (for the removable feature) although being very fast and no so cheap.

The new architecture should not have the secondary storage outside the PC only for backup purposes or alike. This is not an unfeasible option considering…

• Application size cannot grow so much in the sense of its software. The parts that increase sizes are their related data (multimedia, internal dictionaries, maps, scenarios, etc.). Remember the days when a Windows installation consumed just 100 MB in disk?
• The web is so fast that application content (e.g. Google Earth’s satellite image blocks) can be downloaded in a local cache.
• 12 years ago, or so, the common hard disk have just some GB or was measured in hundreds of MB. Now we can have the some Gigs on RAM.
• There are non-volatile RAMs such as solid state disks (flash) and prototypes of new ones such these based on nanoelectronics and other under-development technologies.

Sci-fi RAM (HAL 9000)

I would definitely prefer a 50GB RAM PC with no disk at all than today’s 2GB RAM with 500GB (or even TB) HD that are common. I dream with Excel or Visual Studio loading and working instantly upon my clicks.

Why I dislike phones

I’m a software developer and spend most of my time either analyzing problems or designing/programming solutions. Either when my job is relaxed or under pressure (to solve a production contingency) I really appreciate silence and a good calm place to gain good concentration. I can understand problems deeper and cleaner, can get inspired on designing solutions and can code with less bugs. In this context I feel very disturbed when a ring or a vibraquake like interrupts my pace, either from my own phone or -mainly- from these of my coworkers. Then the conversation starts and my concentration or inspiration are vanished.

I think maybe just 10% percent of phone calls are of relevant subjects, the rest is trivial, able to be delayed or so important that it cannot be discussed by phone (better a meeting or an e-mail).

Also, every day technology on phones (cell) improves making them also most expensive. In my case I don’t want to have a camera, a 1GB hard disk on it to store music nor  a touchscreen.

I like to use a big monitor to do my work. It gives me the flexibility to work on many topics on the same screen without lose context and be distracted with moving/resizing of windows. So I feel uncomfortable with these little screens and also with the little keyboard.

My dream of mobile device is that “flex-tin” of the movie Red Planet used by the astronauts (I would store the mine over my chest and attached with an articulated arm).

Red Planet Mobile Computer

I understand phones are a real need for many people, but for me are an annoying part of modern life. So, my alternative is E-Mail the good old communication medium: fast, silent and a better way to express ideas (it gives time to think, re-think and correct).

Advances in robotics and some humour

Hours ago I was watching an episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles which led me to search about the technical advances needed for such fictional cyborgs.

Obviously the most challenging and long pursued goal is to obtain an artificial intelligence able to imitate or emulate a human mind. A whole series of posts would take to just touch a fraction of the issues involved in such matter, but in this post I want to show some current prototypes that are amazing:

– Boston Dynamics Mule:

This machine is really impressive. It can walk on rugged and irregular terrain carrying supplies for soldiers. And also a very hilarious parody exists.

– Mini soccer players:
A japanese match of soccer between toy robots.

These are just some examples. There is the famous ASIMO and even some walking mechas (or full-size mockups). So, the mechanical part is near to be resolved. But what about the intelligent component? Appart from chess players, translators and information finding, what are the *amazing* AI advances of recent deveopment?