Starting today, I am beginning the work on a change I should have made many years ago. Fastie.com will become the main domain name for my site instead of fastie.net and my site will have a new design. I've written more about this here.
The changes will require the relocation of almost all the files on my site, which means that their URLs will change. That means some disruption is inevitable, for which I apologize in advance.
If you can't find something on the site, just remember that for now fastie.com will take you to my business site while fastie.net will take you to my personal site. From there you'll always be able to find a link to the page of interest. And if you still can't find what you seek, please let me know. Eventually, everything will be fastie.com and fastie.net will be history.
September 27, 2009
My brother Chris takes GigaPans. Click the image to see. Fascinating.
September 12, 2009
| Date | 1TB Drive | ¢/GB | 500GB Drives | ¢/GB | TB Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2009 | $90 | 9¢ | $60 | 12¢ | -25% |
| Jul 2008 | $190 | 19¢ | $150 | 15¢ | +24% |
| Jan 2008 | $320 | 32¢ | $240 | 24¢ | +33% |
| May 2007 | $450 | 45¢ | $268 | 27¢ | +67% |
The last column of my updated "Terabyte Update" table shows how much more a single TB drive costs than two 500GB drives on a per/GB basis. In the last year, the 1TB drive crossed over and became more economical than dual 500s.
Hard disk drives continue to batter Moore's law, which predicts that the 1TB drive would cost $113 in May, 2010.
For comparison, here is the approximate cost per gigabyte of a other storage types: 250GB solid state memory drive, $2.76; flash memory such as that used for cameras, $9; and contemporary DDR3 RAM, $25.
September 6, 2009
Since I've been doing Web site development, I've been wondering why HTML does not include an <include> tag.
Almost every programming language I've worked with over the years has some kind of inclusion capability. Most often called "include" (but more recently also "using") its purpose is to add content from one file while processing another. In other words, file X has some code that I want to use in file B, so I have a language statement in file B that says "Include X." To the program processing file B, it is as if the contents of file X replaced the include statement at that exact spot.
For decades, programmers have demanded includes as a practical, time-saving matter. When HTML came around, somehow all that technical genius overlooked them.
Some point out that HTML does support includes with server-side languages like ASP, PHP, and even the server-side SSI. But I counter that HTML already has some forms of include on the client side. We can include DOCTYPES, images, script files, CSS, and objects on the client-side, all processed by the browser and requiring no server-side processing whatsoever.
It seems to me that a generic include facility in HTML would be extremely useful. Consider the following:
In one consistent tag, all forms of content external to the current file can be included. Of the four examples above, three are recognizable as forms of tags that already exist - linkrel, script, and img. Only the fourth, plain text, has no HTML equivalent.
I realize that there is one catch - by definition, a valid HTML file is supposed to well-formed, which means at least that it begins and ends with an <html> tag. But with an included file, it is highly desirable to bring in just fragments. For example, my "menu.htm" example above might simply contain a <div> with the contents of a menu. Many HTML editors throw an error when a user tries to save an HTML type file that does not follow the rules. I argue that the browser can easily strip extraneous tags while processing the include, bringing in only the germ and not the chaff.
This strikes me as simplicity itself. Perhaps I'm missing something.
August 11, 2009
Older notes from my home page...
Sailboat
for SaleClick this sailboat for details.
I've written a brief essay on the capacity of fiber optic cable. You might find this interesting if you are considering FIOS.
Fastie
SystemsI invite you to visit my business site.