This thread can be used for other things as well, but I was amazed to find that they make a 256GB micro-SD card. I can remember when a 10MB hard drive seemed like more space than I could ever fill up. Of course, that came about after my first couple of computers didn't even have hard drives. Still, 256GB on a micro-SD card, so small that I can barely pick it up is amazing - and it's only 14 bucks, at that. I don't need one, but still... In the event that you're not familiar with microSD cards, here's a comparison with a microSD card in the middle, next to a regular-sized SD card and a AAA battery.
One of my cameras uses a microSD card and I hate that because it's hard picking it up, inserting it into the slot, removing it, and so on.
My first work PC had no hard drive...just dual 8" floppies. I got my first home PC in the early 80s. I upgraded to the 10MB hard drive because I thought I would need the room. Fast forward some years later when I got rid of it, and I had not even used 3 MB of the hard drive...programs and files included. Back then, in order to apply fonts to the dot matrix printed output (bold, underline, italics), you had to learn hexadecimal commands. In the mid 80s, I ended up in a job managing purchasing & inventory for a $500M PC reseller that carried 50,000 skus. (I was on the front line of a lot of changes in the industry back then.) I created a program that analyzed and forecast each individual line item so my buyers could get rid of all the stacks of greenbar paper and do real analysis. That spreadsheet macro took 11 minutes to run. I programmed it to beep 3 times when it was done, just like a microwave. Today that recalc would be instantaneous. I later bought a Compaq 386 to speed things up. 64MB of RAM cost me $600. The one thing I have heard in going from computers with 128k of RAM to computers with gigabytes of RAM (and the like-kind increase in processing speed) is that programming has gotten sloppier. And it makes perfect sense. Why waste expensive man hours to gain efficiencies that only save pennies and that make no discernible difference in performance? Gotta shove it out the door before it becomes obsolete. The whole thing is insane. The storage capacity of thumb drives and SD cards is insane. One might wonder what future technological advances in computers might bring, but just like everything else, it ain't gonna usher in a higher-level purpose for mankind. If anything, it will contribute to dumbing us down while concurrently mitigating the costs of the IQ erosion it causes.
It makes sense when conspiracists seem to point to the deliberate dumbing down of the population. The Fed has stolen all of the value in the dollar. (The value is "the confidence of the country".) Product manufacturers get it. 5lb bags of sugar are now 4lbs.32 oz cans of coffee are 27 oz. Candy bars were advertised as having less calories! Yay! Except the reason was that they were being produced smaller.... Houses cost three times as much, not because they are three times more valuable but because the dollar is worth three times less. It is why the minimum wage war must be fought regularly. Education has dumbed down students who don't have to know how to do ANYTHING. Just use a computer. I went to Mac Donald's once. The cashier, a youngster. punched up $5.26. I handed her a $10 bill. She was going to make change and I said "Wait! I have 26 cents. She called a manager because she didn't know what to do. We can't produce our own food nor do we know where it comes from. My daughter raises meat rabbits and she was chastised for the cruelty of putting the animals down. Why could she not just go to the store where no animals are harmed ????? Many more parallels.
Around 1998, in popular science, there was an article/review of now lost (not at all the same today) 'fuel cells'. They were SMALL - the size of a washing machine (shrugs - 3 ft x 3 ft x 5 ft ? ) ... that's not as small as a transistor... but it is a wee bit smaller than a hydroelectric turbine , right ? (the closest in the news the last two years, was the power plants made up of small blocks of electrical generators made from sand and a couple other ingredients (all inexpensive).... putting them together in large groups, a power plant for the gogogogle and some other tech giant also (separately) , provided 'effortless' power for their huge headquarters or server locations (covering many blocks) ... very inexpensively "per unit block" , or a few hundred thousands dollars with the discounts they got ... anyhow, a washing machine (or vw size) fuel cell in the popular science review was said to already be developed and would be available for $6000.00 , yes, merely six thousand dollars, by 2002 give or take a year or so. ... ... tic toc ..... come 2002 , the US Government is using such fuel cells in artic and other remote and mountainous regions , at a cost of THREE CENTS per KWH, or less, with almost zero maintenance per year. Also some resorts in maine or vermont had acquired some of these fuel cells. up and running, fully operational. by 2002. but at a cost of $125,000.00 ................... to regular people if they could find one..... what they actually cost the government and the resorts, who knows ? But they were built for under $3,000.00 each. (maybe under $500.00 even? ) .... A year or three ago, I tried for hours, days, months, on and off, to find ANY reference to those fuel cells at all. IF anyone has the popular science issues with the reviews in them, HANG ON TO THEM. They are priceless. Now, on internet searches, all other kinds of 'fuel cells' show up, but not the original ones , not the economical ones that could power ten city blocks with no moving parts and very little if any maintenance every year. hmmm..... now why would corporations and individuals who are making billions of dollars from other power sources cover up such information so completely ? .... go figure....
Fuel cells were powering the buses in Chicago back then too. Producing only water as exhaust, I believe. Not sure if they still are. The power source? Borax. There are engines run on water. I was taking to a Brainiac kid (9) in Vermont and he knew all about them. I told him I wanted him to make me one. ; ) I had one of the first active solar situations in our area. The government was paying for HALF the expense. I put it on a connected garage roof. All sorts of discussion of storage. It did not work. It took one day to heat up the water tank and the next day it would be cloudy. Turns out, in this area, the HOUSE would be the storage if it would work at all. We built a radiator in a central closet and then by passed it in the summer to a water tank before our water heater. But the government did not care about whether it worked or not. Just spent money. Green is all well and good but the government is not the place to control it for the benefit of the general populace. If it works, we will buy it when cost effective. I am waiting for active solar in window glass and roof shingles. They are in the works.
"Green" is just a way to fill the pockets of their supporters with our money. Same for most "programs." Your comment regarding solar in your area reminds me of heat pumps. I have a heat pump. I also have a wood stove,. which has a fire in it right now. It got down to the 20s last night. There is no heat to pump. I'm too far north. But I got a heat pump.