Oh. Okay. Fine. I won't [expletive deleted. -ed] buy one of them either! [expletive deleted. -ed] �
Instead of making any attempt at adding to Norm's comments[1](see the above link to gain access to the links referenced in his post) I will instead quickly make note to the idea that it seems there is a head-on-collission that, similar to the "Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo" steam roller scene in Austin Powers, or even better played out in the "Ohhh nnnn-n-n-nooo Kkkk-ken's cc-comming to ggg-get mmm-mme" played in perfect part by Kevin Klein in the airport scene in "A Fish Called Wanda", has been in process for so long that when it actually happens (and it will happen) you will simply wonder how on earth anyone didn't think ahead and realize:
"Wait. What are we doing? By the time either of these standards reach the market theres a very real chance that between WiMAX, internal 512Mbs WiFi, and solid state holigram based drives [2] who's capacity now reaches well beyond that of both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD; 6 times the capacity in fact (see same [2] link from previous sentence); the storage capacity benefits that seem fantastic in comparison to today's DVD capacities will no longer matter: The benefit gained from the solid state property of Holographic drives coupled with the capacity and write speed capabilities of these same drives will take the shorter-life-spanned, higher energy consuming electronic equipment required to spin the DVD's, reading the pits and converting them into 0's and 1's, bits and bytes that could just as easily be accessed by simply shining a combination of lights and lasers on a non-moving surface, measuring the distances, refractions, etc... to determine with amazing precision the encoded data contained inside, and completely obliterate any need for the expanded DVD technologies all together. And this doesn't even touch the mentioned WiFi delivery mechanism's already in place and, by the time the new Blue Laser DVD technologies hit the market will most definitely be a fairly standard appliance in the average American, Asia, Australian, and European household... "
And we care about Blue-Ray and HD-DVD because...?
Again, based on footnote [2] you should gain an even greater understanding to the fact that this is nothing new. In fact its quite ancient in technology terms, dating back to "Polaroid researcher Pieter J. van Heerden in the early 1960s" or even, if some accounts are accurate, "to Nobel laureate Dennis Gabor's original theory of holography in 1948". Both of these quotes come from last months MIT Technology Review [3] and when you consider these facts, and just how long these technologies have been under development in various forms and stages, limited, until recently, by the high cost of manufacturing that made the then low precision results even less of an attraction to the big market manufacturers, it makes you wonder the same, questioning:
"With all this in mind: Do Blu-Ray and HD-DVD even matter anymore?"
It seems that the best route is in the FD area, which expands the capacity of the DVD to around 11GB, giving Hollywood the much needed added capacity it longs for, and with a much less expensive red laser and zero royalties to pay to either Blu-Ray or the HD-DVD group. With the recent announcement that MS was working with the FD technology it seems Redmond is planning and playing their moves from a very calculated "prepare for the worst, hope for the best" standpoint. Pretty smart move.
For whats its worth, there you have it.
Enjoy your Solid State Written, Stored, and Retrieved Data Brought To You At The Speed Of Light (or 512Mbs second if thinking in wireless terms... Light may have a ever-so-slight speed edge in this area.. but either way... its Solid State Baby!) Day!
[1] Similar to the final what-else-can-or-even-needs-to-be-said effect a comment from Michael Kay can bring to any given discussion on XSL-List, When Norm Walsh (Tim Bray falls into this same category) makes his point on any number of given topics the same what-else-really-can-or-even-needs-to-be-said rule is easily invoked. Kind of comes with the territory when you reach the level that these three industry icons have reached -- The VERY Tippy Top of the Tippy Top.
[2] 8 years ago, when working for the WindowsCE team, I sat in a meeting led by JoeQ [4] who had recently met with a group led by the same man that helped create the original CD technology who had retired in nearby Issaquah and, deciding to take these to the next solid-state level, coupled together highly advanced data pattern compression algorithms and advanced screen printing technologies to imprint the data patterns of various sized dots placed on a credit card sized piece of transparent plastic, a quarter inch or so thick, in various distances from each other to then be measured by various light sources, crunch the measured distances of the resulting patterns made by the light sources, with the result of the equation representing many times over what the standard CD could represent within the same amount of material surface area with the added solid state benefit.
BTW... I would never throw out information gained while under NDA just for the hell of it, even though I'm now well passed the expiration of my last MS non-disclosure agreement date, expiring in December 2001 -- at this stage, with the latest incarnation of this technology having moved into the Holographic arena, the latest of which was showcased in last months MIT Technology Review, I think it safe to say the above story can be scene from the nostalgic viewpoint I was intending to highlight.
--
From the MIT Techology Review Holographic Memory Story:
"Now his team of 60 engineers is gearing up for a pilot launch in September 2006 and, if it goes well, a full release to follow. The initial product: a holographic disc drive that reads and writes 300-gigabyte discs."
[3] Available online, but well worth the rediculously low cover price of $4.95 USD, even less if you subscribe for home delivery. Better yet, subscribe to the Tecnology Insider for even more in depth coverage of all that is great and wonderful in the world of research and development. I assure you its worth every penny -- and these links are in no way encoded to give me a kickback with each subscription... These are straight from the main site, of which both publications subscription forms have long since been filled out and each delivered in timely precision each and every month for many, many years now. If not obvious I LOVE THESE PUBS!
[4] Anybody whos been on campus for a while knows who JoeQ is... While others had there disagreements with Joe, I wasn't one of them. JoeQ flat out KICKS A$$... Says it like is and lets you deal with it from there. If anybody happens to know where Joe is now, and furthermore how to contact him, PLEASE let me know, or let him know to contact me, either way, doesn't matter.. I just need to catch up with him someday and someday soon... BTW... he knows me as Mark and I doubt would know who you were refering to if you said "M. David Peterson is trying to track you down to say hello and to catch up on life." For various reasons Joe and I simply both got and more than likely will still get along quite well. What can I say, I appreciate someone who doesn't feel the need to fuck around with stupid shit. Joe doesnt fuck around with stupid shit. Gets the job done and done right and gets on with it. I learned a lot from that man... A WHOLE HELLUVA LOT! :)