Titanium Oxide For High-Density Optical Storage 172
Stoobalou and other readers sent along word of research out of Japan, using a new crystal form of titanium oxide for high-density data storage — promising discs that store 1,000 times more data than Blu-ray does today, up to 25 TB. The material transforms from a black-colored metal state that conducts electricity into a brown semiconductor when hit by light, at room temperature. Titanium oxide's market price is about one-hundredth that of the rare element that is currently used in rewritable Blu-ray discs and DVDs. The material is cheap and safe, and is already being used in many products ranging from face powder to white paint. The researchers successfully created the material in particles measuring as small as 5 nanometers in diameter.
Good for archival purposes? (Score:5, Insightful)
Are there any projections/estimates related to how stable this media would be when used for long-term archival storage?
20 years away? (Score:3, Insightful)
Buh. After reading about terrabit cube storage in 1994 http://bit.ly/cf4ufr [bit.ly] [new scientist], I didn't upgrade my 3.5" floppies for years ... now I'm old, cynical about every article like this and my removable storage devices don't go past 32GB.
Re:Good for archival purposes? (Score:3, Insightful)
Titanium dioxide itself is ridiculously stable. It's what makes it so safe - we use it to whiten marshmallows for crying out loud.
Are you saying I could store my entire porn collection on marshmallows?
Not with me around. Mmmm forbidden marshmallows.
Re:Good for archival purposes? (Score:3, Insightful)
One thing missing though: (Score:5, Insightful)
The point.
Why again do we need another slow optical disc medium? The times of those are clearly over.
Until that thing comes out, USB sticks are going to be 25 TB too. And much smaller. And not prone to scratching, sunlight, bending, dust, etc. And for everything else there is HDDs/SSDs.
Re:Titanium Oxide is a CHEMTRAIL airborn dispersan (Score:2, Insightful)
Of all the conspiracy theories this one confuses me the most.
It displays a fundamental lack of understanding in both physics and meteorology. High altitude chemical spray is quite simply the the worst possible, if not impossible, way to disperse fluids. First off the winds aloft are different at 3K feet. At 10K-30K they are significantly stronger and can be in a different direction than on the group. Plus there the problem that the fluid would likely evaporate before reaching the ground. Another problem is that you couldn't fit enough "product" on a plane to cover any significant area.
Also the infrastructure required to perform "chemtrails" is insane. It would require the cooperation of at least the following groups of people.
Aircraft design companies
Aircraft manufacturing companies
FAA
Pilots
Airline companies
Airport ground crews
Chemical design engineers
Chemical manufacturing companies
Delivery companies
Yet somehow all these diverse groups can work together with no leaks or mistakes. I guess what amazes me most is the super human abilities attributed to the government.
Re:If it isn't fire, it's ice (Score:3, Insightful)
we could just hire people to come and act out the movie for us.
It will never work out. The special effects explosions in action movies are hell on the furniture.
Worse still were the neighbors complaints after the snow scenes
My dear sirs. If I may raise a point in favour of this new technology:
Porn.
That will be all.
Re:Good for archival purposes? (Score:3, Insightful)
The one day I don't have mod points...
Re:Good for archival purposes? (Score:3, Insightful)