http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section ... =11&y=2006

If it works then cool. If not then lol for being such a crazy idea.

...harddrives dont use lasers.

and this isnt a replacement for harddrives, rather for CDs and DVDs. It appears that the rainbow technology isnt rewritable.

Speaking of crazy new storage mediums:

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/21528 ... ic-storage

- Note: That holographic storage link is OLD , so its probably not accurate any more.

My initial thought was along the lines of "paper, lol! I do that all the time... with a pencil!!"

Reading the article though... eh. It'd be interesting if it gets mainstream. Paper would be a horrible medium to use, though. The sun and water would easily destroy the data on it, not to mention how easy it is to literally rip it especially considering it's dependance on the color of the different shapes. Plastic would be good as it's more durable and more resisitant to fading and tearing.

It's a "we'll see where this goes" type deal.

Sry i meant lasers for dvdrw drives compare. I was in rush when i typed. Sry bout that.

We will let it go this time Skeeter but don't let it happen again. lol

WEll if this is a "real deal" it could be interesting.. I mean going back to paper for data storage again? YUK.. I know it is not like the days of old when we used paper tape reels. but something about this rather scares me! lol

Besides.. Think about it.. If this became mainstream, then we would all have to get yet newer systems. And I do not want to do that! lol At least not yet!

And like Azh said. there was nothing said about possable damage such as moisture, fire, mold, or poor quality paper.

It sounds to me like this guy just wants to cut down more trees.. LOL

Wheres the E.L.F. when they are needed? LMAO!

Ya, I saw this on DailyTech and most of the comments are just bashing this technology. 450GB on a sheet of paper IS kind of hard to believe, but if it's true then awesome.

Burn...Burn!

Err...I'm making a Rainbow.

Somehow I just don't think it is gonna catch on. Not with a name like that. Just look at Google and Youtube, Rainbow is just too normal!

Well, if using shapes is somehow easier and more effecient for computers to read (this goes against everything that computers do when handling data, plus I can only imagine how slow it'd be to scan in a "sheet" when scanning technology now could take anywhere from 10-60 seconds, maybe longer), then he'd probably use some sort of plastic. College students are poor, so using normal printer paper is what I'd do.

But if it works on paper, he can design something that is much more durable like some sort of plastic if it is indeed more effecient. But I dunno....

CD's are compact (ie: Comact Disc), so they're convenient. They hold a ton of information already. And that's nothing compared to DVD's which happen to be the same size as CD's but with over 5x the storage capacity. And there's other data storage technologies out there such as UMD and BluRay, and anything else I'm missing.

Like I alluded to up above, this seems really fishy. Using a scanner is anything but fast, not to mention that it will require the computer to be able to recognize the shapes and translate them into something the computer can understand, and then translate the data again into something humans can understand. It seems more difficult, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. I'm just a lowly programmer with a simple bachelor's degree and not a Master's student that devoted an entire year+ into this research.

read the article to its fullest!

He is already working on a way to make it 'compact'. I have no idea how, but supposidly its supposed to be the size of a mini SD card (i think, cant access the page right now)

Highspeed scanners can be really fast. Look at a fingerprint reader - thats just a quick flash and its got it.

But compared to a hard drive? Or a CD-ROM? The scanner is easily the slowest option, only out-slowed by floppy diskette drives. I've already given him the benefit of the doubt that he can store more information on a smaller space than a CD, but I highly doubt the effenciency. Not to mention that the data will need to be converted twice in order to be used by a human being. That's more CPU cycles, more utilized RAM, and in general, more time. We'll have to see....

Execute BotF4 (we'll be on number 4 by the time this gets mainstream, right).
"Error! Paper not found. Please enter the 'Play Paper' and run the program again."

Microsoft will have to change the folder idea over to binders to be more realistic.

dont forget, when CD-ROMS came out, they were really slow. You were lucky to get a quad speed drive. And if you can get lets say... 4GB in less than a half a second by a flash of light, thats a HELL of a lot faster than 700mb over a course of... lots of time? I remember copying files from a full CD takes a good half an hour.



Damn it! IM BOTF4! Dont insult my project!



Microsoft is smarter than you are, trust me.

Husband=Hon you seen my papers I had setting here on the computer desk?

*Wife*= Og I ran them throught the shredder cause they were cluttering everything up and my moms coming over for the weekend. Why did you need them?

*husband* Oh no not really They only contained all the information we needed for the IRS Aduit next week. Plus they were the only copies! But I'm sure the auditor will understand when we explain it to him.

Or .. LOL but Teacher MY dog ate my homework paper!!!

For now 'll be one of those folks who say, "I don't see it ever taking off into the mainstream" Then it will happen and I'll be wrong and look even more stupid then I am! LOL

finally the stories of people really pulling off the fabled excuse are possible