Engineer Guy vs The Computer Hard Drive

Computers & Mobile Education Technology
Engineer Guy vs The Computer Hard Drive
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Bill’s back! And his subject this week may be the ultimate example of a truly astounding piece of engineering that we all tend to take for granted: The computer hard drive. A favorite college physics professor once admitted to me that the hard disk drive impressed him more than almost any other single piece of modern technology, and I have since found that, the more I think about it, the more I agree with him. As always, Bill Hammack does a great job of explaining things in a way that will appeal to both experts and amateurs. [Thanks, Bill!]

10 thoughts on “Engineer Guy vs The Computer Hard Drive

  1. Matt Bucher says:

    I love the videos this guy makes.  Even his “non-engineery” videos, like the “why it takes so long to wait in line at a supermarket” are fun.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Absolutely delightful!  Mr Hammack does a wonderful job, (particularly with the animation).  I had no idea that both positive and negative spikes were “1”s.  Surprising that they never considered using trinary for even more data density.

    I hope you’re getting your cut of all the vast profits from the “cooking for geeks” sales, Bill [wink]

    1. Oh ok says:

      i remember reading some very old comp sci books, and it was at least considered, if not done experimentally

  3. Anonymous says:

    Absolutely delightful!  Mr Hammack does a wonderful job, (particularly with the animation).  I had no idea that both positive and negative spikes were “1”s.  Surprising that they never considered using trinary for even more data density.

    I hope you’re getting your cut of all the vast profits from the “cooking for geeks” sales, Bill [wink]

  4. speedmaster says:

    Fantastic!

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I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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