[gweekly] Cheap Portable Terabytes

[Michael Hart]

                  CHEAP PORTABLE TERABYTES


Every Word In The Library Of Congress In A $100-$150 DVD Notebook?


It's possible.


Less than 24 hours ago I bought a couple notebooks at Fry's
that hold 200 and 320 CDs and/or DVDs respectively with one
of the Project Gutenberg Directors.

On the way home he calculated just how much data we will be
able to put in these notebooks.

Based on a 4.3G standard storage rate, and a 10.25G zipped,
with zip operating at about 59% compression you will now be
able to carry data as follows:


For ~$88:

200 DVDs    Standard       200 x  4.3G =  .86 Terabytes
200 DVDs    Zipped Text    200 x 10.25 = 2.05 Terabytes


For ~$140

320 DVDs    Standard       320 x  4.3G = 1.376 Terabytes
320 DVDs    Zipped Text    320 x 10.25 = 3.28 Terabytes


At a cost of two for a dollar, 200 DVDs would cost $100
At a cost of three for a dollar, 200 DVDs would cost $67

At a cost of two for a dollar, 320 DVDs would cost $160
At a cost of three for a dollar, 320 DVDs would cost $107


The actual retail prices we paid is between at $.39 each,
or about 2.5 DVDs per dollar.

$.39 per DVD
$10 for the #200 notebooks
$15 for the #320 notebooks
$78 for 200 DVDs
$125 for 320 DVDs

Thus a notebook full of 200 DVDs costs $78 + $10 = $88

Thus a notebook full of 320 DVDs costs $125 + $15 = $140 today,
and could probably hold every plain text eBook that will be out
from all the various eBook projects combined for who knows just
how many years.

However, by the time you manage to fill such a notebook you can
be sure something will be available that will let you carry two
or three times as much just as easily and inexpensively.


Michael S. Hart
Founder
Project Gutenberg