They Just Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To... Thank God
Alright, let’s play a game of ‘Guess the Ancient Tech’. What is this box on a forklift? Believe it or not, it’s not a washing machine, electric stove, refrigerator, or other kitchen appliance. Frankly, I think all those were much smaller than this by 1956, which is the date of this photograph. Give up? One more hint: you probably have one in your pocket right now. Believe it or not, this is the HDD of IBM’s 305 RAMAC supercomputer – a device packing a HUGE FIVE MEGABYTES. Yep. This box is dedicated to housing 5MB of data. And it weighs over a ton. You might, for instance, wish to store a single 5-minute MP3…