On 2021-03-16 3:05 p.m., Graham wrote:
> On 2021-03-16 12:58 p.m., Dave Smith wrote:

>> I remember that the 20 meg HD on the XT was $420,Â*Â*Â* My latest desktop
>> with a 480gig SSD was $425.
>
> 50 years ago I was working for an oil company and was shown the computer
> system that took up half of one floor of the office tower. The memory
> was a 15" metal disk and we all oohed and aahd when told that the
> capacity was 112k.
> Within 3 years, the economic geologist had a handheld calculator with
> more memory.
> Now it's 16gig on a 1/2" long stick.

During my first year of university I took a Sociology course and we had
to participate in a class project that involved using key punch cards.
We had to input all the data ourselves and add them to the group effort
and then get a copy of the works. Those key punch cards didn't last
very long so we ended up making several copies of them. I had to think
how many trees gave their lives for our amateur research effort.