Microwires Can Replace The DVD-ROM

neutron_p writes "A former Soviet Union military development finds its use in modern technology and still remains fascinating." The development comes in the form of a flexible microwire, 10 micrometers thick and 10cm long, with a metal body and a glass coating, which the linked article says "can store 10 Gigabytes of information. It is possible thanks to their magnetic properties. Anyway, it's not that easy. Researchers say that the greatest difficulty will be with the reading of information."

Isolinear chips

[Anonymous Coward]

Star Trek geek in me coming out... :)

What military purposes?

[winkydink]

3 or 5 times thinner than a human hair, these fine threads were invented in the old Soviet Union for military purposes... Data wig? What?

Write Only Memory

[sjbe]

the greatest difficulty will be with the reading of information

Is the long anticipated write-only memory here at last? Huzzah!

Truly "Write Once Read Never"

[vivin]

Researchers say that the greatest difficulty will be with the reading of information.

Excellent! Now my Perl scripts will truly become Write Once Read Never!!

No way

[CDOS_CDOS run]

[tinfoilhat]I am sticking to my 5.25" floppy, it's the only reliable way to backup data.[/tinfoilhat]

Reading the information?

[nobuzz]

Researchers say that the greatest difficulty will be with the reading of information.

How the hell can they tell it's there if they can't even read it?

Great. Just great.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm already going batty trying to not lose these fucking tiny cartriges for the Nintendo DS. Now I'm going to have to keep track of a 10cm molecular-width wire and find myself losing them like pencils as they fall out of my pocket.

I have seen the future and it is inconvenient

Sounds like my backup strategy.

[Trigun]

Backup is easy! The restore is the tricky part.

Re:What military purposes?

[UWC]

And the reading device can be disguised as a Flowbee!

It's probably quantum.

[Scrameustache]

How the hell can they tell it's there if they can't even read it?

If 10GB of MP3s are written on a wire, and there is no reader to play it. Does it make a sound?

Re:i predict that there will be

[Anonymous Coward]

In soviet russia, thousands predicted your statement.

I have unlimited storage!

[erroneus]

I just save everything to /dev/null and I never have a problem with storage space.

HEY! There should be an...

[Anonymous Coward]

"In former Soviet Russia" joke by now. What gives - are you people sleeping or something ?!?

Southern Hickese: Awww that's nuthin'!

[eno2001]

Hyuk!! I got me a storage dee-vice that exists on every Unix system in the world and it's got In-Fi-Night capacity!!! It's called /dev/nul and that sucker seems to have more storage in it than the ocean has water! Of course, like these microwires, I need to figure out how to recover the data from it too.

[No Offense meant to southerners unless you voted for Bush]

Re:Reading the information?

[Anonymous Coward]

Elaine: Can it cut that thin?

Kramer: Oh, I've cut slices so thin, I couldn't even see them.

Elaine: How did you know you cut it?

Kramer: Well, I guess I just assumed.

Who writes this stuff?

[Tibor the Hun]

It is possible thanks to their magnetic properties. Anyway, it's not that easy. Researchers say that the greatest difficulty will be with the reading of information.

L. Ron Hubbard?
What, do they also use renegades?

Re:It's probably quantum.

[Smidge204]

No, but the RIAA will sue you anyway!

=Smidge=

Information Storage

[SeanTobin]

I prefer to store all my information by sending it into a black hole. As with the microwires, reading it tends to be a bit difficult.

Re:Isolinear chips

[k96822]

Hey, that's old Trek! They're using bio-mimetic gel packs now. Sheesh, you're so 24th century. :-)

Hair Club

[MikeA]

I'll cancel my appointment with the Hair Club for Men till this is perfected. Just think how much data my flowing locks will store.

Re:Write Only Memory

[serutan]

Because of course, in Soviet Union, flexible microwire reads you.

heh-heh, I crack myself up!

Re:Uh... basic mistake.

[Gulik]

Frankly, I'm not horribly impressed.

But, he's got technology that, once he gets it to work, will be very nearly useless! How can you not be impressed?

Re:No way

[escher]

Let me guess: You then attach all your floppies to a whiteboard with magnets?

Well, how else is he supposed to keep all the bits from falling off?

Floppy? I think NOT sir!

[TiggertheMad]

[tinfoilhat]I am sticking to my 5.25" floppy, it's the only reliable way to backup data.[/tinfoilhat]

Fool. Using this untested, so called 'floppy disk' will only lead to data loss. The only tested, and reliable storage meidum is the punch card. Don't trust these new fangled gadgets until they have been proven to be more than some mad scientist's pipe dream.

Change of Venue Requested

[Stanistani]

This innovation should have been covered in Wired .

Re:Would you trust someone who...

[operagost]

Pure crap. I have proven through experimentation that CDs are magnetic. I took a recently-written CD-R and rubbed the bottom vigorously for ten minutes with a permanent magnet. Sure enough, it became unreadable. Not only that, but the bottom isn't shiny anymore.

Finally WORN drives at last!

[DanielMarkham]

I, for one, have been waiting for the Write-Once, Read Never drives.

Let's face it: half the stuff on your drive you're never going to use again anyway. Might as well save it on a data hair so it will not be there when you don't need it.

And these things will be easy to design to follow moore's law. Every 18 months, just put a new label on the package.

Moving from 2D to 1D to...

[Anonymous Coward]

Following on the heels of the breakthrough of microwires, researchers have announced success in storing data on individual particles. This zero dimensional technology involves selectively magnetizing microscoping grains. So far, researchers admit that there are some difficulties in reading back information. Said a spokesman for the group, "We considered affixing them to a sheet or disc of some kind, but then we would lose all of the benefits of non-dimensionality." When asked what those benefits were the interview was forcibly ended after said spokesman began throwing bar magnets at the press.

Sounds like my dating strategy!

[commodoresloat]

Finding women is easy! Talking to them is the tricky part.

let me add...

[thegnu]

DVD-WOM

ha!

Re:The Horror!

[narcc]

What next...vacuum tubes?

You bet! Except they'll be nanovacuum tubes -- The problem, of course, is changing them when they burn out...

Ah, W.M.R.N..

[adeyadey]

Or to give it its acronym, the long-awaited "Write Many, Read Never" drive is here..

You know, kinda like those 5 cent DVD-Rs you get down the market..

Re:It's probably quantum.

[gahzinia]

If 10gb of pr0n is on there, and there is no viewer capable, is it still an issue to hide it from your mom?

Re:Isolinear chips

[Kippesoep]

That's "bio-neural gel packs", actually. Do I get modded down for being too Trekkie (especially considering that's ST:VOY)?

Re:Since when did CD's store data MAGNETICALLY?!

[David Horn]

I've got an even better idea - why don't we take several of these new magnetic CDs and stick them in a small metal box that you have permanently inside the computer?

Excuse me, I'm off to the patent office...

Sweet.

[haelduksf]

Excellent. I've always wanted to garotte someone with the full text of Gone With The Wind. My dream finally comes true!

I can store ten gazillion bytes in /dev/null

[samuel4242]

The difficulty is reading it.

Re:Heinlein came up with this...

[gnuman99]

Measure A/B, convert the resulting fraction into a hexadecimal string, and there's your data. Only problem is that your microscope has to be really good.

They better turn on their Heisenberg Compensators!

Re:Isolinear chips

[Rod Beauvex]

I was unaware -1; funny was even possible...

Re:Great. Just great.

[That's Unpossible!]

No no no, what they are gonna do is get a big handful of these things and melt them down into a flat, round shaped disc, probably around 12cm in diameter, with a hole in the center... so you can hold it on your finger.

Re:What military purposes?

[glenebob]

If exposed to bleach, much of the information will be lost. Interestingly, the information that is retained is invariably about such things as hair spray, boys, and that one bitch who always wears stuff from totally last week, oh my gawd!

Zillions of terabytes memory.

[Anonymous Coward]

My Linux box already has a storage feature large enough you can use to write every byte of data on the planet into... if you never intend to read it back out.

It's called "/dev/null"

Re:let me add...

[Anonymous Coward]

DVD-WOM? Why, that's my favouwite stowigde media! Ehuhuhuh...

Re:let me add...

[ThJ]

Sssh! Be vewy vewy quiet! I'm buwning my powno!

Re:In other words

[The Other White Meat]

(Tape storage started with metal-wire recorders, but esentially they're the same idea, only it's harder to strangle someone with magtape.)

Well clearly, you just aren't properly motivated.

Wait until your department head deletes the shared workgroup directory a couple of times, and magtape garroting becomes surprisingly easy...