Data Storage — Posts

39 posts on "Data Storage" by Shlomo Strauss — bilingual writing on technology, science, and business.

• How BitTorrent paved the way for modern streaming and Web3 — While often associated with piracy, BitTorrent's decentralized network laid the crucial groundwork for modern streaming services, Web3, and Bitcoin.
• Nvidia's $9 Million Server Threatens Traditional Hardware Makers — Nvidia's upcoming NVL144 server highlights the company's push to control the entire AI supply chain, threatening traditional hardware manufacturers.
• How the Global Helium Crisis Threatens Advanced Technology — An Iranian attack on Qatari facilities and the depletion of US reserves have triggered a severe helium shortage, threatening chipmaking and MRI systems.
• Google's TurboQuant Algorithm Cuts AI Memory Needs by 8x — Google's open-source TurboQuant algorithm uses polar coordinates to compress AI memory requirements by eightfold without losing accuracy.
• How bots tried to corner the RAM market with 10 million crafty — DataDome exposed a bot campaign that scraped RAM product pages over 10 million times, aiming to scalp inventory and deepen an AI-driven memory shortage.
• Why old HDD drives are suddenly back in high demand — EU AI data-retention rules, rising SSD costs, and new laser and microwave writing technologies are driving an unexpected HDD revival with capacities up to
• A QR code smaller than a bacterium just broke a world record — Researchers from TU Wien and startup Cerabyte etched a 1.98 sq-micron QR code onto ceramic, demonstrating a storage method that could hold 2TB per A4…
• Intel's ZAM memory aims to pack 512 GB where HBM tops out at 64 — Intel and SoftBank's ZAM technology uses diagonal drilling between memory layers to promise 512 GB per package — eight times the capacity of today's best…
• Building a low-latency cloud infrastructure for algorithmic trading — A hands-on account of architecting a high-security, GPU-capable cloud server with 0.3 ms latency and cross-continental database replication for a private…
• Tower Semiconductor and Nvidia bet on silicon photonics for AI — A new deal between Tower Semiconductor and Nvidia will bring silicon-nitride optical interconnects inside AI servers, promising up to 70% energy savings…
• Musk's AI empire: custom chips, space servers, and a closed-loop — From Dojo 3 supercomputers in orbit to xAI merging with SpaceX, the piece maps how Musk is assembling a self-contained AI pipeline that no competitor…
• How Nvidia quietly sought pirated data from Anna's Archive to train — An internal Nvidia email revealed the company pursued access to Anna's Archive's illegal dataset for AI training, exposing the ethical compromises driving
• Why Nvidia skipped new GPU launches and what DLSS 4.5 signals instead — VRAM shortages driven by AI server demand blocked new GPU launches, so Nvidia responded with a Transformer-based DLSS 4.5 upgrade that generates graphics…
• A single server ran for four months to break the pi calculation — StorageReview set a new pi digit record using a single Dell server equipped with 384 CPU cores, 1.5 TB of RAM, and 2.5 PB of Micron SSDs serving as swap…
• Biological mini-brains as computers: inside FinalSpark's experiment — Swiss startup FinalSpark grows human brain cells on electrodes and trains them with dopamine to perform computing tasks at roughly one-millionth the…
• Why Google may win the AI race — and it has little to do with its — An analysis of the four economic fundamentals — chips, cloud, data, and ecosystem — that will determine which AI companies survive, and why Google alone…
• How AI's appetite for HBM memory is driving up the cost of ordinary — As manufacturers shift production lines to the more profitable HBM chips powering AI accelerators, a RAM shortage for standard computers is expected to…
• Databricks: the $100 billion startup most people have never heard of — Valued at up to $130 billion, Databricks dominates enterprise AI and big data infrastructure while remaining almost invisible to the general public.
• China's underwater data center runs on wind and seawater cooling — China completed the first phase of a subsea data center that uses ocean water for passive cooling and nearby wind turbines as its sole power source.
• Credo Technology: the cable maker quietly powering AI data centers — Credo's active electrical cables — each carrying onboard chips that clean and amplify signals — have made it a near-$25 billion company fueling the…
• Steganography: hiding a file inside an ordinary image — A look at digital steganography and the open-source tool OpenStego, which can conceal files inside images in seconds with no visible trace.
• From a 2 MB disk in 1966 to the quantum limits of storage — A 2.9 kg disk built for UNIVAC computers in 1966 puts six decades of storage progress in perspective — and raises the question of where quantum physics…
• A server farm on the moon: bold engineering or a PR stunt? — Lonestar Data Holdings plans to launch the first lunar server farm aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9, though steep costs and technical limits raise doubts about…
• Jensen Huang sees billions of robots filling the labor gap within 20 — In a Bloomberg interview, Nvidia's CEO outlined a future shaped by robot labor, physics-based AI training environments, and fully AI-managed data centers.
• Microsoft's new PC is just a gateway to a cloud-based Windows — Microsoft's Windows 365 Link is a thin-client device that offloads all computing to a cloud-hosted Windows instance, targeting enterprises seeking lower…
• From paper-savers to power-hungry: the environmental cost of modern — A 1994 photo of Bill Gates illustrates how computing shifted from saving forests to consuming vast amounts of fossil-fuel energy in the age of AI and…
• From SSH terminal to a secured web hosting server: a full setup — A practical breakdown of deploying an AlmaLinux server with WHM/cPanel, covering security hardening, automated backups, and two-factor authentication.
• PCIe 5 SSDs offer double the speed — but at a steep price — PCIe 5 SSDs reach 14 GB/s transfer speeds, but high prices and limited compatible motherboards make waiting the smarter move for now.
• Why skipping in a video is never instant: the role of key frames — Video compression stores only the differences between frames, so seeking relies on periodically saved full images called key frames — which is why…
• That $12 10TB drive from AliExpress is a scam — here is what is — A Reddit user who bought a supposed 10TB external drive for $12 found a cheap, no-name microSD card inside running firmware that fakes the reported…
• The Sony camera that saved photos directly to floppy disks — The Sony Mavica MVC-FD5 was a real digital camera that stored photos on standard floppy disks.
• DDR4 vs DDR5: why RAM type matters when buying a new PC — A practical breakdown of DDR4 versus DDR5 RAM — covering clock speeds, CL latency, and what the differences actually mean for everyday performance.
• DDR4 vs DDR5: why your next PC's RAM type actually matters — A clear breakdown of how DDR4 and DDR5 differ in clock speed, latency, and real-world performance, and why it should influence your next PC purchase.
• WordPress hosting: why most sites overpay and underget — A thorough breakdown of the WordPress hosting market, offering practical conclusions to help site owners stop overpaying for poor service.
• Two websites for a Jerusalem nonprofit: service mapping and two — White Tiger completed a dual-site project for a veteran Jerusalem nonprofit, integrating Google Maps API for service-point navigation and launching…
• Ordained at 29 with no plans to serve: a rabbi's certificate and a — An Israeli tech entrepreneur reflects on earning a municipal rabbinical ordination after seven years of study — a credential he will shelve while building
• How a server audit cut a small business's hosting costs in half — A full server audit for a small U.S. business uncovered security gaps, missing backups, and broken contact forms — all resolved within a month while…
• Why an external hard drive is not a real backup — On World Backup Day, a practical case for Google Photos cloud storage over external HDDs, including how Google's compression algorithm can shrink photo…
• Securing WordPress websites against increased cyber attacks — This guide outlines ten actionable steps, including two-factor authentication and geolocation blocking, to protect websites from rising cyber threats.