A kilobyte must have sounded like so much memory back then.
A byte is 8 bits. Even if we want to call bits quarters ($0.25) and bytes dollars, 69KB would be $69,000! That’s a lot of dollars.
(And it’s actually 1,024 or something instead of 1,000, which just increases it that much more).
It’s crazy how KBs used to be incredibly meaningful, and now we’re buying multi-TB drives like they’re nothing!
EDIT: Math fail. Let’s say TWO bits are a quarter…lmao
Wouldn’t a byte be $2 if a bit was a quarter, or do you mean 2 bits are a quarter? Also i think you were right to use powers of 10 in your estimate. Article says kilobyte, not kibibyte. I really like what your conversion illustrates, I’m just tripping up on the details. I could be wrong-- commenting so someone can correct me if i am-- if a bit is a quarter, 69 Kilobytes would be $138,000
LOL…yes. should’ve been an Eighth, but we don’t have a coin for that.
Your math is right. I was just thinking of a Byte as $1.00 and going from there. Then remembered that bits are smaller, but they shouldn’t be $1 because a single bit is not very powerful. But making it worth $1 or $0.01 would make the math messier.
But yes. Two bits are a quarter is probably the best compromise! Lol
If a bit is 3.5 grams, then a byte is an ounce…
That makes a kilobyte about 1000 ounces!
So then a TB must be about…a metric shitton?
It’s a trillion ounces, I don’t know how much that is in metric…
How many Oz in a Wizard again?
You have that backwards, it’s one wizard in an oz
Funny observation on the side:
This content is geoblocked in Germany.
And, as far as I can tell, trying a few destinations with my VPN: only in Germany…So what the hell is in there, that we Germans must not see??? 😆
Fear of change and modernization. :)
😆
It’s blocked on the server side, though… (nginx message).
Maybe some German “Neuland” shenanigans the page owner doesn’t want to be exposed to …
It’s a slippery slope. If you let the village know there’s a ship sailing the cosmos then next thing you know they’ll want the rathaus to use email instead of fax. Just best to follow the rules and keep things the way they are.
You already know too much, ja?
l would say there is more advanced information tech in 70s era Voyager than in a typical current German public administration office. ;-)
So france, austria, works? Else, if europe, it could be not wanting to comply with GDPR. Or germnay has a few extra rules they don’t like.
Edit: Switzerland works, but maybe because IP ranges aren’t that exact.
Had been thinking the same at first.
But France and Austria did work. Only Germany was blocked.
Only thing that is unique to Germany I can think of is the hate speech laws that are very specific towards Nazi symbolism and Holocaust treatment.
Maybe they had some article (or comments from users…) once that collided with that and decided to just block Germany to make their life less stressful.
Maybe they really couldn’t be bothered with writing an Impressum!
Impressum would only be a necessity if they were targeting the German market, which they (as an English language only site) are clearly not.
I meant it as a joke but I could imagine them getting one email from Germany about GDPR and then deciding to geoblock the whole country instead of complying (and ignoring the fact it applies elsewhere in Europe too).
By now I am curious enough that I consider just writing them a mail and ask…
Edit:
Just did. Will post if they give me an answer…
In 1977 69 KB was huge memory. First home PC’s from 1980 and 1981 like ZX81 they have 1 KB of memory. One.
The Commodore 64 came out in 1982 and famously had 64KB of memory.
Commodore VIC-20 came out in 1980 with 20KB as well.
20KB of ROM and 5KB of RAM, though that was expandable!
5KB of RAM
TIL! I’ve been living a lie for decades thinking the 20 in VIC-20 was the amount of RAM like the 64 in C64 meant the amount of RAM. I only owned the C64, never a VIC-20.
I could never get my Zx81 to save data tape.
Not really, mainframes could have 8 megs of core in the 1960s.
Link gives me a 403 error
Yep, same for me…
Its hard to maintain a link with a craft outside or solar system. There’s a very tight orientation requirement and you have to set a very large delay for the expected response.
But 403 is “Forbidden”.
So…
Leslie Nielsen?! Who does he play? The robot or the woman in the robots hands?
He plays “Commander Adams”. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but as I recall it’s a pretty decent sci-fi movie. And it’s the only serious role that I think I’ve ever seen him in.
Surely you can’t be serious.
and don’t call me Shirley
He was a dramatic actor up until he did Airplane! That’s one of the reasons he was cast in the role.
Yeah for a 60s sci fi movie it’s pretty good
50s sci fi movie, actually.
Part of that groundbreaking film stuff starting in that decade, kicking off our modern understanding of the genre.
Twilight Zone also comes to mind.
Currently watching season 2 of it. Totally great stuff, so many “firsts” in there!
Come on now, it’s not that bad.
Voyager 1 is just 23h 32m 9.981s light seconds away.
One way.
So slightly better ping than my ISP, then.
It takes me about a day to respond to messages too. Therefore I’m also ~23 light hours away.
Working again
Just tried it - still 403 for me.
Weird. Geoblocking maybe…? VPN blocking…?
Yes, definitely indentional geoblocking on server side.
Direct access from Germany is blocked.
Access via VPN from any other country works just fine (so no VPN blocking).
Hopefully it doesn’t get blown up by some bored Klingon.
Aliens find it and love our retro tech. “8 track!”
Nice
adj.
…
- Showing or requiring great precision or sensitive discernment; subtle.
Why 8 tracks? They always sucked, even when they were in their prime. Cassettes were always the far superior format in every way.
The only advantage an 8 track might have is that it was on a loop, so it would repeat by being on a single hub, and, spooling out from the center, and regathering on the outside. That required a dry lubricant on the back of the tape, that would eventually wear off, and the tape would jam up. It was even more prevalent with longer than average albums, like double albums (White Album, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, etc.).
I guarantee that that 8-track loop jammed up decades ago.
The “8 Track” in Voyager is not your standard 8 track, it’s a DTR and is arranged differently than the consumer tape cartridge for music. It was shut down about a decade ago, not because it was failing, but because of the power requirements.
FWIW, 8 tracks were pretty good sound for the time. Previously there was no portable music unless you brought a record player with you. They got passed up quickly by the cassette, though.
So theres not enough magnetism out there to negatively affect the recordings?
Does anyone know if the code that Voyager 1 (or similar era tech) is running is available anywhere for inspection? I would love to poke around in such a historical code base.
I don’t really understand what I’m looking at, but this looks like a good place to start:
https://github.com/SRF0x41/Voyager1
There are links to actual code at JPL, but I don’t know if everything is published online.
I would think not. They wouldn’t want anyone analyzing it and attempting to send code to the Voyager. Some asshole would break it for lols or politics.
ah…back when Star Trek had some actual science fiction in plots.
And they got further and accomplished more than all the AI companies, combined, have done [with the TiBs of data].
If we wanted to impress the aliens, we should have sent MiniDiscs, even if it meant delaying the mission a little while.
