The Cassette Tape Lives

 

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/08/tech/innovation/data-storage-cassette-tape-sony/index.html?c=&page=1

    Economically, cassette tapes died out in the late 90s.... They also died out socially with the introduction of CD's and MP3's. Nobody wanted to be the kid with the Walkman among people who all had iPod Shuffles. Although I grew up using them exclusively and have recently started listening to them again, I myself switched to CD's and MP3s and stopped using cassette tapes. BUT Sony has just changed the game once again.

      "Sony's record-breaking magnetic tape technology allows it to store 180 terabytes of data on a single cartridge. That's the same amount of storage as 1,184 iPod Classics, Apple's roomiest music player, which can hold about 40,000 songs. Using that number, Sony's new cassette could technically store about 47.3 million songs." 

Although Sony isn't looking to sell this to people for domestic use, it's still pretty awesome. 

Sony will be selling these cassette tapes to companies looking to back up their massive databases. 180 Terabytes. I'm not entirely sure how much it will cost to buy one of these cassette tapes, but I imagine they won't be $5 for 10 tapes like normal cassette tapes. "If you're more of a movie buff, think of it this way. The cartridge, which stores 148GB of data per inch of tape, has room for 3,700 Blu-ray discs full of your favorites. The number obliterates the standing record, set in 2010 when Fuji developed a tape that could hold 35 terabytes of data. Sony, which worked with IBM on the tape, presented the new technology over the weekend at InterMag Europe, a magnetics conference in Dresden, Germany. In very simple terms, the technology involves shrinking the microscopic magnetic particles on tape that store data. On average, the new particles are 7.7 nanometers wide. There are 10 million nanometers in one centimeter." If I'm correct, I read somewhere this tape stores more music on it than a person could listen to for EVERY second of their life from the instant they're born. This will be a huge deal for all big companies that store massive amounts of data. I'm assuming this old fashioned way of storing technology will provide a new twist of storage for companies. It will also make storage methods MUCH cheaper for everyone. 

 

Dr. Dre. The first rap billionaire

Dr. Dre The First Rap Billionaire

http://money.cnn.com/#!/articles/2014/05/09/technology/innovation/dr-dre-billionaire.json?category=Latest%20News

Being a hip-hop/rap fanatic, I was actually surprised to hear that Dr. Dre has just become the first rapper billionaire. I had actually thought it was achieved long ago. Dr. Dre has apparently become a billionaire simply because Apple is buying up all of his Beats By Dre products, but that's not where it started. If you go back to the beginning, my guess would be that the Beastie Boys would have become the first billionaires in the rap industry, being that their first album, License To Ill, was and still is the best selling rap album in history. Behind them, Run DMC. They were HUGE back in the day and were around for a long span of time. The same goes for Snoop Dogg. In a world of overpayed celebrities, it's a shock to me that, out of all the famous rappers around the world, Dr. Dre would be the first rap billionaire. He has somehow paved the way for many other rap artists too. Ice Cube went on to become a movie actor. Mac Miller has his own T.V. show. So does Riff Raff. Inspired by Beats By Dre, Snoop Dogg released a line of high end headphones, but without the amount of success. Chance The Rapper, while he just recently broke through the underground into the mainstream, is ALWAYS on tour. I don't know how much a rap artist gets payed monthly and I know it's dependent on how many shows they play and the amount of tickets they sell, etc., but I thought it wouldn't take that long to rack up a huge amount of money. Especially if you're Dr. Dre and started your career more than 20 years ago with NWA. "The first billionaire in hip hop, right here from the motherf----n West Coast," Dre says."

"But estimating Dre's net worth is difficult, given that Beats is privately held. Beats did not immediately respond to a request for comment." 

According to various reports, he holds a stake of between 20% and 25% following a $500 million investment last year from private equity firm The Carlyle Group, which was said to have valued the company at around $1 billion." 

"Forbes pegged Dr. Dre's net worth last month at $550 million. Let's assume he does own 25% of Beats. That stake would have been worth $250 million before the Apple deal chatter, leaving Dre with about $300 million from other investments and ventures, such as his music career.

If Apple does purchase Beats for $3.2 billion, then Dre's presumed 25% stake would be worth $800 million. Add that to his $300 million in non-Beats assets and the rapper would be worth $1.1 billion."

Why Economics Has Failed

Why Economics Has Failed:

http://seattletimes.com/html/opinion/2023517418_paulkrugmancolumneconomicsfail04xml.html?syndication=rss

Sunday, May 4th, 2014

Many consider that over the years, in some sort of way, economics has failed us in one way or another. We've all experienced the stock market plummeting, and the potential of a second Great Depression is always hanging over our heads. I thought this article was interesting in many ways, being that the author of the article states  "Basic textbook macroeconomics has performed very well. But policymakers and politicians have ignored both the textbooks and the lessons of history." And the result has been a vast economic and human catastrophe, with trillions of dollars of productive potential squandered and millions of families placed in dire straits for no good reason. "In what sense did economics work well? Economists who took their own textbooks seriously quickly diagnosed the nature of our economic malaise: We were suffering from inadequate demand. The financial crisis and the housing bust created an environment in which everyone was trying to spend less, but my spending is your income and your spending is my income, so when everyone tries to cut spending at the same time the result is an overall decline in incomes and a depressed economy. And we know (or should know) that depressed economies behave quite differently from economies that are at or near full employment. For example, many seemingly knowledgeable people — bankers, business leaders, public officials — warned that budget deficits would lead to soaring interest rates and inflation. But economists knew that such warnings, which might have made sense under normal conditions, were way off base under the conditions we actually faced. Sure enough, interest and inflation rates stayed low." That's what I think is so interesting. That these textbooks that are being passed out among students in high school, much like in our senior economics class, are describing scenarios in which we can reach and withhold a steady, powerful economy, yet... ALL of these huge money holders and important people that make these great big decisions, are failing to follow good plans. I suppose it's easier said than done in this case. "Whatever the reasons basic economics got tossed aside, the result has been tragic. Most of the waste and suffering that have afflicted Western economies these past five years was unnecessary. We have, all along, had the knowledge and the tools to restore full employment. But policymakers just keep finding reasons not to do the right thing."