Truckloads of data

One running theme at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference last week was the idea that the amount of data stored on computers is growing at an incredible rate -- which leads in part to the company's contention that computer users will require a better method of storing, connecting and retrieving information and files on large hard drives.

To demonstrate the broader trend, here's an interesting study released by UC Berkeley last week. Among other findings, the researchers estimate that the "amount of new information stored on paper, film, magnetic, and optical media has about doubled in the last three years." (Link via Christoph C. Cemper. See also this BBC story on the study.)

Also, if you've ever tried to conceptualize the size of kilobytes, gigabytes and terabytes, be sure to check out Table 1.1 a little ways down on the study's Web page. Very helpful. A gigabyte, for example, is roughly equal to the amount of information in a pickup truck full of books, according to the table.