Of interest in the sweep of our changing technological lives is the following:

August 01, 2005

"Remember 80-column punch cards?

"Just think of the concept--the data is made up out of thin air! The
card is just there to organize the holes"

How many cards would it take to encode a 3-minute mp3?    Answer:

"Assuming a non-Hollerith encoding with eight bits per column, and an
MP3 file encoded at 128kbps CBR, there would be 36,864 cards in that
deck, and the card reader would need a throughput of 205 cards per
second. It might be wise to include an 8-column sequence number,
however, so that a misordered deck can be repaired by a card sorter;
with 72 data columns per card, the total is precisely 40,960 cards
(40K cards), requiring a 228 card/second throughput." The 21 boxes of
cards needed would by 5 feet 9 inches tall. That such a huge leap in
technology is well within living memory is astonishing."

A