Know what this is?

Its one of the first magnetic hard disks made, this IBM 350 disk storage unit was able to store 5 megabytes of data and was a major part of the IBM 305 RAMAC, an electronic general purpose data processing machine system that was launched in 1956.

The 305 RAMAC was one of the last vacuum tube systems designed by IBM.
More than 1,000 of them were built before production ended in 1961 [more]

What a contrast to nowadays where we carry gigabytes of data in our USB flash drives while still complaining that they are either too large or don't store enough data!

More interesting photos at the IBM Storage Photo Album.

A new study shows that chicks with bigger hairdos get more Sex!

"...While many studies have shown that males with more visible ornamentation have a mating advantage, this is the first to show that large ornamental body parts can give female animals a mating advantage, the researchers claim.

Hens with bigger fleshy crests on their heads get more sex and larger quantities of sperm from dominant male roosters, according to a new study...."

Here is the full article from NewScientist.com

Previously I had a post on Gmail as a mountable file system that worked on Linux. But guess what? Prasanna just showed me to a link on where it can be used as a virtual file system for Windows! Now how cool is that!

I just got it installed ( Takes less than a minute! ) and man it is cool. Of course if you have very slow Internet connectivity it might be a pain using it.

Those who still want free gmail invites, go here

“What we’re seeing is a real and very strong signal that the history of life on our planet has been shaped by a 62 million year cycle, but nothing in present evolutionary theory accounts for it,” said Richard Muller, a physicist who holds joint appointments with Berkeley Lab’s Physics Division, and UC Berkeley’s Physics Department. [ Read more ]
— Research News: 

Bill Gates has received a honorary knighthood from the Queen. [CNN | BBC ]

As an American citizen he cannot use the title "Sir", so tough luck Mr. Bill you wont be known as Sir Bill!

However now Bill Gates must be formally addressed as Bill Gates KBE (Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire).

Thats one of the many ways you can say “Hi everybody, this is my gangster side blogging”.

If you need help with your “Gangsta” language, here is where you can do some translations. The Search is quite amusing to read too.

Did you know that the longest living cells in the body are brain cells? They can can live an entire lifetime.

But if you become a politician in Sri Lanka they seen to die much sooner!

“Romans always reconciled differences between calendar and solar year lengths during the "Month of Purification." Whenever and however Roman calendars were modified to correspond to year length, it was always done after the 23rd day of February, traditionally the last day of the year. Even in our time, leap year is observed with a 29-day February. To purists, "leap day" is February 24, not the 29th.”

More about the early Roman calendar.

Three times in history a February 30th has also been in the calendar of selected countries! Sometimes when I think of the stuff that I need to get done this month, I wish this year it happend for a fourth time.