Confessions of a Born Spectator

Hugo

2018-09-12T22:06:00.000+05:30

Hugo is a beautifully crafted depiction of Martin Scorsese's love for films and film-making. The adventurous journey of 12 year old Hugo Cabret through 1920's Paris (esp. the Railway station), and his findings (or should I say discoveries) can charm from it's opening sequence.
I had watched 'Le voyage dans la lune' about 4 years ago and was surprised by the realization of imagination on screen.

[incomplete]

Lola Rennt (Run Lola Run)

2009-07-27T00:25:00.004+05:30

'Lola Runs' as the name directly translates to, is a German action-packed riveting film. I can surely place it on Numero Uno in terms of intelligent film making. The film explores a fragment of 20 minutes of Lola's and her boyfriend's life (a small time crook) as three alternatives.
It teaches you the lesson that, you are what you are because of the choices you've made. The film is an excellent take on "what if's" and "what could be's" as it portrays the possibilities that can arise out of choices very smartly. The film consists of 3 Runs (as we can call it) which show Lola (and her boyfriend) trying to make a 100000 marks (which Manni, the boyfriend lost a while ago on a train) in 20 mintues, each time experimenting with a different alternative.
The first two Runs shows failure in the end, with one of the principle characters dying, whereas the third run gives a very fresh and cinematic look to the film, where they come out of these 20 minutes with a laugh on their faces as everything meet up together and form a perfect circle.

Machuca

2009-07-25T23:51:00.007+05:30

This movie is the story of three friends: Gonzalo, Silvana and Machuca himself who belong to different social classes and observe the oppressive military coup which was fabricated to overthrow the first socialist president democratically elected in a Latin-American country, President Salvador Allende. This impressive, politically powerful and accurate, touching tale of friendship is one of my all-time favourite movies. The portrayal of emotional attachment between friends in the backdrop of a school, in which the Father (priest) tries to bring children from different social classes together, in the platform of education is truly fantastic.
The director has done a real great job in capturing the immense potential of the script and has presented us a visually delightful movie which according to many, is the best Chilean movie ever-made. Casting is truly great as the actors (whom I've never seen before or after) have done a great job in coherently putting forward this realistic piece-of-work (in the form of a drama film) successfully.
The movie makes a few bold political statements, but can be termed as apolitical as the pivotal roles are played by young children, who are nothing but the sufferers.

Bacheha-Ye aseman (Children of Heaven)

2009-07-25T23:42:00.006+05:30

I think, I watched this movie on Star Movies for the first time and if I'm not getting it wrong, it was a English dubbed version. Today I decided to watch this Majid Majidi master-piece again, after about 6 years (this time in Persian, with English subtitles) and am not able to contain myself from commenting. My limited vocabulary fails me to praise this marvelous piece of film-making.
Majid Majidi captures a strata of Iranian lifestyle in a very heart-warming way using Ali as the central character. The simplistic nature, excellent acting by the complete star cast (including Ali's father), the premise of the story and the capturing plot can keep anyone glued to the seat for an hour and a half easily. One can always discover the marvels of photography and portrayal of life through this wonderful movie. The story revolves around a pair of lost sneakers and Ali's journey to get a new pair for her sister. In this movie, the sweetness and innocence of childhood is so effectively exhibited that this movie is bound to make you feel good at heart.

Rock Music

2008-06-03T22:55:00.000+05:30

Rock music, as the name suggests, is there to shake your inners and make you stand up on your feet to its beats. It is the most popular form of English music and has been around for more than half a century now.

The huge popularity as well as extreme condemnation of Rock music is due to some pretty hard-hitting reasons. Actually,

Rock confronts, what we rather ignore,

It celebrates, what we often deny and

It indulges in, what we fear most.

We can trace the roots of Rock music to the early 1950’s Rock n’ Roll, Blues, Rocabilly and Country music influences. The diversification of Rock started from the 1960’s and as a result of constant fusion and hybridization with other forms of music, many new genres and sub-genres have evolved.

Rock songs boast a prominent vocal melody which revolves around the guitar and is accompanied by a strong back-beat. Primarily, a guitar, drums and bass act as the musical instruments. In some styles though, use of key-boards, violin, flute, banjo etc (along with primary instruments) is also seen.

Rock artists, more commonly Rockstars, generally don’t perform alone. Rather, they tend to form a quartet (i.e. a group of four) to establish themselves as a band. In such a band, there’s a lead singer (or vocalist), a lead guitarist, a drummer and a bassist (bass guitarist). In some rock bands, a single artist takes of multiple roles, forming duo’s or trio’s and sometimes a band also includes additional musicians as rhythm guitarist, key-boardist etc. The scenario of rock artists is exceedingly male dominated, with a very few exceptions of female solo artists and even fewer female Rock bands.

Here’s a decade-wise split up of the evolutionary trends of different genres of rock music and the key artists of that decade, starting from the 1950’s.

♪ Late 1950’s: Shaping Up

Traditional British Rock

Famous Artists: The Quarrymen, Cliff Richard, The Shadows, Alexis Korner

♫ 1960’s: Counterculture

Garage Rock, Surf Music, Folk Rock, Psychedelic Rock

Famous Artists: The Rolling Stones, The Animals, The Who, The Sonics, The Surfaris, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joan Baez, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, The Byrds, Donovan, Pink Floyd

♪ Early 1970’s: A Movement

Soft Rock, Progressive, Arena, Hard Rock, Punk Rock.

Famous Artists: Neil Diamond, The Carpenters, Billy Joel, Led Zeppelin, Black, Sabbath, Deep Purple, John Lennon, AC/DC, Journey, REO Speedwagon, Ramones, Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedys

♫ Late 1970’s: A New Sound

Mainstream Rock, Heavy Metal, New Wave

Famous Artists: Aerosmith, Van Halen, Queen, Rush, Eagles, The Police, Black Flag, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Go-Go’s, David Bowie, Duran Duran, Kraftwer

♪ 1980’s: Diversification

Metal, Power Ballad, Alternative, Instrumental Rock

Famous Artists: Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Freddy Mercury, Megadeath, Guns N’ Roses, Dream Theater, Bon Jovi, Metallica, Scorpions, Queen, The Smiths, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bryan Adams

♫ Early 1990’s: Alternative goes Mainstream

Grunge, Nu Metal, Brit Pop

Famous Artists: Green River, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, System of a Down, Faith No More, Rage Against the Machine, Alanis Morissette, Blur, Stone Temple Pilots

♪ Late 1990’s: Hybridization

Pop Punk, Rapcore, Indie Rock, Post-Grunge

Famous Artists: The Offspring, Green Day, Blink-182, Limp Bizkit, Cypress Hill, KoRn, Radiohead, Oasis, Creed, Foo Fighters

♫ Early 2000’s: Revival

New Age Alternative, Post-Punk Revival

Famous Artists: P.0.D., Linkin’ Park, The Killers, Franz Ferdinand, Editors, Cradle of Filth, Lamb of God, Interpol

♪ Present Day: Ahead of Time

Garage Rock Revival, Emo, Metalcore

Famous Artists: The Strokes, The White Stripes, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Bullet for My Valentine, Avenged Sevenfold, Puddle of Mudd, Poets of the Fall

Oil Zappers

2008-05-09T20:45:00.004+05:30

This is the only write-up that I managed to get published in my school magazine.

Written about 3 years back, this is my first try on fictional grounds.

1^st January 2010, Darjeeling, 11:20 PM (IST)

It was a bright sunny morning of the very first day of 2010. The Mt. Kanchenjungha reflected the rays of the morning sun and its glorious pink colour just startled me. I was strolling down the Mall after completing my job at Kalimpong yesterday.

I am around here for some days to collect information regarding ‘Orchids of Kalimpong’ for my magazine ‘Science and Universe’. Being the chief editor and a man of astrophysics I often try to fill in the pages covering wide spectrum of science. Another reason for being here was to relax and experience the shivers (now I would rather call it obnoxious) up here in January.

Finally I reached ‘Glenaries’ for breaking my fast. After having some hotdogs and chocolates I was scanning the morning paper while my Mobile rang. The call was from the world famous Australian Marine Biodiversity and Aquatic Pollution control expert Dr. Christopher Brown. He is a great friend of mine. I knew that he currently was in India for research near Sunderbans. The call: -

-- Hi, happy New Year Suman, I’m Brown.

-- Hi, same to you. Have you finished your work at Sunderban?

-- Yeah, I’m back to Kolkata and relaxing and resting at Sonar Bangla Hotel of ITC.

-- Can’t your ‘R & R’ be done at this nice hill resort of Darjeeling?

-- Excellent idea. I know you are there. Prof. Banerjee informed me but how to reach you.

-- OK. Take the noon flight to Bagdogra and take a cab to reach Hotel Snow-flavour at Darjeeling. I’ll expect you during dinner tonight.

-- If I get a ticket I’ll certainly be there, bye.

It was 8.20 PM when I received the call from the reception. The call made me overjoyed, as I knew for sure that it was Dr. Brown.

--Good evening Sir. Some one from Australia is waiting for you at the lounge. The receptionist told.

-- Please escort the gentleman to my room.

--Your wish is our command Sir.

When Chris arrived he was just flooded with questions from me. After erasing the tired look from his face we went to the dinning hall and made order for the dinner. Chris enjoyed the food.

By 10 PM we had been to our room and engaged in discussion over an article – “Shattered by mis-planning” published in ‘Science and Universe’ about the ill effects of building Aswan Dam over river Nile.

The Aswan Multipurpose Project Dam was built on the River Nile by the government of Egypt in 1967. One of the ecological disasters i.e. 97% decreases in sardine fish catch in the up-stream within three years of construction; no gain of hydro-electricity for public usage, pollution of river, salination of the soil and its alkalinity altogether heralded a major ecological disaster within 1970. I had to stop because of Chris’s snoring.

2^nd January 2010, Yaounde, 10:00 PM (CST)

At midnight my mobile rang to wake Chris and me up. The conversation was as follows:

--Hello, is that Suman up there.

--Yes, I am.

--Hey man, I’m Stephen, Happy New Year.

--Same to you. How are you?

--Fine but here at Gabon and adjacent countries the condition is worsening. An hour ago an oil tanker Atlantis Cruiser has leaked spreading an oil slick of 200000 tonnes here on the Bight of Bonny.

--My God! Isn’t the island country of Sao Tome and Principe there?

--I didn’t expect you to know about it. The government of Sao Tome and Principe is eagerly waiting for you and Christopher Brown of Adelaide.

--I’m at Darjeeling and he is with me doing ‘R&R’.

--Really! You are at Darjeeling with Brown??

--Yeah, believe me.

--Great. Please come to Yaounde International Airport. I’ll be there.

--Well, we’ll try to be there.

--Thanks. Bye.

Professor Stephen Mbotu is a microbiologist from Angola but currently living at Libreville the capital of Gabon.

After some planning with Chris we told the Snow flavour reception for a car to Bagdogra as quickly as possible. By 6-00 in the morning we boarded the Aircraft to Kolkata and reached Delhi by 9-30 AM. Arrangements for reaching Yaounde via Johannesburg were hastily made and we reached there at 7-00 PM (Cameroon standard time). We gained about five hours as we flew towards west. It is a horrible experience to make such a long journey in such a short time.

3^rd January 2010, Sao Tome, 10:00 PM (SST)

Yesterday at 11-30 PM we started for this place from Yaounde. We reached the Hotel Sparkyzone at 2-00 AM today.

At about 4-00 AM we started for the coast. When we reached there we found the water covered with a thin film of black oil. The oil tanker was brought to the coast.

The aftermath of an oil spill of 200000 tonnes near the coastline of an island country dependent mainly on fisheries is devastating as all the trawlers had to be brought back and fishing stopped abruptly. All these things reminded me of the oil spills from 1950’s at different places. All these accidental oil leakages had heavy toll on marine lives. In 1967, Torrey Canyon dumped about 118000 tonnes of crude oil in the English Channel followed by the Amoco Cadiz oil slick of 1978 and Exxon Valdez accident in 1989. But the worst oil tanker accident was in 1979 when the two oil tankers the 'Aegean Captain and the 'Atlantic Empress' collided near Trinidad and Tobago to spread a slick of 300000 tonnes of crude oil. An immense loss of aquatic life was caused due to this accident.

During the English Channel massacre of 1967, to disperse the oil spread by the 'Torrey Canyon', two million gallons of detergents were dropped from aeroplanes. But this proved to be much more harmful. Synthetic detergents are 'branched chain' sodium salts of long chain 'sulphonates'. They have two parts, one polar (hydrophilic) head and another non polar (hydrophobic) tail. For example the commonest synthetic detergent sodium do-decyl sulphate has chemical formula of C₁₂H₂₅OSO₃ - Na⁺and it exists as:-

Thus they are non-biodegradable and they disperse oil. They accelerate the growth of green algae which consume dissolved oxygen making the water unfit for marine life. In this way the marine life of English Channel was perished for the time being. Here also 200000 tonnes of oil had started spreading its virulent tentacles on the 'Bight of Bonny'. The formidable amount of tropical fish reserves getting eliminated every moment.

When the sun rose from amidst the Bight of Bonny and the flood lights were turned off we ordered for some ‘Pseudomonas Bacteria’ to spread it on the oil slick. This bacterium has a strange property of eating oil decomposing the hydrocarbon to form H₂O and CO_2.

They reproduce at a very fast rate by binary fission in 9.3 minutes. But the bacteria also produce a harmful toxin. Pseudomonas is also a denitrifying bacterium.

From a nearby airport we took about 28 low flying aircrafts, which are used for spraying fertilisers and insecticides over crops. The spray tanks were filled with pseudomonas bacteria and the same were sprayed over the oil slicks for over three hours. But something went wrong and the pseudomonas died. Later, we came to know that the very high temperature of water, as the place is very close to the equator and the water being covered with petroleum gained heat. The pseudomonas being unable to withstand the heat perished within an hour. The toxin secreted by the pseudomonas killed many marine organisms.

The coasts of Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Nigeria and obviously Sao Tome and Principe are getting drenched with the petroleum dumped by the oil Tanker ‘Atlantis Cruiser’.

Prof. Stephen Mbotu was bewildered along with us by this miracle of the nature. It was 11.00 AM when he sent an emergency message to Dr. Frank Alcase a French genetic engineer and a very good friend of ours. Luckily he contacted us within 10 minutes and confirmed that he will join us by tonight.

It was 8.00 PM when Alcase arrived along with Stephen from the airport to our Hotel Sparkyzone. After an hour we finally sat down for discussion. We all were keen to reach to a solution of this international problem and as a result a very hot discussion followed:-

Brown: Dear friends we are here to solve a problem that has engulfed the Bight of Bonny.

Mbotu: We are encountering a holocaust and we have to find a way out but unfortunately we are not yet seen a ray of hope.

Alcase: I believe that you all have done your best to put an…

Brown: We thought that the Pseudomonas bacteria would be able to clean the oil slick without any problems.

Basu: I think I have an idea to clean the oil slick over the Bight of Bonny.

All: So, Please disclose it.

Basu: Alcase, you must be knowing about gene conjugation?

Alcase: Obviously, are you thinking of doing som…

Basu: Do we have samples of any other oil-eating bacteria like Nocardia or Acetobacter here Prof. Mbotu?

Mbotu: Yes, we have some Nocardia samples in Microbiology Research Laboratory here, but…

Basu: Alcase, the nitrogen bases of DNA - Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine and Thiamine can be broken and reblended with each other by adding proper enzymes. Isn’t it so! According to my knowledge the conjugation of purines & pyramidines of the two different species of bacteria will help in the interchanging of genetic material between them. Helicase can be used for unwinding the double strand of DNA. Then with one free strand of a bacterium another strand of another species of bacteria can be merged. To stop self synthesis of complementary strand by the single strand another enzyme has to be added. In this way the genes of both the bacterium would be present in the new Genetically Modified Bacteria (GMB). I believe that the new GMB will be effective and can be used for cleaning the oil slick.

Brown: Is that so easy?

Alcase: No, but the idea is undoubtedly incredible.

Mbotu: Marvellous! Alcase please start your work then, synthesise the GMB from Nocardia & Pseudomonas bacteria by gene conjugation. We are always with you.

Alcase: O.K. But first I would need the sample of the bacteria.

The discussion has ended half an hour ago and Dr.Alcase along with the other scientists have finally decided to synthesize the GMB. I’m feeling sleepy now.

4^th January 2010, Sao Tome, 8:00PM (SST)

After working overnight and all daylong with some other genetic engineers, Alcase finally was able to synthesize the GMB at around 6.00PM. Today, we carried out many experiments with the newly synthesized micro-organism, rather the Genetically Modified Bacteria. It:-

· Reproduced somewhat faster than the Pseudomonas.

· Decomposed petroleum much faster.

· Didn't produce any harmful toxins.

· Was able to withstand temperature up to 105^oC like 'Pyrodictium brockii, which resides in sulphur rich habitats.

Finally, the climax arrived at 7.30PM. We started with 39 low flying helicopters with the GMB in the spray-tanks and we are going on with the work of spraying the GMB over the oil slick. Let's see what happens and obviously hope for the best.

8^th January 2010, Kolkata, 9:30PM (IST)

I have returned here today at 5.25 PM from London by IC - 856. I reached home two hours ago. We all flew back to our respective countries via Heathrow after completing some formal jobs with the governments of Sao Tome and Principe, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea and attending several press conferences.

After spreading GMB over the oil slick, the oil vanished in an hour. The Bight of Bonny got rid of the man made curse. Thanks a lot to the GMB, which spared its life, and solved an international problem. All the bacteria were found dead after the oil got cleared. This was due to the toxin from the Pseudomonas that was floating on water. It is a case of mother killing her child.

We got a nice felicitation and the Presidents honoured us for saving their countries. We all became rich by an amount $ 50,000.

I expect that the marine life of Bight of Bonny will soon be restored as EVERY CLOUD HAS A SILVER LINING.

Virtually Real

2008-04-29T17:52:00.002+05:30

I wrote this article after reading something on this topic in a monthly magazine about 3 years back.
This is the the original write-up without any modifications.

COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES HAD ALREADY SHRUNK THE WORLD. BY FURTHER ELIMINATING THE DISTANCE, TECHNOLOGY OF VIRTUAL REALITY HAS OPENED UP NUMEROUS EXCITING POSSIBLITIES OF DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUMAN RACE.

Virtual Reality as the name suggests is something that is apparent but is ‘extremely experienced’. It is also termed as ‘tele-presence’ (i.e. perception of actual presence) by some scientists. Virtual Reality was first used in aircraft industry for training pilots using flight simulators almost 50 years ago. Student pilots learned how to manoeuvre airplanes by manipulating controls in specially built cockpits (which actually were removed from airplanes and placed on movable platforms). These were then controlled by the student pilots to learn to control an airplane.
Nowadays, it is possible to have dinner with a friend sitting far away from your home. Virtual Reality system has made this possible. It is an outcome of complex research alignment on real-time simulation; computer aided environment generation etc. VR depends on computer graphics, computer aided design, user-interface design, geometric modelling and physiological psychology. It also includes the alignment of robotics, haptics, force feedback, computer architecture etc. Finally it needs entirely new generation processors, graphics boards, accelerators, a host of software applications converted to firmware to render data visually, and it involves high-speed data transmission and networks.
For example, if you want to shake your hands with someone sitting far off from you, what you have to do is simply put on a virtually instrumented glove along with the recipient of your hand shake (the VIG must be linked to a computer, which must be backed by VR technology). When the system connects your friend via Internet etc. you feel your friend’s hand clinched inside the VIG. What happens is the VIG converts your nerve impulses to electronic signals. The whole inner-body of the glove is lined with tiny sensors, which receive your nerve impulse. Then these signals travel over the net to your directed place (friend’s home) where he experiences the same thing as you do. A VR device is fixed with impulse sensors, position trackers and simulation generators.
The main concept of VR deals with the generation of a virtual environment and makes the user feel the components of this environment to be real, i.e. they give a sense of being on the virtual environment. All real world objects have three, dimensional components (viz. x-, y- and z- axes). Today, general PC users can view objects in 2-D on the screen (x- and y- axes) using the mouse. But, upon using joystick or trackball the 3-D experience is possible. Thus, use of joystick and trackball makes dealing with the 3rd Dimension much more effective and interactive.
The most common device using which one can perceive Virtual worlds are Virtually Instrumented Gloves (VIG’s) and Head Mounted Displays (HMD’s). A multi-user system linked using Ethernet can find extreme cost-effective, fast and sophisticated uses of VR technology. The first company focusing on developing VR products was VPL research, developed by Javon Lanier (the VR pioneer). Today, SEGA, Toshiba, Nintendo have joined the race, manufacturing LC shutter glasses, RTS games, VR hardware etc.
Using VR linking, today doctors are able to perform surgery from distant places with the alignment of Telerobotics with VR technology. VR has found extreme uses in training purposes, military operations, telemedicine, GPS (Global Positioning System), Weather forecasting, Virtual mapping, Artificial Intelligence, 3-D animation, gaming and teleconferencing. Corporate client meetings from distant places are being governed by teleconferencing. 3-D building architecture using CAD and VR modelling has been planned in recent times. Now, even scientific models of complicated devices can easily be designed using VR technology.
In this way the applications of VR are uncountable. In today’s world VR has opened new dimensions for research and training. Virtual Reality is a fast developing technology and matter of extensive research. Using Internet one can send textual or voice messages to distant places. More recently sending pictorial and graphic messages, online chatting etc. have also been incorporated. But, using VR the feeling of ‘being there’ can be implemented.
The credit of making VR possible goes to Javon Lanier, but with passage of time and use of newer genres of highly advanced computer systems; there has been an extensive evolution in VR technologies and implements. The day is not far when you being at Kolkata would take a virtual tour of Rome, Egypt, Paris or New York.

So get CLICKING

Electronic Information

2008-04-29T17:46:00.002+05:30

I wrote this article about 2 years back for my School Magazine, but never ended up submitting it on time.
This is the original write-up without any modifications or appendages.

Information Explosion

‘Information’ literally means knowledge or message that can be communicated to somebody. Nowadays, we have many forms of information and many modes to send, receive & work with it. We have verbal (what we speak), textual (what we write), visual (what we see) and audio (what we hear) information to deal with everyday. Every living soul, today understands the value for correct information and the need of modes like Print media, Telephone, Radio, TV, and Internet etc. for propagation of required information.
From earlier times the need to send and receive information was felt and with passage of time and advancements in technology newer means and modes came into being. In ancient days, communication was done using mailmen who used to walk miles to carry written letters from one place to another for delivering both official and informal information. Next, they got horses to ride upon. The postal system witnessed a sudden upsurge due to the involvement of railway, airplanes and ships for carrying mails to far-off places in short amount of time ensuring greater security. After this the scenario changed quiet fast as telephones essentially took their place and then the world was flooded with the latest Internet technology.
A vast growth in the amount of information and its organized storage in proper places enable easy and uncomplicated accessibility. Printed or Textual information can be received through Newspapers, Magazines, Books, Internet, E mail SMS etc, Audio information via Telephones, Radio, Voice mails, Net Phone (VOIP), Cellular phones and Visual information can be received using Video chatting, Television, Movies, Websites, MMS etc.
Information Technology
Hand in hand with information comes Information Technology, the technology of creating, storing, maintaining, accessing and renewing information. This technology has helped the human race vastly by decreasing the amount of time they previously spent for several transactions. The use of InfoTech in many fields has increased safety and reliability. Banks, Reservation systems, Military bases, Research centres, Industrial Research and Development (R & D) has become easier to address on incorporating Information Technology.
Today, we live in a world where we get a new FM or SW Radio station each year, every half-year a new Cellular network comes up, every month a new satellite TV channel pops up, every week 3 - 4 Movies release in multiplexes and every other day a new website comes up. We also have daily Newspapers, weekly Magazines, and monthly CD’s on the line revealing information explosion. Print media, electronic media altogether have helped spread vast amount of information amongst large masses. But the concept and usage of Digital media means easy accessibility and fast dissemination of information to every corner of the world.
Storing Information
Information previously was generally stored as written documents in Books, Encyclopædias (still prevelant). Official information is stored in mainframe computers, supercomputers, web servers and primary personal information in minicomputers & microcomputers (Desktop PC’s, Laptops). CD’s, Floppies etc. are also extensively used for storage of digital electronic information.
Due to the use of computers and storage disks for information storage, safety has increased greatly, need of space has decreased, accessibility has become easy and the forms of recordable information has also increased. Computerized information is easy to search through and easy to edit.
With great development in electronics and microchip technology and with increased need of storing digital information many new ways and gadgets have come up in a very short time span. Some of the very common means used for storing electronic information are:

Hard Disks: These are primary information storage devices in computers and have a capacity of 40 GB – 80 GB. They are not portable as they are completely wired to the computers. All the electronic information created is primarily stored in Hard Disks
Floppy Disks: Nowadays, floppies are of 3 1/2 inch size and have a capacity to store 1.44 MB of data. Data stored is generally zipped before copying it to the floppy. Diskettes are easily portable but are considered to be rather unreliable medium for storing and transporting data.
Compact Discs: CD’s are circular in shape having a radius of 6 cm. Generally CD’s have a capability to store data of 700 MB – 960 MB. It is an easy to handle and a very dependable medium to store data and transport it. A LASER beam is used to read and write data on a CD inside the computer.
Digital Versatile Discs: DVD’s are absolutely CD shaped and have 4 times the capacity of CD’s. They are also extremely reliable storage mediums and are also easy to carry. DVD’s are commonly used to store movies etc. Movies stored in DVD’s have far better video quality.
Flash Drives: commonly known, as Pen Drives are a trustworthy and convenient mode of storing and transporting information. About 7 cm in length, it plugs in to a USB port and can store GB's of information.
Zip Discs: are 5 ´ 5 ´ 1/2 inch cuboidal storage mediums being consistent and having a storage capacity of more than 100 MB. These could have proved to be very efficient but somehow didn’t catch up with the market.
Cartridges & Memory sticks: are used in digital camcorders to record the movie and the sound. They are also highly reliable if not tampered with. These devices suddenly gained a lot of importance as more and more camcorders developed.
Stack Memory: These are used for storage of very small amount of information in small calculating devices like scientific calculators.

Very recently KBH, Blue ray etc. have been developed to store an extremely huge amount of information safely in a small amount of space. KBH is a Credit card sized device, which has the ability to store entire contents of the British Library. Blue ray is a technology that enables a circular disc to have 100 times the storage capacity of a CD. Earlier, Encyclopædias meant 25 big fat books but now the same Encyclopædia has turned to a 3 CD pack with enhanced image quality, included Videos, Audios and other interesting features.
With increase in amount of information newer storage techniques have been found. Nowadays, information is stored as electronic documents in computer hard drives. Sometimes to store more information than available space the data files are compressed using softwares like: WinZip, WinRar for Windows users. Optimization is also done to information by saving it in specific formats before making it available on the Internet. Compression and Optimization of files has also helped in storing information in less space and less electronic memory.

Safety & Negative aspects

But, with ever-increasing information come escalating offences. Stored information in web servers face hacking. Spam is also a big problem that causes a lot of annoyance to web mail users. A lot of undesired data creeps into e-mail accounts. Disc stored data can also be stolen in several ways. Recently, for paralysing web servers heavy network requests are sent for causing menace. Another major problem is easy accessibility of all types of information for everybody. Camera phones are causing problems by intruding in privacy. Cyber crimes have increased exponentially over the past 5 years. So, one should always be highly cautious while possessing and dealing with electronic or digital information.

In Future

In near future information storage would be a very easy job to do and accessing information would also be much easier. Many more storage means will come into being as the amount of storable information is increasing everyday. Expectedly all information known to man would be stored as electronic documents. People would have more information available in front of them. Like the Communication Revolution and Information Explosion the next big thing on the line is Storage and Optimization Revolution.

Go get STORING