What if software still shipped on 3.5'' disks?

Remember the days when installing a program on your computer required you to use several different floppy disks (usually between 3 and 5) in sequence? Now imagine that CD/DVDs hadn't been invented yet and Internet is still a mirage and you had to install all your programs using these floppy disks that could only store around 1,5 MB. Let's see what that means for current popular programs:

• The "lightweight" browser Firefox - 36 disks
• iTunes - 46 disks
  
• Adobe Photoshop CS4 - 358 disks
• Sims 3 - 1760 disks

Now imagine that you would pile up all these floppy disks. Just for the sake of curiosity, the Sims 3 packaging of 1760 disks would be as tall as 19 feet (more or less 5 and half meters).

Have some more interesting items to add to this list? Comments are welcome!

2 years of "The Tech In Me"

Ok, no need to do a big fuzz about it, but I just would like to remind you that this blog celebrates today, two years of providing the best info on the tech world. I would like to thank all of the faithful readers that follow the blog through the RSS feed, and also to all of those that find the blog cool enough so as to provide comments on the posts. I'm always glad to hear from you and I seriously hope that you can provide any suggestions that will allow me to improve the blog and its posts.

And what's the best way to celebrate this journey than to remind some of the best moments? Check out here some of the posts that I think are worth a second visit:

• Multi-touch interfaces
• Internet Explorer 7: my experience
• Control your computer with hand-gestures
• A screen made of fog and much more
• Beware with the "evil twin" wireless router
• The iPhone is here
• Wireless energy
• 21 sms to make a thief repent
• Photoshop tip to remove objects
• Hide data in pictures
• Portable Apps
• Control the Earth with some lights
• Seti@Home finds stolen laptop, but no aliens
• The weakest link in technology
• Google Maps wants you to swim
• StumbleUpon the Internet
• The Music industry is killing itself
• Wii and anger management
• Microsoft Surface: touching the computer
• More on multi-touch interfaces
• Technology can be used for the strangest things
• Context-aware image resizing
• Ever heard of mechanical virus?
• A paradoxal mith
• McDonald's and Free Wifi: a dangerous combination
• Infinite GMail addresses
• Flight mode is not good enough to avoid iPhone users getting arrested
• Drug dealers vs. Software developers
• iPhone available in Portugal
• Geek thoughts
• Your mobile phone as QR-Code reader
• The Mac in Me
• Geek challenges
  
• Force Safari to open new windows on tabs
• BSOD in the Frankfurt Airport
• Hitler and the iSketch
• Future Gadget Concepts
• Please turn this sentence into an MP3
• There are gadgets for every taste
• Geek stuff
• Windows on an ATM machine
• G33kware
• CES 2008: The future gadgets
• Handy laptop bags
• Science Fiction is back
• Hitler and Blu-Ray
• From here to there
• How is technology changing us?
• Macbook Air: a genius before its time
• Avoid Apple Remote's evil twins
• The problem with iMovie and iDVD
• 3 degrees of Porn
• Another Photoshop tip
• Geek's last supper
• Technology that works too well
• How to play (almost) all video codecs in QuickTime
• An interesting problem: part I and II
• Windows vs. Mac: a picture that says it all
• Yahoo and the Semantic Web
• Technology and the Olimpic Records
• Have Phun
• Top 10 Super Mario Bros. theme music
• The first Olympic sprinter without legs
• Another webcam-based tracking software
• DVR, TVs and infrared sensors
• Appealing solar power
• How to download musics from MySpace
• Eco-friendly gadgets
• Rotate screen display in Windows Vista
• A differente kind of alarm clocks
• Safari and Firefox work together
• Twitter+Quicksilver: WOW
• 3D glasses are still useful
• Thank God for the Internet
• How to really cool down your laptop
• So many Olimpic records
• 42 minutes to go to New Zealand
• We use our Macs because we want to..
• The Internet unites against an XBox thief
• Spore Origins for iPod: my review
• The LHC and Gordon Freeman
• Fix iTunes crash
• Magellan: yes, I tested one
• Portal Prelude
• (Un)motivational Posters

3D tetris...kind of!!

Ever heard of stereograms, those 2D pictures that turn into 3D images depending on the depth of focus that you're applying to the picture? Now imagine what it's like to use this "optical illusion" to play 3D games. Well, in fact, you don't have to imagine, because there's already some of these games available. Check out the Stereogram Tetris available here.

Retro-blogging: best posts of July 2007

Previously, on The Tech In Me:

• Plants that phone when they need to be watered
• It's not the cellphones' fault
• The Wii Workout, at the gym!
• 15 years of SMS
• Vodafone says "no to 3G-less iPhone" - and now that a 3G version of the iPhone is available, iPhone has said yes :-)
  
• The ISPs won't tell on you
• The evolution of cellphones
• Avoid that cable clutter under your desk
  
• 500 GB in one DVD
• Technology can be used for the strangest things
• How to keep your Coke cold while at the computer
  

Classic video games in animated stop-motion video

If the nostalgic feeling isn't good enough, the amazing work they did to produce this wonderful stop-motion animated video of classic video games will blow you away:



Source: College Humor

Retro-blogging: best posts of March 2007

Previously on the Tech In Me:

• WiPeer: local wireless for laptops
• Learn how to create special effects on Photoshop
• Humans: the weakest link in technology
• The new video game arcade
• An item for the ladies: gadget-recharching purse
• 5 MB, fifty years ago
• People with cellphones are paparazzi's worst nightmare
  

How to obfuscate an "Hello World" program

#include

 main(){
   int x=0,y[14],*z=&y;*(z++)=0x48;*(z++)=y[x++]+0x1D;
   *(z++)=y[x++]+0x07;*(z++)=y[x++]+0x00;*(z++)=y[x++]+0x03;
   *(z++)=y[x++]-0x43;*(z++)=y[x++]-0x0C;*(z++)=y[x++]+0x57;
   *(z++)=y[x++]-0x08;*(z++)=y[x++]+0x03;*(z++)=y[x++]-0x06;
   *(z++)=y[x++]-0x08;*(z++)=y[x++]-0x43;*(z++)=y[x]-0x21;
   x=*(--z);while(y[x]!=NULL)putchar(y[x++]);
 }

Are you wondering about what this code outputs?
This is a simple Hello World application, coded (in the C programming Language) in a very complicated way :-)

And to imagine that there are people who do this as a hobby :-)

Retro-blogging: best posts of January 2007

Previously, on the Tech in Me:

• Retro-tech: a digital polaroid
• Earn some money with your YouTube videos
• European PS3 in March
• It takes 21 sms to make a cellphone thief repent
• DRM for Blu-ray and HD-DVD already cracked
• Need free pictures for your blog?
• The Nintendo Wii's exercise plan
• Fight crime with your cellphone
• Wireless Energy
• Free online TV
• Better searching on the wikipedia
• Google Earth: a terrorist's attack planner
• Joost: HDTV over IP
• The iPhone is here

Retro-blogging: best posts of December 2006

Previously, on the Tech In Me:

• There's a new "memory" in town
• "Evil Twin" wireless routers: the new hacking approach
• More rumors on the iPhone
• No link between cellphones and cancer
• Internet Explorer 7 for Google
  

Retro-blogging: best posts of November 2006

Previously on the "Tech in Me":

• Don't sell your (illegally) downloaded musics and you won't be arrested ... in Spain
• Wikipedia doesn't spread only knowledge
• Check your Internet addiction
• Google spreading worms
• The PS3 Madness: part I, II and III
  
• GMail is a virus...according to Microsoft
• Control your computer with hand gestures
• Get a refund for your pre-installed Windows copy that you won't be using
• One commercial application for free every day
• Fingerprint locks are not that safe
• My visit at IST2006
  

The Evolution of Cellphones

If you want to see what it was like in the past to have a cellphone, you have to check this post on the evolution of cellphones. Simply spectacular!

Here's a teaser:

The History of the Internet

Like everything in life, it's interesting to, every once in a while, check out the past and see where we've been and the path that we've taken so far.

And even though the Internet is not that old (compared to other events in History) it already has its own History. And there's so much we can learn from it just by going to the WayBack Machine.

The WayBack Machine is an Internet Archive that has been storing snapshots of the Internet throughout the years, for more than a decade now.

Let's compare some of the giants of the Internet "then" and "now":

Google as it was in 1998:

Google as it is now (well, depending on your preferences :-) ):


Yahoo, as it was in 1996:

Yahoo, as it is now:

Guess what this is...

Don't know? That's okay...neither did I. This is the volume and size of 5MB memory storage in 1956.

In September 1956 IBM launched the 305 RAMAC, the first computer with a hard disk drive (HDD). The HDD weighed over a ton and stored 5MB of data.

Makes you appreciate your 4 GB jump drive, doesn't it?