Difference between revisions of "691: MicroSD"

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Jump to: navigation, search
(Explanation)
(Explanation)
Line 10: Line 10:
 
{{w|MicroSD}} is one format of the Secure Digital memory card format, used in digital cameras, cell phones, and other devices. It is very small, only  15×11×1 mm, but can hold as much as 200GB of data (as of March 2015).
 
{{w|MicroSD}} is one format of the Secure Digital memory card format, used in digital cameras, cell phones, and other devices. It is very small, only  15×11×1 mm, but can hold as much as 200GB of data (as of March 2015).
  
The main character in the comic (on the right) thinks about all the ideas that could be expressed by the data in the microSD card, or in a library. He feels not just reverent and intimidated, but sexually aroused by the thought. As he begins to touch it, his friend is disgusted by what might happen if he uses the card as some kind of sex toy, and does not want to help him locate the card if it gets lost (inside a body cavity).
+
The main character in the comic (on the right) thinks about all the ideas that could be expressed by the data in the microSD card, or in a library. He feels not just reverent and intimidated, but sexually aroused by the thought. As he begins to touch it, his friend is disgusted by what might happen if he uses the card as some kind of sex toy, and does not want to help him locate the card if it gets "lost" inside a body cavity.
  
 
The title text seems to be the main character thinking about how much data the card holds, in terms of {{w|floppy disks}} and the {{w|iTunes}} music library, and feeling aroused by these thoughts.
 
The title text seems to be the main character thinking about how much data the card holds, in terms of {{w|floppy disks}} and the {{w|iTunes}} music library, and feeling aroused by these thoughts.

Revision as of 05:27, 6 April 2015

MicroSD
That card holds a refrigerator carton's worth of floppy discs, and a soda can full of those cards could hold the entire iTunes store's music library. Mmmm.
Title text: That card holds a refrigerator carton's worth of floppy discs, and a soda can full of those cards could hold the entire iTunes store's music library. Mmmm.

Explanation

MicroSD is one format of the Secure Digital memory card format, used in digital cameras, cell phones, and other devices. It is very small, only 15×11×1 mm, but can hold as much as 200GB of data (as of March 2015).

The main character in the comic (on the right) thinks about all the ideas that could be expressed by the data in the microSD card, or in a library. He feels not just reverent and intimidated, but sexually aroused by the thought. As he begins to touch it, his friend is disgusted by what might happen if he uses the card as some kind of sex toy, and does not want to help him locate the card if it gets "lost" inside a body cavity.

The title text seems to be the main character thinking about how much data the card holds, in terms of floppy disks and the iTunes music library, and feeling aroused by these thoughts.

Randalls claims in the title text do check out. A high density floppy disk with a FAT format holds about 1.4 MB of data, and has dimensions of 90×94×3 mm, for a volume of about 25 cm³. A refrigerator carton is the large cardboard box that fridges are delivered in. A typical refrigerator carton may be 1800×700×700 mm, a volume of about 9 m³. So a fridge carton could hold about 35000 90mm floppies, or roughly 50GB. This is comparable to the storage on a single microSD card. A soda can (1 ml = 1 cm³) could hold 3000 microSD cards, or store 50TB of data. However, the iTunes store claims to hold 26 million songs (as of Summer 2014), and allowing for about 2MB per song gives 50 TB of music. The claim that a soda can could hold the iTunes library seems to be reasonable.

Related to this topic is this xkcd What If blog entry.

Transcript

[Cueball and a friend approach a table.]
Cueball: Hey, what's up?
Friend: Shhhhh.
Cueball: Hrm?
Friend: There's a microSD card on your table.
[A microSD card sits next to an assortment of coins for size reference.]
Cueball (out of panel): So?
Friend (out of panel): I dunno, high storage densities freak me out. A whole aisle of library shelves on something smaller than a dime.
[The two people stand near the table, the friend peering at the coins and card on the table.]
Friend: Libraries are unnerving enough-millions of ideas surrounding you, towering over you. These cards fill me with that same reverence, that same intimidation.
[Cueball stands alone.]
Friend (out of panel): ...that same faint arousal. Maybe I'll just touch it.
Cueball: If you lose that card I'm NOT helping you find it.


comment.png add a comment! ⋅ comment.png add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅ Icons-mini-action refresh blue.gif refresh comments!

Discussion

Please include definition of refrigerator carton. Also, what is the average storage capacity of a floppy disk?108.162.219.7 00:08, 19 May 2014 (UTC)

These days refrigerators come in cartons for safe storage. Also you can open them to store floppy discs, which is a lot easier than trying to load them in soda cans. Especially the unopened ones. -- Weatherlawyer (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
But what is a refrigerator carton? What do you mean they "come in cartons for safe storage"? What's a carton? Is it a cardboard box that fits a whole refrigerator? A wooden crate? A bunch of pillows surrounding the fridge? What is it?
When I do a Google search, I find cardboard boxes with insulating liners designed to hold dry ice, regular ice, or other cold and possibly leaky ingredients, which is not what you said. I think that's what Randall meant. But mostly my searches yield an almost random assortment of cardboard boxes which are coincidentally associated with fridges in some way, which suggests it is a term Randall uses but not one recognized by the general public. Since these are so obscure, the article should probably explain. At a minimum, we need a volume estimate, which we can't really get from the context, since both floppies and SD cards spanned orders of magnitude of storage at the time.EebstertheGreat (talk) 04:01, 26 May 2023 (UTC)

A soda can of then's microSD cards could hold the whole iTunes library then. A soda can of now's microSD cards could hold the whole iTunes library now. I do not see the issue or what seems unreasonable. 162.158.78.76 02:55, 8 September 2017 (UTC)

Changed “January 2021” to “November 2022” as it has remained that the maximum digital storage size commercially mass produced and available for microSD cards is one terabyte. SilverTheTerribleMathematician (talk) 07:26, 8 December 2022 (UTC)

Excellent —While False (museum | talk | contributions | logs | rights | printable version | page information | what links there | related changes | Google search | current time: 10:18) 07:38, 8 December 2022 (UTC)

Updated to May 2023. As of February, 1.5TB cards have been available. 2TB cards might be available relatively soon, likely in less than 6 months, but we'll see.EebstertheGreat (talk) 04:10, 26 May 2023 (UTC)