Microdrive vs CF card

"Mike Coon" wrote:
But then Sinclair adopted the name "Quantum Leap" for one of his products,
ignoring the fact that a quantum is the smallest possible change. Marketing
is not a branch of logic!

That is not the generally used definition of the word though,
and generally only applies to Quantum Physics.

Typically "quantum" means a discrete amount bounded by some
measurable limit. That implies that it is neither and
infinitely nor insignificantly small measurement. (The first
would make in analog, rather than discrete, and the second would
make it a redundancy.)

For example, anything that is digitized (brightness levels in
digital photography are one example, and voice levels for
transmission over the Public Switched Telephone Network are
another) is necessarily "quantized" if it originally has analog
values. Light and sound levels vary continuously, and therefore
need to be quantized to digitally encode them.

You can rest assured that the quantums used to digitize either
light or sound levels are *not* the smallest possible changes.
In both cases there are commonly several different sizes of
quantums used in the process, depending on where the difference
in size is useful or not. Which is to say, the size of the
quantum is chosen to reduce signal to noise ratio!

--
FloydL. Davidson http://www.apaflo.com/floyd_davidson
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)

Mike Coon wrote:

But then Sinclair adopted the name "Quantum Leap" for one of his products,
ignoring the fact that a quantum is the smallest possible change. Marketing
is not a branch of logic!


Quantum's definition as an __adjective__ ("Quantum leap") is "large change".

As a noun it is "an amount" (small, large, whatever).

Only in Physics does it relate to small changes.

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ben

When they were new they had tape drives inside them - did you remove the
drives?

I would call them tapes, the drives were in the 'machine'.
But that might be because if different use of language.

ben

Floyd Davidson wrote:
"Mike Coon" wrote:
But then Sinclair adopted the name "Quantum Leap" for one of his products,
ignoring the fact that a quantum is the smallest possible change. Marketing
is not a branch of logic!

That is not the generally used definition of the word though,
and generally only applies to Quantum Physics.

....

You can rest assured that the quantums used to digitize either
light or sound levels are *not* the smallest possible changes.
In both cases there are commonly several different sizes of
quantums used in the process, depending on where the difference
in size is useful or not. Which is to say, the size of the
quantum is chosen to reduce signal to noise ratio!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Opps, my bad. That of course backwards. It is chosen to
*increase* signal to noise ratio.

--
FloydL. Davidson http://www.apaflo.com/floyd_davidson
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)

On 2005-09-26 15:48:28 -0700, said:

On Mon, 26 Sep 2005 21:41:32 GMT, Arthur wrote:

Well, as you can see from the name (microdrive), it has a tiny hard
drive inside. This technology is cheaper comparing to the flash memory
(the first one). The first doesn't have any moving parts inside. Thus,
the second one is much more fragile and consumes more power to operate.
So, it's your choice...


Oh, I see... Do you know if there is any data on the reliability of of
the microdrives? Basically how often do they break and how well can
they survive a "rough" handling? I assume that CF cards have no
problems at all... do they?

CF cards are definitely tougher. Also, they are not subject to
altitude restrictions (should it matter). Typically, hard drives have
a maximum usable altitude... usually 10,000 feet. The read platters
run on a cushion of air, and at altitude it's less dense, and the head
can't "float."

That said, I did use a microdrive at 12,000 feet. But at some altitude
it will not work. A CF card could probably work in a vacuum.