Clay's Blog

Toshiba in a partnership with Optware is introducing a new holographic optical disk technology currently working its way through standards bodies as HVD (Holographic Versatile Disc). The new holographic storage technology offers speed gains over DVD of about 40X. And its capacity is a whopping 3.9 TB (terabytes). The physical disk format is fully backward compatible with current DVD disks offering a clear upgrade path for current video/data libraries stored on DVD. The HVD offers read/write capability similar to current technologies for DVD rewritable. Certainly, this looks like a good storage medium for HD video. For more technical information on the holographic technology behind HVD take a look at Optware’s Collinear Holography site. Who knows when this technology will trickle down to the consumer level, but it sure looks to me that blue laser disk technology just becoming available may end up being a transitional technology quickly replaced by higher capacity and higher speed holographic optical disks.

Check out Bruce Shneier’s new website on personal liberty and rights to privacy, anonymity, due process, equal protection, and open government. It’s called Individual-I. I’ve been reading Bruce’s Cryptogram computer security and cryptography newsletter for years. Join the movement to protect your personal freedom!

Ripping and Encoding DVDs can be a rather daunting task. Many of the faculty I work with really don’t know where to begin. Let’s take a look at what tools and resources are available to accomplish this rather complex task.

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