To go along with my previous entry, here’s an amusing photo I’ve had kicking around in my files for a while:

Why is this amusing, you may wonder? Because it demonstrates how far we’ve come just in my relatively short lifetime: According to the e-mail in which I received this photo, the big object being wheeled around by the guy in the bunny suit is a 1975-vintage hard disk good for only about 500 KB of data. By contrast, even the smallest capacity digital-camera memory stick on the market these days — which is physically smaller than a credit card, remember — stores roughly sixteen times as much data (8000 KB, or 8 MB).

In the interest of full disclosure, however, I’m not sure how accurate my information on that photo is. I tried to verify the 500 KB figure, but I encountered a lot of dispute over whether or not the photo is even real. One confident-sounding person claimed this hard disk came from an old IBM storage system that would’ve had a capacity of between 5.4 and 11.2 MB. Which would still make this monster only equivalent to one of those low-end modern memory sticks, for all of its size. That’s something, isn’t it?

Once, a long, long time ago, I wrote on this blog that I remembered “when computers were large metal cabinets that contained spinning tape reels and lots of blinky lights.” If you remember that, too, and want to reminisce, or if you’re one of them youngish whippersnappers who can’t imagine what those zinc-plated, vaccuum-tubed days of yore must’ve looked like, head on over to James Lileks’ latest offering, a collection of vintage promotional computer photos enlightened by his wry (and unabashedly geeky) commentary.

I especially liked the commentary on this one, in which Jim manages to reference Colossus: The Forbin Project, The Terminator, Young Frankenstein, and Star Wars in less than 300 words. Gotta admire that.

This is kind of cool… remember a while back when I discovered those old British sea-forts left over from World War II? The ones that were used as pirate radio stations in the ’60s? Well, just this morning, a gentleman by the name of John Vincent left a comment on one of my entries about those forts. To make sure his comment gets noticed, I’m reproducing it here:

Just let you know that Radio 390 is back online at
http://radio390.co.uk.tt
http://radio390.uk.tt
http://radio390.org

Thanks for the info, John!

I’ve found a little more information about those old British sea-forts I referenced the other day. There are actually quite a few Web sites that mention the “Maunsell forts” — so-called because they were designed by an engineer named Guy Maunsell — although, curiously, most of these sites seem to be more focused on the “unofficial” radio stations the forts hosted in the ’60s. I guess the pirate stations were quite popular in their day, either that or else anyone who had anything to do with them now has a Web site.

In any event, I have learned that efforts are underway to save one of these old structures after all. Project Redsand is an organization working to restore Redsand Towers, one of the two remaining Maunsell forts in the Thames Estuary. (There were also offshore forts built in other locations around Britain.) Redsand is considered the best candidate for preservation, since all seven of its towers are still standing and a 2004 survey revealed them to be in surprisingly good condition.
The project’s Web site contains quite a bit of information if you’re interested in this sort of thing, including a detailed history page. Among the factoids that caught my eye:

…three forts… were built in the Thames estuary, between May and December, 1943. They were known as the Nore, Redsand and Shivering Sands Army Forts. Each fort accommodated up to 265 men.

 

…the Thames forts shot down 22 planes, 30 flying bombs, and were instrumental in the loss of one U-boat, which was scuttled after coming under fire…

I find these forts fascinating, and I’m not quite sure why. Something about the way they look, maybe, crouched over the water on giant legs anchored to the sea-bed. I’m intrigued by oil-rigs, too, not because I have any particular interest in the oil industry, but just because they look cool to me; the Maunsell forts have the added attraction of an interesting history and the romantically run-down appearance that some old industrial sites acquire after going without maintenance for a while. To see what I mean by “romance,” check out the photos of Redsand at sunset on this site.

From the Department of Random Coolness comes a nifty photo gallery of abandoned World War II-vintage sea-forts constructed in the Thames Estuary to defend Britain from Nazi attacks. There were three such forts in the Estuary, all consisting of off-shore platforms similar to modern-day oil rigs, bristling with guns and arrayed around a central control tower. One of these forts has collapsed in the 60 years since the end of the war, but the others are still standing out there in the water, slowly decaying memorials to a time most of us Internet users can’t even imagine. I especially like this photo, in which the towers look like Martian war machines straight out of H.G. Wells.

And there’s more, too: At one point in the ’60s, one of these abandoned forts was home to a pirate radio station. Photos from that time period are here, along with the sad news that the British government wants to demolish these fascinating old relics…

If you’ve got nothing else going on right now, check ’em out!

I received an email this morning from a fellow named Rex, who is the proprietor of The Deep Throat Blog and a proponent of the theory that the infamous (yet anonymous) Watergate informant was actually Ferris Bueller’s economy teacher. Rex informed me that since I and other bloggers linked to one of his articles last month, he’s been receiving lots of interesting new clues, the latest of which is detailed in his most recent entry.

Essentially, this new piece of the puzzle connects the dates on which reporter Woodward met with Deep Throat with the dates when the McGovern Campaign was in or near Washington, D.C. (Background for those who don’t their recent history: McGovern was the Democratic candidate for president that Nixon’s people were trying to bring down by, among other things, bugging the campaign headquarters at the Watergate Hotel.) As Rex describes it, this clue fits the so-called “Bradlee Riddle,” explains why Woodward couldn’t call a meeting with DT whenever he wanted, and lends credence to the Ben Stein theory:

…in our opinion, Deep Throat must have been someone who wasn’t normally in Washington. We think Throat was someone at the Republican CRP (Committee to Re-Elect the President) who traveled around the country conducting operations against the Democrats, much like Don Segretti. This person could have been a “mole” on McGovern’s staff (and the Watergate hearings uncovered at least one named Thomas Gregory) or someone who carried out “sabotage” against the Democrats such as hiring hecklers, demonstrators, etc. Our theory is that Ben Stein worked with the CRP and met with Woodward when his travels took him to the Washington/Baltimore area.

As I explained to Rex, I’m not a serious Watergate buff. I haven’t done a lot of extensive reading or research on the matter, beyond seeing the fine movie with Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman and Hal Holbrook (All the President’s Men) and reading the occasional article. But I am interested in historical mysteries, and they don’t get much more mysterious than this one. The Ben Stein theory is plausible (in my opinon, at least), and Rex’s blog makes for an interesting read. Go check it out. (You’ll probably want to review his detailed explanation of the Stein theory as well.)