I heard Harrow speak at a recent technical conference, and he opened my eyes to the future of computing. While most of us spend our time in the trenches of today's technology, Harrow spends his time looking at what's coming. The future to him isn't just six months out, or 12, or even 24 months. Harrow is peering years down the road, when phenomena such as DNA computing and molecular electronics may be commonplace. But Harrow's information is thoroughly researched, and he tends to report on technologies that have been proven, even if only in an engineer's or scientist's lab.
Harrow tells a very compelling story about the rapidly changing face of computing.
To help his audience understand and appreciate the future, he looks at what we've experienced in the Information Age. Innovations in storage technologies lead to the doubling of capacity every nine months - twice the rate of Moore's Law. Fluorescent, multilayered storage is one technology Harrow says is around the corner. And NEC Labs is working on holographic storage technology that will yield far greater capacity. Harrow says that's nothing compared to what's happening in communications.