Thinking back to my formative years in Covington I ponder the total lack of computer technology and terms.  Computers were things NASA used for space exploration or the military used in defense of the country. They weren’t something the average person could even conceive of let alone own.

As the years passed though, home computers came on the scene.  First, what seemed like huge amounts of data, speed and storage emerged and were understood in terms of kilobytes.  Then came megabytes.  Wow!  That’s a lot.  And when computer companies started talking about gigabytes it felt like we were moving quickly into the future and the realm of science fiction.  Now we are beginning to hear terms like terabytes and petabytes.  Petabytes are the next level after terabytes.  And it goes on from there.

Every heard of exabytes or yottabytes?  They’re not far away.  Even in a small outpost like Covington these terms are commonplace and understood by most people.  Not only do landscapes, cities, homes, economies and environments change over time, but so do technological endeavors.

For more information, read this link to find out about these terms and the future of man-made storage needs.  It kind of makes me wonder how many bytes of storage the City of Covington needs to store all the information about the city and its residents and what their needs will be in the not-to-distant future.