Serendipity35

In 1999, Google's servers were ten CPUs across four servers. 

Google doesn’t publicly disclose the exact number of servers it operates, but estimates suggest it’s in the millions.  A 2011 analysis based on Google’s energy usage suggested around 900,000 servers, but that was over a decade ago. In 2016, Gartner estimated Google had around 2.5 million servers globally. Google has designed systems like Spanner to manage fleets ranging from 1 million to 10 million machines, hinting at massive infrastructure growth. Given the scale of Google’s services—Search, YouTube, Gmail, Cloud, and AI—it’s reasonable to assume the number is well above 2.5 million today, spread across dozens of data centers worldwide.

Other tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft don't publish exact server counts, so these are educated estimations. 

Amazon (AWS) probably has ~4–5 million  as the largest cloud provider globally with a massive scale across 100+ data centers.

Google probably has ~2.5–3 million+ for its heavy investment in AI and search, and is expanding rapidly with Gemini and Cloud.

Microsoft (Azure) is close with ~2–3 million+ but has a strong enterprise presence and is growing with Office 365, Copilot, and Azure AI.

 

There are over 75 options of electric vehicles that were introduced in the past four years. But it is not moving the needle for buyers. According to AAA, only 16% of U.S. adults report being “very likely” or “likely” to purchase a fully electric vehicle as their next car. That is the lowest percentage of EV interest recorded since 2019. The percentage of consumers indicating they would be “unlikely” or “very unlikely” to purchase an EV rose from 51% to 63%, the highest since 2022.

What does this have to do with education? I contend that the general public needs to be educated about electric vehicles, but much of the "content" for that education seems negative. It "seems" negative, but is it accurate?  Let's look at the barriers and motivating factors around EV purchasing.

Adoption of new technologies - cable TV, VCRs, CDs for music, DVDs, and smartphones all had a ramp-up to adoption, but they all found acceptance quickly compared to EVs. Then again, none of those technologies had the same cost as an EV. According to Cox Automotive and and Kelley Blue Book, the average price of an EV is about $55,000, compared to an average of $45,000 for gas powered vehicles. That can buy a lot of iPhones.

Barriers to buying an EV in surveys:

• high battery repair costs (62%)
• purchase price (59%)
• perceived unsuitability of EVs for long-distance travel (57%)
• lack of convenient public charging stations (56%)
• fear of running out of power while driving (55%) 
• safety concerns, including the risk of lithium battery fires (30%) 
• challenges installing home charging stations (27%)
• reduction or elimination of tax credits and rebates (12%)
• EVs had the second highest total ownership costs due to depreciation, purchase prices and finance charges

What are the factors that motivate people to buy EVs?

• gas savings
• environmental concerns
• lower EV maintenance costs as their top motivations to purchase

Are those pluses and minuses accurate or just public perception? Well, AAA's driving cost analysis found that EVs had the lowest fuel cost and lowest maintenance cost of any vehicle type. Studies have shown that EV batteries are safer, longer-lasting and more dependable than people assume. The newest EV models also have better range than ever.

Despite that analysis and advancements in the EV industry and the growing number of models, the percentage of U.S. drivers who believe that most cars will be electric within the next 10 years has significantly declined from 40% in 2022 to 23% this year.

 

Recently, my laptop crashed, and I had to return to an old one that had been sitting on a shelf for a few years. It had Windows 8 from back in 2012. No updates available, and lots of websites and tools did not work. The laptop that crashed has Windows 10 and that will fade away from support in October 2025.

It got me thinking about the now 50-year history of Microsoft.

The company was at the top early on, then went through some tough years and is again near the top. It has been the first or second most valuable business on Earth for the better part of five years.

Microsoft is betting on AI to carry it into the next generation of computing. However, Microsoft's most enduring legacies may be the marks it left on society long ago via Windows. It's not a point of pride for the company or many of its users that much of our world still relies on aged, sometimes obsolete Windows software and computers. This ghost software is still being used, though it is somewhat crippled.

Here are all the versions of Windows so far:
Windows 1.0: November 20, 1985.
Windows 2.0: December 9, 1987.
Windows 3.0: May 22, 1990.
Windows 95: August 24, 1995.
Windows 98: June 25, 1998.
Windows ME (Millennium Edition): September 14, 2000.
Windows 2000: February 17, 2000.
Windows XP: October 25, 2001.
Windows Vista: January 30, 2007.
Windows 7: July 22, 2009 (released to manufacturing), October 22, 2009 (generally available).
Windows 8: October 26, 2012.
Windows 8.1: February 13, 2013.
What happened to Windows 9? (see below)
Windows 10: July 29, 2015.
Windows 11: October 5, 2021.

According to an article on bbc.com, many people and services still use outdated Windows versions.

"Many ATMs still operate on legacy Windows systems, including Windows XP and even Windows NT," which launched in 1993, says Elvis Montiero, an ATM field technician based in Newark, New Jersey. "The challenge with upgrading these machines lies in the high costs associated with hardware compatibility, regulatory compliance, and the need to rewrite proprietary ATM software."

What happened to Windows 9? 

120 years ago, divers discovered a shipwreck off the island of Antikythera in Greece. What they found changed our understanding of human history, and the mysterious Antikythera Mechanism has captured the imagination of archaeologists, mathematicians, and scientists ever since.

The Antikythera Mechanism (c. 50 BCE) was found in a shipwreck off the coast of the island of Antikythera and is now in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens.

It even inspired the plot for the 2023 film Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. The ancient Greek device was used to track celestial movements. In the fictionalized film version, it is called the Archimedes Dial and is said to locate fissures in time. The real Antikythera Mechanism was more of an early astronomical calculator. Not surprisingly, the movie takes creative liberties, turning the artifact into a tool for time travel rather than its historical function of predicting eclipses and tracking planetary positions

Using the latest 3D x-ray and modelling technology, experts are still unravelling the secrets of what else this machine may have been capable of calculating.

Could it be considered an early computer? Yes, it is sometimes regarded as the world’s first analog computer. Designed to predict astronomical positions, eclipses, and even track the cycle of athletic games similar to the Olympic Games. It uses a complex system of gears to model celestial movements, functioning much like a mechanical calculator.

Its sophistication was unmatched in its time, and nothing as advanced appeared again for over a thousand years.

Take a glimpse of the mechanism as it appears in this Hollywood version.

 

Originally posted at Kenneth Ronkowitz – poet, teacher, designer