For the block-that-analogy file, from a story by Tom Abate in today's San Francisco Chronicle on Intel's new microprocessor:
In an advance briefing last week, [Intel Chief Technology Officer Justin] Rattner used the super-processor to perform more than a trillion mathematical calculations per second. To put that into perspective, it would take light, traveling 186,282 miles per second, 62.1 days to travel a trillion miles.
And to put that into perspective, at the present rates of growth, by the time "Louie, Louie" gets its trillionth i-Tunes download, the federal hourly minimum wage will be $1108.16!
Posted by Geoff Nunberg at February 12, 2007 06:46 PM