Random factoid of the day: 222 years till Universe-sized hard drive

Another back-of-the-envelope calculation, inspired by a comment by my friend Beemer:

Atoms in the Universe: 1079
Bits on this year’s largest hard drive: 500GB = 4 x 1012 bits
Doubling time for hard drives: 1 year

Years before a single hard drive will store 1 bit for every atom in the Universe at current doubling rates: 222

Warning: past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.