Interesting Information on Hard Drives from WD Employee.

Very interesting. What he calls "air bearing surface" (the cushion of air the heads ride on) uses the same principal as "ground effect" in airplanes. One of the stranger things we used to discuss. (My old roommate is a NASA engineer.)
 
Very interesting. What he calls "air bearing surface" (the cushion of air the heads ride on) uses the same principal as "ground effect" in airplanes. One of the stranger things we used to discuss. (My old roommate is a NASA engineer.)

Pelicans can tell you a lot about that pressure wave below them...just watch how they fly barely skimming above the surface of the water, hardly need to beat their wings when doing that.
 
I don't geek out on stuff very often, and already know a bit about how hard drives function, but WOW. That's some fascinating stuff.

Whenever a customer asks me "Why did my computer stop working?" I often respond with "They're amazingly complicated devices - we're lucky they ever work at all!" This just confirms it.
 
Pelicans can tell you a lot about that pressure wave below them...just watch how they fly barely skimming above the surface of the water, hardly need to beat their wings when doing that.

Your timing is perfect! Was just watching a long string of white pelicans gliding by my house on the Wisconsin River. No wing flaps, nothing but gliding about 3 feet above the water until they were out of sight. Very cool to watch. Reminds me of the old Valkyrie SST with the wing tips turned down to capture the bubble. Ya, I know - Pelicans in Wisconsin? That's what I thought about 10-15 years ago when the first group of a dozen or less stopped on spring migration. Now there are hundreds both in the spring and again in the fall. This part of the river has many sandbar-islands.
 
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