How does RAID 5 actually work? It might have implications on distributed computing architectures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels#RAID_5
Parity, Hamming codes, distance-based checks, CRCs and polynomial codes of construction, error-correcting codes (ECC, the same stuff used for computer RAM memory and hard drives), TCP/IP:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Error-correcting_code
Interesting article on the effect of enclosures on the reliability of hard drive storage:
http://www.wiebetech.com/whitepapers/Storage_Enclosure_Reliability.pdf
Interesting link on nanotech from my brother:
http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/18514/page1/
Cool link of the week (or whatever):
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/
