It’s well known that hard drive prices have been rapidly increasing. Here’s my personal experience.

In November, 2024 I bought a bundle of two 16TB WD Red Pro NAS Hard Drives directly from Western Digital. The list price was $670 but there was a promotion for the bundle bringing the price down to $500. Tax was $45 and shipping was free. That works out to $272 per drive ($17/TB).

The same drives are now listed for $400 on WD’s website ($25/TB). Diskprices.com (Archive.org snapshot of today) says the lowest price available for a new 16TB drive is $360 ($22.5/TB). Amazon has them for $578.

^ Amazon price history (source: Keepa)

Prices fluctuate, of course, that’s annoying but not so strange. The fact that everything is out of stock seems stranger to me. I was thinking about upgrading some drives and selling the used ones to my coworker but that doesn’t seem feasible now.

The same is true for flash storage and SSDs. I know a video editor who likes to work on 4TB Samsung T7 USB drives. In November, 2024 they cost $279 each. Today they cost $664 on Amazon and $880 on B&H. At least they’re on the shelves, I guess.

I’m not sure where this is going but it seems like prices will keep going up for the immediate future. At this point I’m nervous about SD cards and routers too.

Grace Bowers at Night Club 101 on March 16th, 2026

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Gladiators NYC in Central Park back on November 11th, 2025

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Posting these graphs so I can easily reference them next time they come up in conversation

Climate graphs from Weather Spark (NYC, Arroyo Grande)

Ocean temperatures from Surf-Forecast.com (Asbury Park, Pismo Beach)

Relisten.net I just discovered Relisten (via a post about gapless.js on HN) a website with a slick multi-column layout for browsing live music recordings on Archive.org. I somehow missed this in my search for prior art while building my own Archive.org audio player.

Relisten is built by a different Daniel in Brooklyn. Hello, Daniel! 👋

XKCD 949 from September, 2011 still rings true 15 years later.

In my case, I want to share photos and videos with my friends, family, and strangers at full resolution. My experience is iPhone-centric. Here’s a quick rundown of my findings (as of March, 2026)

If I could impart one important point it’s that you cannot rely on file storage you do not pay for. If someone share something with you, download it!

1975 University of Connecticut Marching Band

01-The 1975 Pre-Game Show

3:40

02-1975 Street Series - UConn Husky

1:31

03-1975 Street Series - Old Connecticut

1:47

04-1975 Street Series - The Stars and Stripes Forever

3:26

05-1975 Street Series - The Star-Spangled Banner

1:80

06-Captain from Castile

1:60

07-The Stevie Wonder Show - Up Tight

1:53

08-The Stevie Wonder Show - Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing

1:54

09-The Stevie Wonder Show - Higher Ground

1:36

10-The Stevie Wonder Show - You Are the Sunshine of my Life

2:49

11-The Bruckner Show - Scherzo, Symphony IV; King David; Chorale; Nights in White Satin; Candide, Overture; King David, Finale

11:00

12-Knock Three Times

1:20

13-"The Bitch is Back" Show - The Bitch is Back

0:36

14-"The Bitch is Back" Show - How Can I Be Sure

2:60

15-"The Bitch is Back" Show - Call on Me

2:32

16-"The Bitch is Back" Show - Come Rain or Come Shine

2:26

raw_audio

55:36

Hosted by the Internet Archive ⓘ

This is a part of a series where I digitize vinyl records. More UConn records / all records!

1965 University of Connecticut Marching Band

1/21

Fanfare #5

0:12

2/21

Temptation

1:45

3/21

Joshua

1:27

4/21

Lover

1:90

5/21

Saints in Concert

2:55

6/21

Bugler's Holiday

1:30

7/21

Latin Prelude

2:40

8/21

Keep on Dancing

0:45

9/21

My Fair Lady

3:00

10/21

That's Entertainment

1:13

11/21

Moon River - Pink Panther

2:33

12/21

See You In My Dreams

1:10

13/21

Fanfare #1

0:39

14/21

UConn Husky

1:34

15/21

Old Connecticut

1:29

16/21

Fight Connecticut

1:00

17/21

National Emblem

2:59

18/21

Them Basses

2:55

19/21

American's We

3:19

20/21

On The Square

2:50

21/21

Hosts of Freedom

2:11

01

Raw audio

43:36

Hosted by the Internet Archive ⓘ

This album is notable for track 16, “Fight Connecticut”, which hasn’t appeared anywhere else yet.

This is a part of a series where I digitize vinyl records. More UConn records / all records!

Notable Local Bird Sightings from eBird I’ve made some improvements to my eBird TRMNL plugin that displays notable birds in your area! All you need is a free account and then you can generate an API key. The plugin will do the rest!

The API docs define “notable” as the following:

Notable observations can be for locally or nationally rare species or are otherwise unusual, for example over-wintering birds in a species which is normally only a summer visitor.

This is one of several TRMNL plugins I maintain! Find them all under the tag TRMNL

Lehigh University Jazz Band 1979-1980

01-Groovin' Hard

5:55

02-Gary

5:45

03-Tiger of San Pedro

4:54

04-I Remember Clifford

4:29

05-Wind Machine

3:13

06-West End

6:24

07-Jaberwocky and Titinium Blues

11:36

raw audio

44:40

Hosted by the Internet Archive ⓘ

This whole album is very fun. Apparently track 3 is named after a Sherlock Holmes story (Wikipedia)

The title is based on a character in one of the 56 short stories featuring Sherlock Holmes. Don Juan Murillo is a deposed dictator from Central America, formerly known as “The Tiger of San Pedro”, living in England, in the story “The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge”.

This is a part of a series where I digitize vinyl records. More Lehigh records / all records!