Whenever I shop for a data storage device like Memorex Ultra TravelDrive, I find myself wondering exactly how much a gigabyte is.  Sure, I know that a gigabyte is made up of a lot of megabytes, and I know that a megabyte is made up of a lot of kilobytes.  But those are just words.  How much stuff will a gigabyte actually hold?  How much space do I actually need? 

So I did a little research.  When I first started becoming interested in computers, a megabyte was considered a pretty decent amount of data.  Remember those old 3.5-in floppy disks? Yeah, those used to hold 1.44 megabytes.  That’s about the same amount of real data as a small book.  Well, a gigabyte is the equivalent of 1,000 megabytes—that’s around 695 floppy disks.  One gigabyte is enough to hold the same data as an entire bookshelf full of books.  250 gigabytes, which is how much the TravelDrive holds, is enough to store two and a half library floors’ worth of books.  That’s enough storage space to hold pretty much everything saved on your computer in a convenient, portable box that works with pretty much any PC.  Insane.