Laugh of the Day - 5.25" Floppy

[Steve R.]

My first computer was the Apple IIe. I waited to buy until it came with the 2 disk drive adapter.

At the University of Maryland in the late 60's we communicated with the mainframe through a type of teletype that was very clunky. The (unprinted) computer paper from the (dot matrix) printer proved extremely useful for developing study notes!!!

 

[scott-atkinson]

My first PC..ish type product I had was a ZX Spectrum 48k. These are pretty iconic and retro now and a good working product in good condition can sell for a few hundred pounds.

My first proper PC was an Atari 400, this had a plastic pressure pad keyboard that was either far too sensitive or unresponsive.

Ahhh the good ole days...

I still play a Spectrum made game, it has an online community presence now, called MidnightMU.com based on the classic Lords of Midnight game on the Spectrum..

 

[kevlray]

My first computer (so to speak) only cost $100 (~1982), but I could never get the cassette tape interface to work. My first real computer was a Tandy 1000. But in college I helped assemble a Imsai 8080 (I soldered the memory chips to a 4K memory board on a late Saturday night).

 

[Fifty2One]

I recently purged a lot of the old pre Y2K (and much earlier) equipment to some young fellow who was really into 'the antique computer stuff'... strange to get the constant reminder of the equipments vintage (and mine for that matter) with his comments while he browsed through the treasures "oh wow look at this old stuff", "cant believe the speed the old clunkers used to work at", etc...

 

[Anakardian]

If you still have some of the old floppies, try this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXhS8OQrORE

 

[Steve R.]

End of An Era: Linus Torvalds Mark Floppy Disks 'Orphaned

Well, the "official" acknowledgement had to come someday.

I still have a crap load of unused CD and DVDs. I would guess, that I bought them well over 10 years ago. I had also invested quite a bit in R/W CDs for back-up, but now have a 4 TB hard drive. That reminds me, I should vacuum out the dust in my CD drive. Maybe I can come up with an innovative way to use by CDs or DVDs as Frisbees.

 

[NauticalGent]

I hear they make good scare-crows in the garden...

 

[isladogs]

I hear they make good scare-crows in the garden...

Like many people I tried hanging old CD's (AOL free CDs were a favourite for this) around the garden to scare the birds and protect my crops. They were absolutely useless for that purpose as well.

 

[NauticalGent]

Another myth busted, and a dream crushed...thanks Col!

It’s just as well, they do give a yard a certain “redneck” look....

 

[isladogs]

Another myth busted, and a dream crushed...thanks Col!

It’s just as well, they do give a yard a certain “redneck” look....

LOL
When they break into tiny fragments they make a reasonable mulch or suppressing weeds. Bit of a pain to clear away afterwards though … which may be one reason I've found hundreds of broken CDs flung in my hedge by the previous owners

 

[Mark_]

Another myth busted, and a dream crushed...thanks Col!

It’s just as well, they do give a yard a certain “redneck” look....

Redneck would be using AOL CD's for skeet...

 

[Rx_]

Things that sound dirty at the office are not:
This is my 5 1/4 inch floppy can you insert it?
I want it on my desk and I want it now
I need to whip it out by 5
Just stick it in my box
HMMMMM, I think it's out of fluid
My equipment is so old, it takes forever to finish.
It's an entry-level position
When do you think you'll be getting off today?
It's not fair. I do all the work while he just sits there!

 

[Vassago]

Have you seen the stories where kids would see a 3.5 floppy disk laying around and ask why they 3d printed a save icon?

That's when you know you're not getting any younger.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

One of my hobbies is writing fantasy fiction. The first novel I ever wrote was done using WordStar on a CP/M operating system on an Osborne I computer. One disk to load the O/S, one disk to load WordStar, but then you could remove the W/S disk and insert your data floppy. Based on sizes, my novel had to have short chapters because I could only fit a few at a time on each floppy disk. When I moved up in the world to a "true" PC, I had 3.5" floppies and managed to get a novel on one or at most two drives. (I have no illustrations other than one "world" map.) But they fit completely on the hard drive and all I used the floppies for was an external backup.

 

[kevlray]

Memories of the floppy disk swaps. In a computer lab in college we used cassette tape to store our programs on (assembly language). Seemed like there was some process where we has to use another cassette tape to load the OS.


Then in one my jobs. We used a Commodore PET to develop software (assembly language) for a Commodore 64 (transfer via floppy).

 

[Gasman]

I am sure I can remember using 8" floppies on a Honeywell DPS7 back in 1986?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Yes, the 8" floppy preceded the 5.25" floppy but had lower data density if I recall correctly.

 

[Gasman]

Yes, the 8" floppy preceded the 5.25" floppy but had lower data density if I recall correctly.

The last ones were up there with HD 3.5" floppies

https://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~rwest/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/f/Floppy_disk.htm

 

[kevlray]

Yes, the 8" floppy preceded the 5.25" floppy but had lower data density if I recall correctly.

If I recall correctly, the 8" were either 140k or 160k. The first 5.25" floppies were single sided.

 

[Vassago]

I might have to dust off my old C64 and drive and see if everything still works. I've kept them in a pretty dry place. Hopefully they work.