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The last person standing in the floppy disk business

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Re: The last person standing in the floppy disk business

#11

Post by acomjean »

biggc wrote: post #3

> These are people who use floppy disks as a way to get information in and out of a machine. Imagine it’s 1990, and you’re building a big industrial machine of one kind or another. You design it to last 50 years and you’d want to use the best technology available. At the time this was a 3.5-inch floppy disk. This quote had me wondering if you could build a hardware emulator layer that would allow you to use a USB-dri…

There is the "Woz" file format for the apple2 (and others). It takes a disk image (flux?) and makes the file bootable in some emulators.

https://applesaucefdc.com/woz/

the images it creates are sometimes stunning and interesting depending on copy protection.

https://archive.org/details/ApplesauceImages/Age%20of%20Adve...

Re: The last person standing in the floppy disk business

#13

Post by bombcar »

Gualdrapo wrote: post #8

11 years old me was afraid about putting some liquid paper on a floppy disk label to write my name could damage the computer.

At a similar age I did a "science project" to see if the big floppies or the small one were better at reading data after being stuck to a fridge with a magnet for a month, and similar with sticking them in a freezer.

Every single disk had zero errors.

Re: The last person standing in the floppy disk business

#14

Post by nine_k »

blamarvt wrote: post #10
causi wrote: post #5

Nothing in modern computing compares to the audible and kinesthetic satisfaction of the ka-chunk of a 3.5 inch floppy being inserted into a drive.

And nothing makes your heart sink faster than the rhythmic sound of trying over and over to read the same bad disk.

The wisdom of 1990s was that if you have one copy of data on your disk, you may as well have zero copies.

It became more pronounced in late 1990s when disks became more ubiquitous and the race for the lower price likely made them less reliable.

After that the idea of backing things up, no matter where they are recorded initially, feels very natural.

Re: The last person standing in the floppy disk business

#15

Post by acheron »

causi wrote: post #5

Nothing in modern computing compares to the audible and kinesthetic satisfaction of the ka-chunk of a 3.5 inch floppy being inserted into a drive.

I've thought the same thing about those big power switches on AT and older motherboards/power supplies where you actually shut the power off.

Re: The last person standing in the floppy disk business

#16

Post by cogman10 »

causi wrote: post #5

Nothing in modern computing compares to the audible and kinesthetic satisfaction of the ka-chunk of a 3.5 inch floppy being inserted into a drive.

The 5 1/4 disks, IMO, had a superior kinesthetic. A much more solid thunk sound when being inserted and a deeper tone while being read.

Enjoy, the sounds of floppies :D [1]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnFQZa8SKP8

Re: The last person standing in the floppy disk business

#20

Post by bragr »

bombcar wrote: post #13
Gualdrapo wrote: post #8

11 years old me was afraid about putting some liquid paper on a floppy disk label to write my name could damage the computer.

At a similar age I did a "science project" to see if the big floppies or the small one were better at reading data after being stuck to a fridge with a magnet for a month, and similar with sticking them in a freezer. Every single disk had zero errors.

You need a moving magnetic field to destroy the data unless you have a very very strong magnetic.
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