131–140 of 363 posts
The medium I miss the most are Mini-Discs — They really were the sweet-spot in combining digital (albeit lossy-ish) with a tactile, analog experience. The pinnacle of mixtapes.
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.
I miss the physicality of floppy disks. Picking up a caddy of disks, thumbing through reading the labels, sliding them into the drive and hearing the motor whirr. Nowadays, my caddy has been replaced with a small plastic bag full of chips and thumbdrives. Even though my small bag can easily hold millions of times more data, the little chips aren't a joy to use. None of them have labels telling their contents. All of…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Nothing in modern computing compares to the audible... Ahem, cough, dial-up modem handshake. That is all I have to say on the subject.
> In modern computing
[0] if you don't have ESET at hand, I guess any "good" antivirus would do.
From the first sentence of TFA: > Tom Persky is the self-proclaimed “last man standing in the floppy disk business.” Why editorialize they HN title? He’s a guy! And “last man standing” is a set phrase. “Last person standing” is not.
Editorialization serves a valuable role of making writing better. IMO, language that is more inclusive is better than language that is less inclusive. Keeping needlessly gendered phrases around simply because they're a "set phrase" doesn't serve any compelling interest. Language evolves. You can fight the ocean with a rake, or you can be supportive of changes that make language better for your friends and neighbors.
Why say person then? Are you anti-other mammals? Not very inclusive is it!
'more inclusive' is not always better, because it's less specific and less exact.
They will be used with a couple of Z80 systems I have constructed - when I build a floppy controller board!
The serenity of having known good backups, that just work, is something that nobody under 50 is likely to ever experience. Because we had the ability to copy and write protect our software and data, we could easily make manage our security in a completely transparent manner.
You could take your little case of floppy disks and have your work environment up and running on any IBM compatible in no time flat.
Splitting Big files with ARJ, recycling floppers from the magazines, downloading files over 56k computer room at school, putting them floppies, going back home to find out one is defect... That's how i installed my first Linux without any internet connection at home, a 6 months job!