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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

#351

Post by pwpw »

doomlaser wrote: post #176
bartread wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Here's what sloppydisk.com looked like in its heyday, for those interested: http://web.archive.org/web/20070921170305/http://www.sloppyd ... Blimey: the download page for Descender still works. I mean, I've downloaded it on Windows, so that's not going to end well, and I guess it won't actually run on my Mac because 32-bit, but I was pretty impressed that I could download it at all. Nice site as well: very nostalgi…

Sales from Descender meant I didn't need to do other work during college (it plays perfectly fine in SheepShaver, if you'd like to give it a try), and it probably helped secure me an internship at Apple working on their internal game development team. I helped work on games for clickwheel iPods. Funnily, I'm one of the full motion video characters in Apple's Texas Hold'em ! In 2007, after the release of Intel Macs, I…

You’re responsible for a lot of fun in my childhood. Thanks for sharing!

Re: The last person standing in the floppy disk business

#352

Post by albrewer »

doomlaser wrote: post #176
bartread wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Here's what sloppydisk.com looked like in its heyday, for those interested: http://web.archive.org/web/20070921170305/http://www.sloppyd ... Blimey: the download page for Descender still works. I mean, I've downloaded it on Windows, so that's not going to end well, and I guess it won't actually run on my Mac because 32-bit, but I was pretty impressed that I could download it at all. Nice site as well: very nostalgi…

Sales from Descender meant I didn't need to do other work during college (it plays perfectly fine in SheepShaver, if you'd like to give it a try), and it probably helped secure me an internship at Apple working on their internal game development team. I helped work on games for clickwheel iPods. Funnily, I'm one of the full motion video characters in Apple's Texas Hold'em ! In 2007, after the release of Intel Macs, I…

Your work made a positive impact on my life, much fun was had on my part thanks to your games :)

Re: The last person standing in the floppy disk business

#353

Post by smoldesu »

mbreese wrote: post #341
smoldesu wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Airpods do not have better duplex audio on MacOS. The problem is that AAC cannot support high-quality recording and playback at 330kbps, so it has to degrade the quality of the recording stream to fit within the Bluetooth bandwidth. MacOS might default to using your laptop's microphone, but that's something you can also set up on Windows. Hell, it should be the default on Windows as long as you have AAC support insta…

I actually normally use my headphones through my phone, but I doubt ios is doing anything differently compared to macos. The point isn't that there's only so much bandwidth for mic + headphones, the point is that the bluetooth stack on Windows just doesn't work. I tried connecting multiple bluetooth headphones (Airpods, Beats, Sony) to a new Windows 11 computer (Microsoft Surface). I only got one set paired and it de…

I haven't used Windows in years, it's a pretty bad point-of-reference for me. However, I can say pretty confidently that iOS, Android and Linux all have more reliable Bluetooth stacks than MacOS. In fact, the stack on Linux is so good that I don't lust for Airpods at all. I just turn on my Sony XM4s and it automatically connects to all my devices. No muss, no fuss.

Oh, and neither MacOS or iOS support high-bitrate audio playback. They're not even on the same eschelon as Android or Linux, which support codecs like LDAC and APTx, with 3x the bandwidth of Apple's 330kbps AAC stream. Come to think of it, if Apple switched to APTx for their newer Airpods, they would have no problem recording and playing audio back at the same time.

Re: The last person standing in the floppy disk business

#354

Post by lowbloodsugar »

NotYourLawyer wrote: post #282
brunoTbear wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In what way is this better? We’re referring to a specific man. It’s ok to call him a man. Over-inclusivity serves no purpose in this situation. It makes the language clunky and needlessly unspecific.

Does it mean:

1. This is the last man standing, but there are women still standing. In which case there are still persons providing this service and it is not newsworthy.

2. This is a legacy saying from a period where only men could be involved in business enterprises. There may have been women running such businesses, but they are not worthy of record.

If not 1, then the correct phrase is “last person standing”.

The issue is not whether the last person standing is male or female. The issue of “last X standing” is about all the Xs except the last one.

Re: The last person standing in the floppy disk business

#355

Post by NotYourLawyer »

lowbloodsugar wrote: post #354
NotYourLawyer wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what way is this better? We’re referring to a specific man. It’s ok to call him a man. Over-inclusivity serves no purpose in this situation. It makes the language clunky and needlessly unspecific.

Does it mean: 1. This is the last man standing, but there are women still standing. In which case there are still persons providing this service and it is not newsworthy. 2. This is a legacy saying from a period where only men could be involved in business enterprises. There may have been women running such businesses, but they are not worthy of record. If not 1, then the correct phrase is “last person standing”. The…

Honestly, I’d be fine just treating this (and similar) as skunked terms. Last man standing is gendered and old fashioned. Last person standing is clunky and weird.

Just find a different way of expressing the idea.

Re: The last person standing in the floppy disk business

#356

Post by hinkley »

scarface74 wrote: post #272
hinkley wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I only recently discovered why bluetooth isn't a particularly good option. I'd paired my good headphones with my phone, but all of a sudden wanted headphones for other devices, and having one set of earphones paired with multiple devices is a deeply flawed experience. First, you can only connect to one or two, second, mine kept telling me it was disconnecting and reconnecting to the other device while I was walking a…

I have my AirPods and my Beats Flex (better for traveling, if they fall out, they just end up around my neck) “paired” to six devices. If the auto switching is a problem, you can disable it and still have your AirPods paired to multiple devices

Unfortunately I have not jumped on the airPod bandwagon. I got into the Shure ecosystem and their solution doesn’t have many controls.

At some point overpriced audio equipment became a way to bribe myself to do adulting for things I really didn’t want to do, so while for most people the moral might be to stay in the Apple ecosystem, that advice isn’t great for me.

However at this point I’m one gen behind on their receivers so maybe those issues have already been fixed.

Re: The last person standing in the floppy disk business

#357

Post by JKCalhoun »

wizardfeet wrote: post #346
JKCalhoun wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh yeah, Richard Moss. Nice guy.

That's me. Hi John! Lovely to run into you here. You still at Apple? I'd be happy to email you a PDF copy of the new book if you're interested.

No, I retired last Fall. Keeping busy here: https://github.com/EngineersNeedArt

Sure, send me a PDF!

Re: The last person standing in the floppy disk business

#358

Post by bdowling »

NotYourLawyer wrote: post #355
lowbloodsugar wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it mean: 1. This is the last man standing, but there are women still standing. In which case there are still persons providing this service and it is not newsworthy. 2. This is a legacy saying from a period where only men could be involved in business enterprises. There may have been women running such businesses, but they are not worthy of record. If not 1, then the correct phrase is “last person standing”. The…

Honestly, I’d be fine just treating this (and similar) as skunked terms. Last man standing is gendered and old fashioned. Last person standing is clunky and weird. Just find a different way of expressing the idea.

Last one standing.

Re: The last person standing in the floppy disk business

#359

Post by bdowling »

brunoTbear wrote: post #90
NotYourLawyer wrote: post #76

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.

“‘Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.’”

Re: The last person standing in the floppy disk business

#360

Post by Doxin »

Koshkin wrote: post #58
cogman10 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The ones that I remember had a locking lever which barely made any sound at all. https://i.stack.imgur.com/8D9f1.jpg

Some of em were spring loaded to where if it got past halfway it'd snap shut all the way. Flicking one of those makes a good noise.
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