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For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?

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Re: For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?

#151

Post by regularfry »

RodgerTheGreat wrote: post #108
redthrowaway wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 20 years, people won't understand iPods, or why you would have to physically carry around data anyway.

Physical limits are a major component of latency. Until we figure out a way to transmit information instantly with infinite bandwidth, local storage will always be a significant factor. edit: And given trends in solid-state drives, local storage will be cheaper and more energy efficient than a wireless network for a long time.

Relevant: "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes."

Re: For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?

#152

Post by JonnieCache »

EGreg wrote: post #131

They used to be used for floppy disks and other such things! In fact they started in DOS. Ah, remember the days? I do... b because I'm 27. Anyone here started programming with QBasic?

>Anyone here started programming with QBasic?

Guilty. Did a fair bit of that.

Although I think before that I was hacking batch files featuring the CHOICE command and firing them from config.sys in order to build a menu to allow me to chose from among the many different DOS memory management setups needed to play various games. Ahhhh, Dune II.

Thank god those days are gone to be honest. I'd pretty glad I don't have to deal with IRQ numbers any more.

Re: For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?

#153

Post by lamby »

JonnieCache wrote: post #144
jdee wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Luxury! I used to have to snip endless chads out of punched cards to represent the very zeroes and ones of the program i was writing! Thanks to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo

Go for the original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eDaSvRO9xA 1948's finest.

You were lucky. When I was a lad there were only 3 Yorkshiremen in that sketch.

Re: For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?

#155

Post by LordLandon »

electromagnetic wrote: post #70
iwwr wrote: post #9

I remember a time when you needed to carry 30 floppies to be able to copy C&C:Red Alert... and it was worth it.

I just used the CD trick when playing multiplayer. You start the game with the disc in one computer and then eject and run into the next room to start the game on that computer. I think 9/10ths of the games I played with my brother were exploited with this trick until the warez scenes started developing proper and timely released nocd cracks.

Why? Westwood were probably the only game company that understood this problem, and shipped their games on two CDs (allies and soviets), even if the content was mostly identical, and could all easily fit on one, just so that two people could play at once.

Re: For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?

#156

Post by camiller »

rbanffy wrote: post #12
giu wrote: post #4

This question makes me feel old. And I'm in my early twenties.

I started in computing with an Apple II+ (not really - my II+ was only the first to have floppies). I always wondered why those poor CP/M (and MSX) users had to put up with such nonsense as drive letters ;-)

IIRC on the Apple the floppies were normally S6D1 and S6D2 (if you had two), unless you installed your floppy controller card in a slot other than Slot 6, which was the norm.

Re: For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?

#157

Post by lesterbuck »

Where did floppy disks come from, Daddy?

I'm old enough to remember the 8" floppy disk that was invented by IBM to ... wait for it ... boot System 360! I think they had CE (customer engineer, i.e., repair guy) diagnostics, firmware, etc. on them, as the little bit I actually saw one being used, it was during maintenance.

Re: For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?

#158

Post by drndown2007 »

cubicle67 wrote: post #133
anon_for_this_1 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ahh the Vic 20. Warms my heart just hearing about it :) My parents bribed me to do some stuff when I was younger with the reward of a floppy disk drive. I was living like a boss when I got that drive!

Still got mine, and a box of cartridges. Hacked the paddles into an some electronics experiment years ago, and the RF modulator's given up the ghost, but other than that still all good. Even still got the book, minus the back cover

Does that mean you still have a Commodore 64? (Seems like everyone upgraded -- I mean, 64 freaking K!!!). Course you only got to use 49K of it, but still!

Re: For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?

#159

Post by camiller »

ja27 wrote: post #59
redthrowaway wrote: post #11

Who else remembers using the square punch to put a hole in those 3 1/2" AOL disks to reformat them as HD?

Remember punching single-sided 5 1/4" disks to make them double-sided?

Did that all the time for the Apple //e disks. Since most of the media at the time was for 360K disks for IBM compatibles but since the Apple format was 143K the vast majority of the time it worked.

In fact if I dug around in the box under my desk I could probably find the special puncher, and a couple unused ribbons for the old daisy wheel printer, etc.

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