Things We Forget
Thursday, June 19th, 2008 - 3:25pm
A co-worker just asked me how much space is on a Floppy disk, and for the life of me I couldn't remember the right answer. I said "Something like 2.5 MBs" and another co-worker laughed and said the correct answer of 1.44. How could knowledge that was an integral part of my growing up, and early computer education be so easily forgotten? Maybe it is true that you lose it unless you use it in certain cases. Anyone else ever forget something that should be ingrained in your brain forever?
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Actually, your co-worker was also wrong.
The correct answer is "who the hell cares?"
Do you actually USE floppies any more?
"And my son, too, thinks everything is a launchpad, every bug a meal, and every sunny day a reason to take all your clothes off and roll around in the grass." - rabbit
I rarely have to since the servers the run our software run SCO Unix. Also many of these servers don't even have USB drives if they were an option for the version of SCO they are running.
So.. it is something that I should know... in the rare chance i need to utilize that info.
"Uranus is positioned for summer surprises." - from Tarot.com's mailing list
Xbox Live Gamertag - Yoreel
Actually the correct answer is "a cold drink."
That's the only thing that fits on my old floppies.
Letters to the Internet
Heh, I remember all of this useless sh*t. 720k for a 5 1/4 floppy, btw. Who else remembers math-coprocessors? Or what a 1541 is? How many had an 8088? I still use 3 1/2 floppies, though, for RAID drivers on very rare occasions.
XBL: NSMike | Steam | PSN: NSMike | Wii Friend Code: 7763 1519 2475 2278 | GWJ Google Calendar
I think of it more as a load and dump phenomena in our brains. Out with the old, in with the new.
I manually replaced an 8086 at 4.77Mhz with an 8088 at about 8MHz. Screaming performance upgrade for about $120. I don't remember whether I dropped in an 8087; probably, my system was pretty tricked out. Elite ran well on that system.
Extremism in the defense of liberty *is* a vice. It has been since the first Crown Loyalist was tarred, feathered and set afire, and it's no better now. It corrupts first the individual, then ultimately the institution it defends.
I was lucky enough to have a 1541 for my c64.
"And my son, too, thinks everything is a launchpad, every bug a meal, and every sunny day a reason to take all your clothes off and roll around in the grass." - rabbit
Had the 1541 and speeddos! Wow, games loaded so quickly!! A few wouldn't work though.
But seriously, how could you forget about 1.44?? lol
'Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.'
Benjamin Franklin
Like, the geezers are communicating!
"Three blokes go into a pub. One of them is kind of stupid, and the whole scene unfolds with a tedious inevitability." - Bill Bailey
I'm taking my A+ certification right now (just never got around to it before) and it's amazing how many of these questions come up. Like "What IRQ does a floppy drive use?". Who cares?!
EDIT: I had a C64 with the 1541 and I don't consider myself a geezer at all! Heck, I'm only 31 heh
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So true. Reading your post made me forget my address again.
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Isn't that a trick question, since the 3.5's were normally 1.44M and the 5.25's were 360k, but they both came in other sizes. I know I had a 5.25 drive that had a 1.2M capacity (well at least the ability to read 5.25 floppies with 1.2M capacity), as well as a 3.5 disk that only had a capacity of 720k.
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing noise they make as they fly by." -- Douglas Adams
Well, I suppose it could be, but I imagine he was asking about the most recent 3.5" floppies.
XBL: NSMike | Steam | PSN: NSMike | Wii Friend Code: 7763 1519 2475 2278 | GWJ Google Calendar
I thought the last 3.5 inch drives could read 2.88M though, so his 1.44 answer would be wrong.
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing noise they make as they fly by." -- Douglas Adams
This thread is amusing or may name isn't....isn't....ummmm....isn't....
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Why in my day, we had to get our parents' holepuncher to get the extra space out of a floppy.
Actually, we did it on purpose, because the SSDD(single-sided, double-density for you young-uns) ones were cheaper than the DSDD, so you could get twice the floppy for your allowance dollar. (Let the OOCT begin!)
"And my son, too, thinks everything is a launchpad, every bug a meal, and every sunny day a reason to take all your clothes off and roll around in the grass." - rabbit
I totally did this.
Fedaykin98 wrote:
Friday Morning Flashback Fodder!
I recently had to find out how to format a floppy in XP due to some RAID driver silliness.
It was embarassing how long I fiddled. Finally I said screw this and hit Start | Run and popped up a DOS box and did it on the command line. Since then someone has shown me what rock it's hidden under in File Mangler, but damn that was annoying.
Duoae wrote:
You can't just right-click on the floppy drive under My Computer and click "format"?
XBL: NSMike | Steam | PSN: NSMike | Wii Friend Code: 7763 1519 2475 2278 | GWJ Google Calendar
ROFL
I have no idea. That would certainly make it simpler than the Menu Macarena I danced.
Well, you have to sacrifice to the Embarassment God fairly often in this business with his loyal minions the Wandering Curly Bracket and the incredible Appearing and Disappearing Semi-Colon. I guess he must have decided to mix it up.
:blush:
Duoae wrote:
Regarding formatting floppys, we have to keep a win'98 PC around because one piece of kit requires a boot disk formatted from that - for some reason win XP boot disks don't work with this kit - even though it connects to a XP PC...
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Plagued - by - malefisense
Doomed - to - insidious -
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this - monument - i - prophesy
Virtualbox supports Win98. You could try loading it on a later system, then formatting the floppy. Might get you off the antique hardware. (Disclosure - my company bought Virtualbox recently.)
Extremism in the defense of liberty *is* a vice. It has been since the first Crown Loyalist was tarred, feathered and set afire, and it's no better now. It corrupts first the individual, then ultimately the institution it defends.
I'm going to remember that when all the technology you currently love becomes obsolete... in 5 years.
Don't encourage the boy
We shall grapple with the ineffable, and see if we may not eff it after all.
Now I really feel old.
I've actually written a program ..... on punch-cards.
Now I've got to go lay back down.
SamF7
I gr0k
[unhelpful]
Amiga floppies were 880k...ahem
[/unhelpful]
Pistols for two and coffee for one.
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I wrote a program by flipping switches on the front of a PDP-8.
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My parents tell stories like that... pretty soon they will join folklore like Paul Bunyan.
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I never wrote one, but I ran one in college. The teacher thought we should know what it was like.
Anyone here remember changing a Daisy Wheel?
Duoae wrote:
backing up onto reels of tape? *shudder* I still have nightmares of hearing that tape drive slapping sound
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Anyone here ever played a data tape on a regular tape player?
Duoae wrote: