Re: Reading older disks

[Steffen Nurpmeso <steffen%sdaoden.eu@localhost>]

John Nemeth wrote in <201808241936.w7OJa3Oa008396@server.cornerstoneserv\
ice.ca>:
 |On Aug 24,  8:40am, Steve Blinkhorn wrote:
 |} You [D'Arcy J.M. Cain] wrote:
 |}> On 2018-08-23 09:03 PM, John Nemeth wrote:
 |}>> On Aug 23,  5:36pm, steve%prd.co.uk@localhost wrote:
 |}>>} I cheated - I found a memory medule that fitted and got the system to
 |}>>} boot.   Did we really once find 356MBytes adequate?
 |}>> 
 |}>>      365MB?!?  My first hard drive was 40MB and that was considered
 |}>> fairly large for the day.
 |}> 
 |}> My first HD was 5MB.  Later the systems came with 11MB.  Then one day I
 |}> scored a brand new 20MB drive.  I had to patch the CP/M binary in order
 |}> to access it.
 |} 
 |} This could rapidly become the "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch from Monty
 |} Python.   I had an early IBM PC with *two* floppy drives, but the
 |} first Unix box I ran rather than just used was an NCR Tower which
 |} started off with 512KBytes of RAM, later upgraded to a whole MByte,
 |} with a 40MByte drive.  Eventually I ran twelve dumb terminals off it,
 |} and it worked, but that was 35 years ago.  But then I go back to the
 |} time when dropping your deck of punch cards was tantamonnt to a "short
 |} sharp shock" jail sentence.
 |
 |     When I was in Grade 10, I did a "work experience" thing (only
 |a week or two).  One of the places, I "worked" at was ComputerLand.
 |At that time, the IBM PC was brand new.  One of my tasks was to
 |unbox IBM PCs and install floppy drives.  For those that have never
 |seen an original IBM PC, or forgotten the details of them, there
 |were two five-pin DIN plugs on the back.  One was for the keyboard
 |(not something you wanted to drop on your toes -- it was heavy)
 |and the other was for connecting to an ordinary portable audio
 |cassette recorder (not exactly the most reliable storage medium).
 |Yes, IBM actually put out a business computer with the idea that
 |people would store data on audio cassettes.  It was a rather absurd
 |idea.  Even most people using the Apple ][+ (at home or work),
 |which was four years old at the time, used floppy drives.

I had a Datasette for C64 for backups and such.  Sometimes it was
fun to listen to the sounds.  (But only sometimes.)  I do not
remember any problems beside speed!  But that was 36 years ago,
and i can prowdly state that my floppies for the 1541 worked on
both sides, which saved a lot of real hard money.  Of course these
where good German tapes from BASF; not too far in the south of
where i life, and when you have to deal with the stink, you wanna
get something out of it.  (Though Merck is right in town and stank
very very much.)

 |}-- End of excerpt from Steve Blinkhorn
 --End of <201808241936.w7OJa3Oa008396%server.cornerstoneservice.ca@localhost>

--steffen
|
|Der Kragenbaer,                The moon bear,
|der holt sich munter           he cheerfully and one by one
|einen nach dem anderen runter  wa.ks himself off
|(By Robert Gernhardt)