Something to lighten the mood

I read on the internet that it could happen to the best of us
 

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In the old days, you could do a lot with a floppy!

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I once ordered Windows 95 ( or was it 3.2WG ? ) in floppys, not CDs because some of my machines didn't have a CD driver.... Yikes... take floppy 5 out, insert floppy 9 in...... take floppy 9 out, insert 5 back..... now take floppy 5 out, insert 14 in..

Oh, need a new driver? insert floppy 22...

Trash 80.... power up, insert cassette, push play.... go drink a beer and share a joint.... come back... press play. Play Star Trek...
 
I still use 3 1/2” floppy disks! I have machine (turret punch) that used them to store punching programs. It also has a serial RS-232 port that requires almost simultaneous button pushes on the computer and turret press. As normal practice is to keep computers in at least modestly clean rooms, not a real practical method. Also of note when a 50 ton punch is used the 7” thick concrete floor does vibrate!

Although my engraver worked well with a remote computer talking to it, in moving things about, it did get an old computer located next to it.

Reminder to me find the program floppy!!!
 
One of our labs had a PDP-8 (12 bit minicomputer from DEC) that bootstrap-loaded from a punched paper tape. Because paper tape readers were a lot smaller and cheaper than 80 column punchcard readers. And the idea of using audio cassettes for data storage hadn't been invented yet; that was the early microprocessor-in-a-box guys. Similarly, it was before floppy discs; neither 8" nor 5.25" nor 3.5" were available.
 
The first PDP-8 I used also loaded from paper tape after you entered the bootstrap program from the front panel keys. When I bought my own in 1978 it came with two then reasonably new 8” floppy disks. The computer got fully retired in the flood from hurricane Ivan in 2004. I may still have the stand that came with it.
 
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A couple months back I took a couple hundred to the recycle depot and the 20 something there said they couldn’t accept them as there was no indication what they were. I said they’re non toxic. He said sorry.

As there are still some of us dependent on them, you might actually try eBay! Unless of course there is sensitive data on them. In that case you would need a computer with the right software and a good drive to overwrite the pictures!
 
The first PDP-8 I used also loaded from paper tape after you entered the bootstrap program from the front panel keys. When I bought my own in 1978 it came with two then reasonably new 8” floppy disks. The computer got fully retired in the flood from hurricane Ivan in 2004. I may still have the stand that came with it.
Yes, I remember entering the boot loader on PDP8 switches!
Later, working on a teletype with paper tape, linked to a PDP10 (high tech!) via phone line, acoustic coupler and 300bps modem... Actual interactive computing - it seemed amazing a the time...
 
My first computer was 8 bit Atari, 5-1/4" floppy, 300 baud modem, oh the joy! Used it for my 1st year eng'g heat transfer project requiring a spreadsheet.

I actually did a bunch of work upgrading older industrial controls computers in my 1st job in the 90's, so came across many 8" floppies.

I studied chemical engineering in school, our 3rd year process design course used a process simulator running on the eng'g faculty mainframe, all graphs created using ASCII characters. I tried to explain that to a young eng'g tech about 20 years ago but he couldn't imagine what I was talking about.