USAF retires floppy discs

[Rusty1961]

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/20 ... -disks-to/

[BillBrown]

I remember those 8" floppy disks.

[HansBolter]

Wow Bill.

My memory only stretches back to the 5-1/4" floppies.

[Zorch]

ORIGINAL: BillBrown

I remember those 8" floppy disks.

They were REALLY floppy.

[btd64]

I remember selling them....GP

[geofflambert]

I've got a floppy but it isn't 8". [:(]

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

I've got a floppy but it isn't 8". [:(]

I can relate! ...

[Hanzberger]

I remember these, had computer programming at tech school 83-85

[Jorge_Stanbury]

did they transition to laserdiscs? [:'(]

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: Jorge_Stanbury
did they transition to laserdiscs? [:'(]

No, obviously to a more miniaturized 5.25" variety. Efficiency for the win!

[jagsdomain]

So much for state of the art!
Glad to know the Air Force is keeping up with the times.

[rustysi]

Government is always the last to upgrade anything, even when it is not cost effect to maintain legacy equipment.

[geofflambert]

I had to keypunch stacks of cards in FORTRAN class.

[Zorch]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

I had to keypunch stacks of cards in FORTRAN class.

+1 Woe to the person who dropped their deck!

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: GetAssista

ORIGINAL: Jorge_Stanbury
did they transition to laserdiscs? [:'(]

No, obviously to a more miniaturized 5.25" variety. Efficiency for the win!

Technically, yes! Smaller disks (it's with a 'k' for this type) and more storage space on them, too.

[rustysi]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

I had to keypunch stacks of cards in FORTRAN class.

Fourteen years of experience in the electronics field, and the first time I saw a keypunch was when I starting working for the government.

Yup, that right, I work for the gov'ment. Over thirty years for the FAA on their computers systems. Gonna hold that against me.[:D]

Edit: BTW, first place I saw an 8" floppy too.

Edit edit:The Smithsonian called, and took our card reader/punch when they heard we were getting rid of it. Our worked, theirs didn't.

[Reg]

Those damn 8" things and their drives were unreliable as well.... [:(]

About a third of my class lost their entire semester's work to disk corruption and backup was not a top priority in those days.... [:-]

[BillBrown]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

I had to keypunch stacks of cards in FORTRAN class.

We only had to do one small program that way, just to teach us
how lucky we were to have terminals.

[Chickenboy]

Anybody else remember 'notching' a corner of a SSDD to make it-voila!-a DSDD? With a hole punch? Of course, this also reduced the reliability of the disc too-sometimes you'd overbite the notch and mess the disc up. But it was a quick and dirty way to double your capability.

[jagsdomain]

On a serious note. Would having the launch codes on a floppy disk prevent hacking?
Its basicly like having a hard copy.