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

I remember those 8" floppy disks.

Wow Bill.

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

ORIGINAL: BillBrown

I remember those 8" floppy disks.

They were REALLY floppy.

I remember selling them....GP

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

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

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

I can relate! ...

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

did they transition to laserdiscs? [:'(]

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

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

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

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

I had to keypunch stacks of cards in FORTRAN class.

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

I had to keypunch stacks of cards in FORTRAN class.

+1 Woe to the person who dropped their deck!

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.

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.

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.... [:-]

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.

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.

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