Let's end this thread and its variants.
73,
Eric WA6HHQ
List Moderator
www.elecraft.com
_..._
On Aug 21, 2011, at 4:40 PM, Kevin Rock kev...@coho.net wrote:
I have boxes of those 5 1/4 diskettes plus a few 8 inchers. Everything I
wrote in the '70s and most of what I wrote in the '80s is now unavailable
to me. Just the musty printouts give me a trail of provenance. Some of
the algorithms I created back then would still be of value but I cannot
get to them. An acoustic analysis program I wrote to simulate the noise
pollution around a surface phosphate mine would be nice to have. It was
fun to write within the confines we had then but the transition to C and
Pascal made life much simpler. Variables with actual descriptive names
were a boon to getting the work done faster and the debugging went more
quickly in the new modular forms. To this day I am influenced by the
integer variables in Fortran: i, j, k. Forth forced me to think in
functional decomposition. I do not miss the confines of 65 kB but it was
nice to know the wiring of the entire computer and how each bit of the
rudimentary OSes of the day fit together. Getting to the I/O lines was
much easier then too. Now to dig out my CP/M box and see if it still
boots from those 8 inch floppies :)
73,
Kevin. KD5ONS
On Sun, 21 Aug 2011 14:19:26 -0700, Fred Jensen k6...@foothill.net wrote:
Kind of mean-spirited, no? I have a number of files and documents
stored on 5 1/4 360 KB floppies [remember those], including my master's
thesis. They were put there by me, mainly using an MS-DOS very early
forerunner to MS Office called Enable running on a 10 MHz ATT desktop
built by Olivetti, with a green screen. I don't know where I could
find a 5 1/4 drive now, I don't know where I can find a copy of that
version of Enable [it stored stuff in some form of compressed binary
because 4GB USB sticks hadn't been invented then [OK, USB hadn't been
invented either] and it had to work within what today we would consider
laughable storage limits, and I suspect at least some of the diskettes
are no longer readable.
Fortunately, I have printed copies of them, especially the thesis I
worked so hard on, and they are as readable as the day I printed them.
Does that make me a Luddite?
73,
Fred K6DGW
Auburn CA
On 8/21/2011 7:42 AM, John Ragle wrote:
Why is it that a supposedly
technologically-adept hobby like ham radio contains such a larger than
average Luddite constituency?
__
Elecraft mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net
This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
--
Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/
__
Elecraft mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net
This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
__
Elecraft mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net
This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
