"That is why they switched from 8 foot to 5.25 foot floppies." LOL
On Wed, Jul 19, 2017 at 12:15 PM Fred Cisin via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > >> Did any one ever use keypunch to tape or 8' floppy? > On Wed, 19 Jul 2017, Mike Stein via cctalk wrote: > > Those 8' floppies were a PITA to handle and store, but > > they sure held a lot of data... > > ;-P > > That is why they switched from 8 foot to 5.25 foot floppies. > > > Punchcard size is reputed to have been chosen for use of readily available > currency bins (was the dollar bill reduced in size as a reflection of its > declining value :-? > > 8 inch floppies (1971 23FD) were intended to be stored like 8.5x11 paper. > > > I'd like to find more info about the decision of 5.25 inch. > > http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Oral_History/5.25_3.5_Floppy_Drive/5.25_and_3.5_Floppy_Panel.oral_history.2005.102657925.pdf > is one of the only sources. > > In it, > Don Massaro, of Shugart Associates, says that they chose 5.25" as the > smallest that they could make a diskette that COULD NOT be put in a shirt > pocket, deliberately avoiding that particular method of damaging a > diskette. > > They all agree that Wang was the impetus. That Steve Jobs was pestering > them for a cheap drive, but due to the holes in his jeans and personal > hygiene?, they never took him seriously. > > George Sollman said that the drive size was shosen to match tape drives. > > (also mentioned in a sidebar in Byte 35? years ago:) > However Jimmy Adkisson of Shugart Associates claims that they were in a > bar with Dr. Wang and his people, and when they asked Wang what size it > should be, he picked up a bar napkin. Adkisson took the napkin back to > the office and measured it. I want to find out what bar, and whether > that bar has personalized napkins! > (I'd also like to get novelty napkins printed up with a picture of a > diskette and a copy of that story printed on the back!) > > > Later, there was the "battle of the shirt-pocket disks" between 3" > (Amstrad), 3.25" (Dysan) and 3.5" (Sony). Dysan, who did not want to > retool to make hard-shell 3" or 3.5", designed a 3.25" floppy floppy. > They made the seemingly sensible assumption that the size conflict would > be won by whichever had software available, and they bet the company on a > 3.25" software publishing venture. Almost all MAJOR programs were > available on 3.25" diskettes, even though the Seequia Chameleon 325 was > the only computer that ever made it to market with a 3.25" drive. > 3.9", 2.9", 2.8", and several others, never caught on. > > > HP and Apple went with Sony 3.5", and when IBM also went 3.5" (abandoning > their announced 3.9"), that sealed it. > The earliest 3.5" disks (I have a few "Shugart" ones) had no shutter. > Then there was a sliding spring loaded shutter, with a place on the disk > to labelled "PINCH" (with an arrow) to release the shutter. > When full automatic shutters came out, the word "PINCH" was dropped, but > the arrow was left on as a reminder of which direction the disk went into > the drive, even though it only went in one way (unlike 8" and 5.25" disks > that would fit into the drive 8 ways) > > > It is also amusing about the distortions in memory perceptions. > I have a [slightly crashed] RAMAC? 24" 100K? platter. I would show it to > my students. Whenever it was mentioned later, the students would recall > it as being "three or four feet diameter!" > > Similarly, we often waste time in futile attempts to track down "ten inch" > and "twelve inch" floppy stories that were simply misremembrances of 8". > (If you don't believe that, FIND ONE) > > > http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/shirt-pocket-diskette > is an UNCREDITED direct copy of a post that I made in this group. > Lack of attribution isn't very bad. But adding "RICM notes that" on the > beginning of one of my paragraphs turns that into theft. (3 of less than > 10 words changed) > Is the rest of "their" content also similarly plagiarized? > Are the pictures of THEIR collection, or unauthorized copies of other > people's pictures? > > -- > Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com > -- -- Anders Nelson +1 (517) 775-6129 www.erogear.com
