
The Mysterious and Strange Origin of the Floppy Disk (2017) - spking
https://www.backupassist.com/blog/news/the-mysterious-and-strange-origin-of-the-floppy-disk/
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Gibbon1
> It was easy to pirate, twist and damage. And there was a unique, unspeakable
> dread when you dropped a deck of punch cards—and watched them scatter across
> the floor completely out of order.

Two solutions to that.

Better than nothing: Was to draw diagonal lines across the top of the deck of
cards with a sharpie.

Better: Later cards were given a sequence number and there were machines to
check the sequence and also sort.

My dad said some of the old computer programmers would 'program' by collating
pre punched card sequences.

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kps
> Later cards were given a sequence number

Card sorting (and arithmetic operations) predate computers.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_record_equipment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_record_equipment)

> some of the old computer programmers would 'program' by collating pre
> punched card sequences.

This is the origin of the ‘compiler’, which originally was closer to what we
now call a linker: it assembled (hah) a program from a library of pre-defined
sub-programs.

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fernly
Per the wikipedia entry[1] IBM secured the patent, quote,

> The Floppy Disk Drive Patent #3,678,481[11] was issued July 18, 1972 with
> named inventors Warren L. Dalziel, Jay. B. Nilson, and Donald L. Wartner.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_floppy_disk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_floppy_disk)

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numakerg
Off-topic, but I wonder if there's a name for this kind of marketing, where a
company will write useful and/or interesting articles that end up in search
results or content aggregators.

I don't know if it's more effective than traditional advertising, but it's
certainly more pleasant.

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floren
It can go both ways, given that the poorly-proofread copy rather turned me
off.

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keanebean86
Im glad you don't read my stuff then! No matter how many times I proofread a
something there's always speling errors and random extra words.

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checkyoursudo
I was at a computer/parts shop yesterday, and I asked about a floppy disk
reader. They sell a usb one.

I have a handful of floppies remaining. I am sure I haven't looked at the
contents in 15 years or more. I feel like checking them out, just in case of
something interesting.

The shop, by chance, didn't have any in stock.

I don't know if I'll get one. If I haven't needed whatever is on them in this
long, then maybe I don't really need it. But I am still curious.

~~~
Stratoscope
If you're near Menlo Park, CA, you can borrow mine. I have one "just in case"
but never use it. :-)

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checkyoursudo
Thanks for the offer, but I appear to be about 35 hours away by car at the
moment. :)

Nearly moved to Foster City about a year ago though! Missed opportunity to
borrow yours, I guess.

Maybe another time. If you're anywhere near northern Sweden in the next few
years then be sure to bring it with you, just in case.

~~~
tim333
there's ebay of course
[https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m...](https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313.TR11.TRC1.A0.H0.Xfloppy+drive+usb.TRS0&_nkw=floppy+drive+usb&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_osacat=0&_odkw=floppy+drive)

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mrob
"At age 20, he attempted to shrink the size of a phonograph record and
eliminate the scratchy quality of the sound. Two years later, he completed the
project at Tokyo Imperial University’s Engineering School. The drive could be
read with magnetic and light sensors, and he received a Japanese patent for
the disk invention in 1952.

No matter how you look at it, that’s the definition of digitizing analog
technology."

Sounds like it's still analog, like a Laserdisc.

~~~
Animats
That seems more like some of the early systems for movie sound recording.
There's a whole history of clunky synchronized movie sound systems going back
to 1918 or so. Optical tracks on film, synchronized disks, magnetic strips on
photographic film, sprocket-fed film with a magnetic coat. The movie people
needed to edit audio, which involved lots of cutting and pasting and
specialized machinery.

IBM also had something called the Magnebelt, an endless belt of tape 4 inches
wide used in dictating machines.

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MaupitiBlue
The article led to some surfing and a revelation ... I didn’t know the old
Bernoulli Box was made by Iomega.

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bayareanative
Obligatory floppotron music video playlist:

[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNU8fSoY0vesEhVv1ErMB...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNU8fSoY0vesEhVv1ErMBrhGMr9r464To)

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ChrisArchitect
[2017]

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sctb
Thanks! Updated.

