29 Apr
2014
29 Apr
'14
6:44 a.m.
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2014 15:10:03 -0700
From: "Mark J. Blair" <nf6x at nf6x.net>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Subject: Re: The US Military still use 8-inch floppies.
On Apr 28, 2014, at 14:56 , Thomas Dzubin <dzubint at vcn.bc.ca> wrote:
I just received the following response from info at floppydisk.com at
http://www.floppydisk.com/
"We have DS/DD and SS/DD 8 inch disks. We sell them for $10 each.
Sealed packs of 10 are $89.
If you need more info, let us know."
They didn't state whether or not they were NOS, new manufacture, or
used, or who the manufacturer is/was. I did ask for information about
"new or usable" 8-inch diskettes though. In a moment of insanity, I
paid another vendor more than that (for a pack of 10) over 10 years
ago, so at least they are a "bit" less insane.
Bob
The American TV Show "60 minutes"
showed 8-inch floppies are still
being used by the military
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/04/60-minutes-shocked-to…
To a certain extent, I'm a fan of "if it works, don't fix it". However,
with aging hardware using consumables that are no longer in production such as 8"
floppy disks, there's risk in using the old hardware.
As silly as it seems to keep on using 8" floppies in mission-critical hardware in
2014, if some company resumed manufacturing old floppy disks for .mil and was willing to
also sell to us collectors, I'd be happy to stock up if the pricing wasn't too
insane.
--
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
http://www.nf6x.net/