3 Feb
2007
3 Feb
'07
4:24 p.m.
On 2 Feb 2007 at 23:54, arcarlini at iee.org wrote:
> A few days ago I read a claim that floppies are used infrequently
> these days (compared to how often they used to be used) so the
> dust and grime that gets sucked through a drive has longer to
> accumulate before being deposited onto the occasional floppy
> that does make it in there (for a BIOS upgrade or whatever).
Incidentally, I heard a news item a few days ago that 'PC World' (a chain
of computer shops in the UK) will no longer be selling floppy disks once
their current stocks run out. Apparently USB sticks store more data and
are more conveneint (well, the first is true, but irrelevant if you only
need to store a few kilobytes, the second is definitely false if your
machine doesn't have a USB port).
Horsepucky.
(I know--I should quit mincing my words and say what I *really*
think :) )
My drives get used a lot--and are scrupulously maintained. Modern
3.5" DSHD media is garbage. I have far better luck with DS2D 3.5".
My expeirences exactly. Mind you, many modern floppy drives are poor too
(and that's being kind) -- it's interetsing to take a few brand-new
\pounds 10.00 drives and stick an alingment disk in them. Some of the
ones I tried were out of spec...
It may, of course, be the age-old marketroid trick. We need to sell USB
sticks/whatever the replacement is, so we'll make sure the old solution
(floppy drives) stops working reliably (by selling crap medai), then
people will have to upgrade.
-tony