Re: Reading older disks

[John Nemeth <jnemeth%cue.bc.ca@localhost>]

On Aug 24,  8:40am, Steve Blinkhorn wrote:
} You [D'Arcy J.M. Cain] wrote:
} > On 2018-08-23 09:03 PM, John Nemeth wrote:
} > > On Aug 23,  5:36pm, steve%prd.co.uk@localhost wrote:
} > > } I cheated - I found a memory medule that fitted and got the system to
} > > } boot.   Did we really once find 356MBytes adequate?
} > > 
} > >      365MB?!?  My first hard drive was 40MB and that was considered
} > > fairly large for the day.
} > 
} > My first HD was 5MB.  Later the systems came with 11MB.  Then one day I
} > scored a brand new 20MB drive.  I had to patch the CP/M binary in order
} > to access it.
} 
} This could rapidly become the "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch from Monty
} Python.   I had an early IBM PC with *two* floppy drives, but the
} first Unix box I ran rather than just used was an NCR Tower which
} started off with 512KBytes of RAM, later upgraded to a whole MByte,
} with a 40MByte drive.  Eventually I ran twelve dumb terminals off it,
} and it worked, but that was 35 years ago.  But then I go back to the
} time when dropping your deck of punch cards was tantamonnt to a "short
} sharp shock" jail sentence.

     When I was in Grade 10, I did a "work experience" thing (only
a week or two).  One of the places, I "worked" at was ComputerLand.
At that time, the IBM PC was brand new.  One of my tasks was to
unbox IBM PCs and install floppy drives.  For those that have never
seen an original IBM PC, or forgotten the details of them, there
were two five-pin DIN plugs on the back.  One was for the keyboard
(not something you wanted to drop on your toes -- it was heavy)
and the other was for connecting to an ordinary portable audio
cassette recorder (not exactly the most reliable storage medium).
Yes, IBM actually put out a business computer with the idea that
people would store data on audio cassettes.  It was a rather absurd
idea.  Even most people using the Apple ][+ (at home or work),
which was four years old at the time, used floppy drives.

}-- End of excerpt from Steve Blinkhorn