Tuesday, April 8, 2008

A photo history - place your bits, place your bits

Gizmodo ran a little story on the history of computer data storage... interesting.

[click pic]

8 comments:

grk said...

I have memories of the conveyors of pink cards where my dad used to work. we used to take the cards home and draw on them. can't do that anymore.

Percussivity said...

My earliest computer media memory was using 5 1/4" floppy disks with my Commodore 64.

SQLFunkateer said...

Mine too. The TRUE floppies, not the fake-o 3.5" jobs that had no floppiness to them whatsoever.

I was a pragmatic computer enthusiast...I never cared about hardware or the technology inside, I was a software man...as long as my games ran, I was good!

Percussivity said...

OK well I'm sure you know this, but for the benefit of others who may not know yet may be interested (I estimate a 3% chance of this possibility)... The 'floppy' was referring to the actual surface on which data is written. On the inside of the hard plastic 3.5" disk shell is a very floppy disk. Well actually when you think about it (for those who might) the word 'floppy' is sort of an action adjective; practically an adverb. I mean it seems to describe the potential floppiness of an object were it to be given a good shake for example. Otherwise the potentially floppy disks are quite sedentary and not often in an actual state of flopping about. Hard disks on the other hand contain truly hard data surfaces (platters if you will) on the inside.

SQLFunkateer said...

Hehe, no, I actually didn't know it, although I've certainly ripped apart enough 3.5" disks. As I said, I really grew up interested in computers, but more in the software than hardware, so I ignored a lot of the basics that other computer people might classify as somewhat more common knowledge. Again, as long as Police Quest, SEAL Team, Heroes Quest, Comanche Maximum Overkill, 688 Attack Sub, and all my other games worked, I didn't pay any attention to the hardware!

[lapses into computer game nostalgia]

Percussivity said...

You might enjoy this website and what it can provide... gaming nostalgia heaven!

http://www.oldgames.nu/

SQLFunkateer said...

That is the best abandonware site I have ever seen. Now I have something tremendously unproductive to do on Saturday!

Percussivity said...

Glad to help a fellow gamer out. Yes I've wasted many hours reliving my youth via the services this site provides. Playing through Pitfall2 on Atari 2600 was especially nostalgic.

I actually remember as a kid getting RiverRaid for Atari 2600 for my birthday and in the box was an ad flier for the original Pitfall game which my friends and I had been greatly anticipating. When I saw ths flier with the release date I actually left my birthday party to run across the street to show my friend.