Phase Identifier

[Spark123]

Can you not just use bog standard RG60 cable with BNCs?

 

[SimonH2]

According to Wikipedia it's RG58A/U. RG60 appears to be somewhat thicker - I'd guess it should work (it's 50 ohm), you'd be on your own in terms of how the network might perform. In theory you should be able to build a slightly longer network as I'd expect the thicker cable to have lower losses, but that's not guaranteed.

All academic now - no-one would build a 10baseT network these days (except perhaps as a museum exhibit) and you'd struggle to find network cards and/or transceivers anyway.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I binned some cards and transceivers last year. A couple of the transceivers were 10BASE5...

 

[SimonH2]

And guess what I was looking for for my talk Mind you, it was a few years back now.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

A few years back I might also have been able to provide several m of 10BASE5 cable...

I read recently, but not in detail, (I think it was a revival of this: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheFl...erOldPeopleIconsThatDontMakeSenseAnymore.aspx ) about how if you could remember floppy disks it defined your age.

My first reaction was "what size floppy disks?"

 

[Lectrician]

A school cleared out one of their stores recently, and there was loads of old Nimbus PC's with the network cards in still.

They all used to boot from the network, having no hard drives. It would take ages to get to the login screen, let alone to the menu and finally the software.

It literally was a matter of the more people using the computers, the longer it would take as all the data went down the shared coax.

There was always someone who would disconnect a coax at the wall too - disabling the whole network. Either a teacher who had no idea and just wanted to shift the computer out the way, or a smug teenager looking to cause issues!

 

[JohnW2]

I read recently, but not in detail .... about how if you could remember floppy disks it defined your age.

Remember?!! My goodness, I'm still using at least one machine which has an internal floppy drive!

My first reaction was "what size floppy disks?"

Quite so. In addition to the inevitable masses of 3.5" FDs, I have boxes full of 5.25", and some 8", FDs - and still have the means of reading them. Although it's obviously increasingly rare that I have such a need, when I do try, data is nearly always recoverable from 1980s 5.25" (and 8") ones. I imagine that the very low recording density has helped with data retention.

Kind Regards, John

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Isn't it time to recover the data while you still can, and copy it to some different media?

 

[OwainDIYer]

I read recently, but not in detail, (I think it was a revival of this: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheFl...erOldPeopleIconsThatDontMakeSenseAnymore.aspx ) about how if you could remember floppy disks it defined your age.

I know a computer instructor who calls it "the icon that looks like a television"

I think we need to replace it with "save to USB stick" and "save to cloud" icons.

 

[JohnW2]

Isn't it time to recover the data while you still can, and copy it to some different media?

Needless to say, I've already done that in relation to material that was 'crucial' or which I predicted I may well need to refer to in the future, but the volume of disks involved is such that it would be a major mission to copy it all.

Except in relation to obviously crucial material, there comes a time when it is probably reasonable to 'just let it die' (or explicitly destroy it). Indeed, I've already destroyed a lot of paper records from the 70s and 80s, and I've essentially got to that stage with the magnetic archives (there are lots of tape cassettes, of all sorts of formats, as well as floppies).

Kind Regards, John

 

[SimonH2]

My first reaction was "what size floppy disks?"

Indeed.
And not just what size, but what spec - single or double size, single or double density ? And other densities IIRC.

And who hasn't cut an extra write enable notch in an 8 or 5 1/4" floppy so you could flip it in a single sided drive. Yeah, we all knew you weren't supposed to do it (brings the dust out of the pile of the internal lining), but it always worked for me.

 

[JohnW2]

My first reaction was "what size floppy disks?"

Indeed. And not just what size, but what spec - single or double size, single or double density ? And other densities IIRC.

Indeed, but the 'physical' spec is just the start of it. My archived floppies involve a lot of different formats, mainly MS-DOS and a whole range of variants of CP/M, plus a good few 'non standard formats' for which I had to write custom recovery routines.

Kind Regards, John

 

[stillp]

I haven't seen an 8" floppy for years, but I still have a 3.5" floppy drive on my PC as well as using a USB floppy drive on the works laptop from time to time.
I also have a lot of data backed up onto ZIP 100 Disks, and have quite a stock of the disks if anyone needs some.

A few years ago the National Archives were giving talks on the theme that while we can all read Magna Carts and even older documents such as Egyptian papyrii, it's quite hard to read some of the 20th century digital media. They have a project in cooperation with Microsoft to maintain the ability to read long-defunct programs and media.

 

[Spark123]

You're all too modern, I can remember using cassette tapes for loading computers. In the days, before internet

I have a floppy drive for my PC as I still need one for uploading software to a lighting desk, RF will be in the same boat. My most up to date PC doesn't have an onboard FDD socket .

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I also have a lot of data backed up onto ZIP 100 Disks, and have quite a stock of the disks if anyone needs some.

I have a lot for sale too. And a few 250MB ones, and an external drive.

They have a project in cooperation with Microsoft to maintain the ability to read long-defunct programs and media.

I remember once finding some MS-DOS backups on multi-volume 3.5" floppies.

XP had no idea what they were.