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Since no one else has brought it up, I'll mention SDelete[^], part of the SysInternals suite of utilities. It can be used to do a "Secure Delete" with a variety of options.
Obligatory old fart war story:
Back in the early 1980's I was the system manager on several VAX/VMS systems at our local Air Force base. I went to a seminar on how to securely decommission magnetic media. At the time, most hard drives used 300MB disk packs[^]. The decommission procedure went something like this:
1. Use operating system commands to delete all data from pack.
2. Dismount and then remount pack (ensures no data is cached in drive).
3. Write pattern of 0x00's, then 0xFF's, then random bytes so all addressable sectors on drive.
4. Repeat step #3 several times (I think they wanted at least 8 cycles).
5. Dismount pack from drive.
6. Disassemble pack so that individual platter surfaces are accessible.
7. Sand-blast platter surfaces, removing all recording material.
8. Crush platter.
Most of us thought steps 5 through 8 were a tad... extreme. Dropping a pack from a height of a couple feet was usually enough to render it unusable.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Gary R. Wheeler wrote: Most of us thought steps 5 through 8 were a tad... extreme
Gary R. Wheeler wrote: 7. Sand-blast platter surfaces, removing all recording material.
8. Crush platter.
Sounds therapeutic. 
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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If you're gonna go through steps 6-8, then the previous steps seem rather pointless to me...
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You've been hanging around with JSOP, haven't you? 
Software Zen: delete this;
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As I recall, the explanation for it was to have multiple methods of decommissioning applied so that failures or omissions in any of the methods would be covered by the rest. Also, steps 1-5 were performed on the hardware where the pack was used.
The final steps were actually performed by a single office on the base who had the tools and sand-blasting equipment. Supposedly they also did random spot checks on submitted media to ensure that the first steps were being performed. This was actually quite a concern, because in some cases it took a lot of time or special setup on the machine to do the wiping. People didn't like the time spent, or the machine being down, for something that seemed unnecessary. This was back during the Cold War, and espionage was a genuine concern at our base which ran a lot of R&D programs.
Software Zen: delete this;
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TMNT, you are not.
"One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson
"Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons
"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him." - James D. Miles
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To activate "Shred," you must first play any Metallica track at such high volume the neighbors call the cops. The doppler shifting pitch of the sirens will start "Shred."
«The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled» Plutarch
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The only shredder you will ever trust [^]
So old that I did my first coding in octal via switches on a DEC PDP 8
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I saw that... thinking of getting one for our house waste disposal as it's such a bargain.
So old that I did my first coding in octal via switches on a DEC PDP 8
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This is a candidate for a gimmick in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation[^]. Our intrepid investigators discover that vital data was on a hard drive that's been shredded, along with dozens of other drives. Fortunately the perp didn't empty the shredder output hopper. They recover the fragments, extract the platter bits (probably using a magnet  ), sort the bits into the correct platters and reassemble them. Then they find appropriate drive hardware in the CSI IT department's morgue (cue egregious pun in the dialogue), load up the drive, and discover an 8x16 pixel photo of said perpetrator. Click Enhance a few times, and you now have a high-resolution picture of the bad guy.
Software Zen: delete this;
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FOL - Falling over laughing
So old that I did my first coding in octal via switches on a DEC PDP 8
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Did I mention the original 8x16 photo was monochrome, and the enhanced final photo in vibrant color?
Software Zen: delete this;
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Does Greta Thunberg eat Baked Alaska?
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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If she's fed it by her handlers.
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It's just desserts if this thought gets flamed.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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Griff is used to being in hot air, so fire away! 
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark Twain
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Hopefully, this doesn't balloon into something else, as is oven the case.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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If not, she may start blubbering again.
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Who on earth is Greta Thunberg?
what?
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I'm finding it difficult to warm up to her.
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I have been doing some research into playing card history/evolution and I see that the "German" suits are Bells, Acorns, Hearts, and Leaves. Are those suits used for standard 52-card decks? Or only for decks with fewer cards (Skat decks, etc.) ?
I'm not looking for a Tarrock/Tarok deck -- with a tarot/trump suit -- but a standard/modern deck.
I had a quick look at the German version of that big online retailer and the only German-suited decks I saw had fewer than 52 cards.
Ideally, I'd like to find a "standard" deck with German (or Swiss) suits, and the court cards B, D, and K (rather than J, Q, and K).
If that's not too much to ask -- are there modern European decks with four court cards in each suit (56-card decks) ?
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Source - Wikipedia:
Spielkartenpakete (Blätter) gibt es im Handel in folgenden gängigen Zusammenstellungen:
Rommé – Bridge – Canasta: 2 × 52 Blatt + 6 Joker = 110 Blatt. Um schnell ein einzelnes Blatt mit 55 Karten (52 Blatt + 3 Joker) separieren zu können, haben die Rückseiten der beiden enthaltenen Blätter à 55 Karten unterschiedliche Farben. Seltener sind Ausführungen, bei denen alle 110 Karten einheitliche Rückseiten aufweisen. Mit diesem Blatt können alle gängigen Kartenspiele, die keine speziellen für das Spiel entwickelten Karten verwenden, gespielt werden. Nach Bedarf werden nicht benötigte Karten aus dem Blatt entfernt.
Patience: entspricht Rommé – Bridge – Canasta mit unterschiedlichen Farben der beiden enthaltenen Blätter à 55 Karten. Die Karten sind deutlich kleiner als übliche Spielkarten mit französischem Blatt, um auch bei begrenztem Platzangebot Patiencen legen zu können.
Poker, Whist oder Bridge: 52 Blatt. Gelegentlich liegen dem Blatt noch drei Joker bei, womit zwei dieser Blätter zu einem Rommé – Bridge – Canasta-Blatt kombiniert werden können.
Baccara 6× 52 Blatt. Die Karten tragen keine Index-Zeichen und haben einfarbige Rückseiten ohne Muster.
Skat: 32 Blatt, Kartenwerte in der Reihenfolge von unten nach oben 7, 8, 9, Dame, König, 10, Ass, darüber die vier Buben Karo, Herz, Pik, Kreuz.
Jass oder Durak: 36 Blatt, Kartenwerte 6…10, Bube, Dame, König, Ass.
Doppelkopf: 2 × 24 Blatt = 48 Blatt, Kartenwerte 9, 10, Bube, Dame, König, Ass, wobei jede Karte doppelt vorhanden ist. Gelegentlich liegt dem Blatt noch ein Joker bei.
Tarot: 78 Blatt, 56 Fehlfarben mit Kartenwerten 1…10, Bube, Reiter, Dame, König, dazu 21 Trümpfe I…XXI und eine Excuse. Das Tarotblatt ist das vollständige französische Kartenblatt und wird in kunstvoller gestalteten Varianten (z. B. mit italienischem Bild) zum Kartenlegen verwendet.
Farbe (Kartenspiel) – Wikipedia[^]
Hope that helps...
modified 14-Sep-21 11:29am.
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