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One of our IBM customers use to refer to "flippy-flop" disks.
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To be fair, 'flippies' were something we actually used for a time....
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Don't forget the "Twiggy" drives on the Apple Lisa. Floppy disks with I/O slots cut on opposite sides so they could have two read/write heads to improve throughput.
Psychosis at 10
Film at 11
Those who do not remember the past, are doomed to repeat it.
Those who do not remember the past, cannot build upon it.
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I never saw those drives. But I never saw an Apple Lisa either, outside of magazines...
I do remember coming across a floppy drive that had two heads on each side of the armature.
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"The problem was a software issue in having run the mission for many years past its design lifetime," A'Hearn told Spaceflight Now. "This basically caused an overflow in the on-board time, which in turn caused a continuous cycle of rebooting the on-board computer."
[^]
Marc
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This makes your sig even more meaningful.
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Do not feed the troll ! - Common proverb
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Rage wrote: This makes your sig even more meaningful.
Marc
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It's all explained perfectly in the commentary provided by Babu below the article. He makes everything clear and logical...
Will Rogers never met me.
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Roger Wright wrote: It's all explained perfectly in the commentary provided by Babu below the article. He makes everything clear and logical...
I think I found my next guru.
Marc
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Yup, me too! I think I'll get all of my Science information from Creationist Law students in the future; maybe I can get elected to Congress.
Will Rogers never met me.
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Marc Clifton wrote: for many years past its design lifetime,"
Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. This is something that was created knowing that it would fail at some point. The fact that it lasted this long is nice, however lamenting the fact that it could have lasted longer is meaningless since if they wanted that they should have paid for that. But they didn't.
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Have they tried turning it off and on again?
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Mark_Wallace wrote: Have they tried turning it off and on again?
Ironically, I think they're trying that, but since the antennas are no longer pointing at earth (the computer is apparently constantly rebooting now) they can't get a command to it. It actually amazes me how much they can do to reconfigure a spacecraft once it's launched (assuming they can talk to the thing.) For example, to get communication satellites in orbit faster, the firmware / software that operates the satellite (besides the basic stuff) is often still in development while the satellite is delivered to the launch vehicle, which of course can take months.
Marc
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This is something I was thinking about the other week, and been reminded of by the Breaking Bad thread below.
When I was but a lad we had 3 channels in the UK, then a fourth was added. (I'm either old, young, or the same age as you - I know).
This continued until a 5th was added when I was in my 20s.
Several years later we finally had some sort of cable offering.
Nowadays with several hundred TV channels, the ability to easily record programs or series and watch them back whenever, the ability to download hundreds or thousands of films and shows from all over the world.
I think my viewing habits are less varied now that I have all this choice than when there was none.
I seek out things I know I like, I take less chance, I find fewer 'new' things to watch.
I think it was better when you had to watch what was on, whatever it was.
What say you?
Smug hippies who are so much better now they have got rid of their TV altogether are welcome to make that point too if they must.
“I believe that there is an equality to all humanity. We all suck.” Bill Hicks
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We have a TV but only watch DVD's as their is no inbound TV signal set up. I do watch the news online and buy on DVD or download everything else.
I guess that has narrowed our viewing habbit but with the girls it has meant I have kept the house Hannah 'Yo Slutty-Slut-Slut' Montana / Justine Bieber / Lord Gaga / Wand Erection free. So there is an up side.
speramus in juniperus
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When I was young I had one channel BFBS (British Forces Broadcasting Service) which then changed to SSVC.
BFBS what a mix of all the current UK Channels, it wasn't till I returned to the UK did they introduce channel 5. But when SKY came around all I thought was there is the same amount of crap that there was across the 4 / 5 terrestrial channels.
Every day, thousands of innocent plants are killed by vegetarians.
Help end the violence EAT BACON
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ChrisElston wrote: Smug hippies who are so much better now they have got rid of their TV altogether are welcome to make that point too if they must.
Consider my point made.
Marc
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It's better to have a choice.
Same reason Radio is still alive, even when you have lot of songs in your library, which are available from anywhere, sometimes you don't want to choose/pick or you just want the element of surprise.
This is why Netflix is spending millions of dollar on the 'suggestion algorithm', because their huge library is becoming overwhelming for the users, they are spending considerable time deciding what to watch.
I like old fashioned live TV, but I still want the ability to watch things I like at my own time.
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Breaking the dependency on the programming schedule is of immeasurable value. You can be deliberate about what you want to watch and when, rather than being forced to chose between the three things you're fed at any given time.
The freedom to be discerning isn't worse.
It sounds like you're just bemoaning your own laziness in choosing to broaden your TV viewing horizons and blaming accessibility.
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I buy all my TV programs. (DVD)
I refuse to watch commercials so it's really the best option for me.
I don't remember the last time I actually watched a broadcast.
All marketers can go die in a fire.
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I remember when I was a child, and we had at best three channels. And we watched almost anything!
Now we have Sky, and I-have-no-idea-how-many channels - but it's a lot. And I watch very little. Why? Because most of it is cheaply made rubbish, or repeats of repeats of repeated material. Yes, I can record it, yes I can watch it later. But I don't, because most of it isn't worth watching at all, or I've seen it before.
And if I have to sit through one more repeat of a fly-on-the-wall cops-are-wonderful reality TV show, I may throw something heavy at the set...
This message is manufactured from fully recyclable noughts and ones. To recycle this message, please separate into two tidy piles, and take them to your nearest local recycling centre.
Please note that in some areas noughts are always replaced with zeros by law, and many facilities cannot recycle zeroes - in this case, please bury them in your back garden and water frequently.
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We dumped Sky a month or two back and watch only what Freeview gives. Funny thing is we watch no more on Freeview to when we had Sky and to be honest you still get a lot of channels of cheap US shite and endless commercials which we used to pay Sky £30 a month for.
If there is one thing more dangerous than getting between a bear and her cubs it's getting between my wife and her chocolate.
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ChrisElston wrote: When I was but a lad we had 3 channels 2 more than we did.
Veni, vidi, abiit domum
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I think in reality most of the people who still watch TV as broadcast already have reverted to the old pattern even if they have 100 channels available. BBC, ITV, and Sky1 if you've got it. C4 maybe very occasionally, C5 for the cricket. And that's it.
What I don't understand is how so many channels survive when, to all and intents and purposes, nobody is watching them! Even if you're just churning out repeats of shows from the 1970s it's still an expensive business.
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