[Leica] Re: More on storage

[lrzeitlin at optonline.net (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

On Aug 15, 2006, at 4:35 PM, Adam wrote:

> Hmmm - I'm not sure I'm in complete agreement with you assessment of
> storage solutions. I'm STUNNED that your 8 track magnetic tapes became
> unreadable so quickly. Stored properly, rewound periodically etc
> magnetic tapes are pretty decent although their storage density isn't
> nearly what one can cram onto a DVD these days.
>
> Of the floppy disk varieties only the 8" would give me difficulty
> mounting. 5" drives are common and all varieties of 3.5" are still
> common. On my Mac I can still read original versions of Mac software
> written for the "512k Fat Mac". CDs of all ilks don't seem to be a
> problem and I don't anticipate them being a problem since the
> specification for all optical media which has come afterward have
> reading CDs as a part of backwards compatibility.


Good points. Actually the 8 track tape didn't deteriorate. We bought  
a stand alone work station for our lab so that we didn't have to  
depend on the IBM 360 mainframe. The work station didn't have 8 track  
tape drives. But you must work with some pretty old computing  
equipment. I haven't seen a fully functional 5" drive for many years.  
As an inveterate pack rat, I still have a  512k Fat Mac with two 3.5"  
drives and a 20 MB Seagate disk drive. I also have a Mac 160  
portable, a Mac IIs, 3 Mac Duos and a Duo drive, and a Mac 1400  
laptop. All will accept 3.5" discs. But they were all made before  
1998. None of my later Macs including the original iMac, a Mac G3  
Firewire laptop, a 12" iBook laptop, a 12"  Powerbook, and a  
comparatively new 20" Intel iMac will accept a 3.5" disc.  I have an  
aftermarket 3.5" disc drive which I can move from computer to  
computer in case I feel an urgent need to read an old disc. But I  
havn't felt the urge in several years. CDs are now cheaper than 3.5"  
discs and I can write the contents of 500 3.5" discs on one platter.  
DVDs are almost as cheap and will hold the contents of more than 3500  
3.5" discs. Why bother with 3.5" discs at all?

A better question is why I own more computers than Leicas.  
Unfortunately the price of obsolete computers plummets faster than a  
brick dropped from a steeple. I found that even Goodwill won't take  
old computers. My school district wants only the latest stuff.  
Indeed, if any LUGGER wants a really old Mac and will pay the  
shipping charges, contact me off list. My wife will appreciate it.

Larry Z