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General Category => Off the Record => Computer Affairs => Topic started by: Darth Wagtaros on October 20, 2009, 04:43:04 PM

Title: Idle Thoughts
Post by: Darth Wagtaros on October 20, 2009, 04:43:04 PM
I'm doing a full backup of many of my servers and will have around 700gbs on tape, and that's probably short by a few hundred that is just being replicated.

My first HD was the size of a shoe box and was 20mbs.  It seemed gigantic. 

Now I have these thumpers with 48 hard drives and 24tb of potential storage and the Library of Congress has a few hundred (lowball) petabytes of data. 

What a marvelous modern world we live in.
Title: Re: Idle Thoughts
Post by: Ed Anger on October 20, 2009, 04:47:01 PM
Tape? I haven't used that stuff in at least 8 or 9 years.

I have a box of iomega zip disks. And no drive.  :lol:
Title: Re: Idle Thoughts
Post by: Warspite on October 20, 2009, 04:55:32 PM
I remember 5 1/4 inch floppies. Back when backups took discipline.
Title: Re: Idle Thoughts
Post by: Monoriu on October 21, 2009, 05:37:00 AM
I see people complaining about crash to desktops all the time.  15 years ago when I used DOS, a crash to desktop was not the worst thing to happen.  Most of the time, the screen just froze, and I had to reboot. 
Title: Re: Idle Thoughts
Post by: Monoriu on October 21, 2009, 05:39:41 AM
Quote from: Warspite on October 20, 2009, 04:55:32 PM
I remember 5 1/4 inch floppies. Back when backups took discipline.

My early computers all had two floppy drives - 5 1/4 and 3 1/2 inch floppies.  I spent hours trying to figure out the DOS commands to back up programmes with more than 1.44 MB.  Spent countless nights praying to get 2.88 MB floppies.  A wish that was never granted  :mad:
Title: Re: Idle Thoughts
Post by: Valdemar on October 21, 2009, 07:05:55 AM
my first IT classes in school used cassette tapes as media... and that was BEFORE the Commodore 64 :)

V
Title: Re: Idle Thoughts
Post by: Josquius on October 21, 2009, 07:08:59 AM
I remember my speccy and its tape drive.
There was apparently a floppy drive add on and it seemed very high tech and something I fondly desired.

Then my first PC with its amazing 2gb hd.....
Title: Re: Idle Thoughts
Post by: DontSayBanana on October 21, 2009, 07:32:39 AM
Quote from: Monoriu on October 21, 2009, 05:39:41 AM
My early computers all had two floppy drives - 5 1/4 and 3 1/2 inch floppies.  I spent hours trying to figure out the DOS commands to back up programmes with more than 1.44 MB.  Spent countless nights praying to get 2.88 MB floppies.  A wish that was never granted  :mad:

Technically a high-density floppy disk is 2.88MB... unformatted. :contract:
Title: Re: Idle Thoughts
Post by: Grey Fox on October 21, 2009, 09:15:52 AM
The manufacturing cost of 1gb as gone from 200$ to 18ยข in the past 15 years.
Title: Re: Idle Thoughts
Post by: Darth Wagtaros on October 21, 2009, 01:12:18 PM
Quote from: Ed Anger on October 20, 2009, 04:47:01 PM
Tape? I haven't used that stuff in at least 8 or 9 years.

I have a box of iomega zip disks. And no drive.  :lol:
Tapes are still the thing for long term backups. 
Title: Re: Idle Thoughts
Post by: grumbler on October 22, 2009, 07:24:05 AM
Quote from: Tyr on October 21, 2009, 07:08:59 AM
I remember my speccy and its tape drive.
There was apparently a floppy drive add on and it seemed very high tech and something I fondly desired.

Then my first PC with its amazing 2gb hd.....
I remember when we got a computer at work that actually had a hard drive.  You didn't need to run the computer off 5 1/4 inch floppies! You could even switch programs without rebooting the computer!!!oneoneone
Title: Re: Idle Thoughts
Post by: Monoriu on October 22, 2009, 08:37:19 PM
When I played games with DOS, there was a very odd rule.  No matter how much RAM I had, the programmes needed xxxk of the 640k base memory or whatever.  I had to do a lot of things to the config.sys and some other file to release the memory.  Back then starting every game was a challenge.  Password protections, figuring out which .exe file actually started the game etc. 
Title: Re: Idle Thoughts
Post by: grumbler on October 22, 2009, 09:20:37 PM
Quote from: Monoriu on October 22, 2009, 08:37:19 PM
When I played games with DOS, there was a very odd rule.  No matter how much RAM I had, the programmes needed xxxk of the 640k base memory or whatever.  I had to do a lot of things to the config.sys and some other file to release the memory.  Back then starting every game was a challenge.  Password protections, figuring out which .exe file actually started the game etc.
Ah, yes, writing batch files to load stuff into himem.  Good times.
Title: Re: Idle Thoughts
Post by: DisturbedPervert on October 22, 2009, 10:18:32 PM
Quote from: Darth Wagtaros on October 20, 2009, 04:43:04 PM
My first HD was the size of a shoe box and was 20mbs.  It seemed gigantic. 

I think mine was 40.  I had two games that used the hard drive, Wing Commander II and Ultima 7.  I could only have one of them installed at a time.   :(
Title: Re: Idle Thoughts
Post by: CountDeMoney on October 22, 2009, 10:47:45 PM
Quote from: Ed Anger on October 20, 2009, 04:47:01 PM
I have a box of iomega zip disks. And no drive.  :lol:

I've got a couple iomega drives if you want one.  Never need them anymore, as DVD stores more porn.
Title: Re: Idle Thoughts
Post by: Ed Anger on October 24, 2009, 04:08:51 PM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on October 22, 2009, 10:47:45 PM
Quote from: Ed Anger on October 20, 2009, 04:47:01 PM
I have a box of iomega zip disks. And no drive.  :lol:

I've got a couple iomega drives if you want one.  Never need them anymore, as DVD stores more porn.

Thanks, but anything valuable on the disks was transferred to CD a long time ago.
Title: Re: Idle Thoughts
Post by: Monoriu on October 25, 2009, 11:58:46 AM
My first games were on 5.25 inch discs.
Then came the 3.5 inch discs.
Next were CDs.
Now we have DVDs.
I wonder when games on USB flash drives will appear.  I'm somewhat surprised that I still don't see any. 
Title: Re: Idle Thoughts
Post by: CountDeMoney on October 25, 2009, 12:53:44 PM
Quote from: Monoriu on October 25, 2009, 11:58:46 AM
I wonder when games on USB flash drives will appear.  I'm somewhat surprised that I still don't see any.

Go down to your local Best Buy.  They're there.  Free.
Title: Re: Idle Thoughts
Post by: Alatriste on October 26, 2009, 03:28:25 AM
Quote from: Monoriu on October 25, 2009, 11:58:46 AM
My first games were on 5.25 inch discs.
Then came the 3.5 inch discs.
Next were CDs.
Now we have DVDs.
I wonder when games on USB flash drives will appear.  I'm somewhat surprised that I still don't see any.

IMHO the reason is money. DVDs today are so cheap to manufacture in great quantities that they are essentially free. USB pen drives still can't compete with that.
Title: Re: Idle Thoughts
Post by: Darth Wagtaros on October 26, 2009, 09:36:42 AM
I think you are correct.  Also, for storage that is not going to change, like a game or a backup, there is no need to invest in flash when non-volatile storage medium like DVDs are extremely cheap.
Title: Re: Idle Thoughts
Post by: Grey Fox on October 26, 2009, 09:40:59 AM
It's coming tho.
Title: Re: Idle Thoughts
Post by: Tonitrus on October 27, 2009, 01:41:10 AM
Cartridge games(in SSD-form this time) shall return.
Title: Re: Idle Thoughts
Post by: HisMajestyBOB on October 27, 2009, 07:16:45 AM
I've still got an old Apple II GS in my parents basement. Once I get my own house I'm gonna try to get it running again and relive my childhood on all those ancient games, like Mixed Up Mother Goose.

Unfortunately, the last time I tried starting it up (years ago) the CPU didn't turn on, but the monitor did. I'll have to look into what I might do to fix it. If all else fails, I'll figure out a way to attach it's (External, ~50 mb) hard drive to a newer computer and emulate it.
Title: Re: Idle Thoughts
Post by: DontSayBanana on October 27, 2009, 10:27:45 AM
Quote from: Tonitrus on October 27, 2009, 01:41:10 AM
Cartridge games(in SSD-form this time) shall return.

DS cartridges use solid-state flash memory, and the PSP is highly expandable through applications on flash memory. :contract:

I'd like to see a return to cartridge games, though, because it would probably do a lot to lower game expenses- a game development studio could be more likely to feel the game is done and polished at a smaller size and simply opt to use a smaller amount of memory, as opposed to filling up the disk with "bonuses" like lossless audio or retarded gallery slideshows (examples being Thunder Force V: Perfect System or Goldeneye: Rogue Agent).