[xubuntu-users] Am I the only one who still uses floppies?

[JMZ]

On 07/28/2015 12:37 AM, Eric Christopherson wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 27, 2015, JMZ wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Silly question: am I the only one who still uses floppies (ie. 1.44 MB HD
>> 3.5"/90mm)?
>>
>> I use them to temporarily store shell scripts.  Since scripts are usually
>> only a few kilobytes long (if that), floppies are great for storing works in
>> progress.  After a week or two I make ongoing archive tarball CD backups.
>> The scripts don't stay on very fragile media like a floppy for a long time.
>>
>> You'll be surprised that floppies are still available.  Here in the
>> northeast USA unopened boxes of floppies can be gotten at thrift shops, junk
>> stores, dollar stores etc.  Heck, I even found two unopened boxes of
>> "Macintosh formatted" floppies.  I don't remember Mac formatted floppies
>> even "in the day".  Weird!
>>
>> Jordan
> I'm getting back into retro computing now --
So am I.  I bought a very good condition C64 C from a fellow ham.  I 
dumpster dived a perfect CRT TV (yeah, it's easy to use a LCD TV, but 
it's not "authentic").  A 1541 drive/clone would be great, but 5.25" 
isn't realistic today.
>   my drug of choice being my
> Commodore 128 with a 1581 3.5" drive.
<snip>

I'll go off the xubuntu list and see if there's a way I can get a good 
1581 or homebrew a solution.   I'm sure someone has used an internal PC 
HD 3.5" drive.

Strange, years ago a few of my ham friends used to swear that "notching" 
3.5" SD 720K discs would "convert" them to HD.  I would warn them of bad 
sectors, but cheap is as cheap does I suppose.

<snip>

Jordan