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

[Rob Ward]

I used to manage a school Report Writing system that relied on an app to 
write data to a floppy disk and we could write our reports on our 
laptops or wherever and then save the data onto the floppy.  The floppy 
could then be put in a machine anywhere in the school and update the 
master data base (we talking prehistory here, predating the USB memory 
systems, let alone www updating!).  We were getting quite a few floppy 
disk failures where the disk suddenly became un-readable. Suspicions 
were first put at the feet of innocent staff but a when a few of the 
geekier ones also lost floppies, rumours began circulating about the 
better brands to buy.

Eventually the culprit was identified - people were using MS-Word to 
save other files on their report database floppies and removing the 
floppy before they had closed the MS-Word file down.  While a Word file 
was open, the filing system was unstable (something to do with a 
primitive network idea to stop people writing to the same file?). Anyway 
once people were alerted to it (we had about a hundred people with 
floppies, and 1000 kids each with about 6-10 subjects each, for about 6 
years) just as suddenly the floppies were OK again. :-)

*Rob Ward*

On 28/07/15 23:56, Antoine Pitrou wrote:
> On Mon, 27 Jul 2015 21:42:46 -0400
> JMZ <florentior at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Silly question: am I the only one who still uses floppies (ie. 1.44 MB
>> HD 3.5"/90mm)?
> Yes :-) Floppies are slow and fragile. Just buy yourself a couple of
> USB sticks.
> (ok, some USB sticks are unreliable too)
>
> Regards
>
> Antoine.
>
>
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/xubuntu-users/attachments/20150729/3dd3b227/attachment.html>