(Yet Another) Mike
PastaThiefBoost if you're old enough to know why I have one of these on my computer desk.
Dan Q@PastaThief sometimes 720k just isn't enough!
Abie@PastaThief oooof. Never saw any uned but I can guess :)
Master of Crevettes@temptoetiam @PastaThief (I have one for binders, and my dad used to own the specific one used for horse races betting cards)
@MaitreCrevettes @PastaThief I suspect it was used here to punch holes in punchcards computer programs, but I might be wrong.
Bernd Herd@temptoetiam @MaitreCrevettes @PastaThief Maybe you had a single-sided 5 1/4" floppy drive and you punched a second hole in your floppies to be able to use the backside by placing them rotated in your floppy drive.
I did that in 1982 or so.
Single sided, 34 tracks, single density were about 80 KByte capacity per side. I still have that drive in my cellar.
@temptoetiam @PastaThief obviously.
(Note that some knitting machine also ran on punch cards, so you can find such items in knitting tools on Etsy I guess, though they are probably different because you punch in the middle of the card, not only on the sides like this one or the "pince à tiercé")
@MaitreCrevettes @temptoetiam I actually used them mostly with floppy disks, although you could use them with punch cards, yes. :) A friend of mine actually operated a Jacquard Loom for demonstrations at the local at the local science centre for a time! (I don't know if she's still doing that.)
@temptoetiam @MaitreCrevettes There are those who used them for that; I used them for making 5.25" floppies double-sided. :)
@PastaThief @temptoetiam trust us both to read all the comments to your post. We both live in *that* corner of the fediverse, and Abie has a thing for finding the best oddities.
Montessori Space Programme 🛸
Ken Butler has moved@MaitreCrevettes @temptoetiam @PastaThief betting shops used to have floors "carpeted" with losing betting slips. I suppose that's all on phones these days.
Kevin P. Fleming@PastaThief PROTIP: These don't work on SSDs.
Hdunagan@kevin @PastaThief Best post of the week.
Bill@kevin @PastaThief Underrated comment of the day.
stibbons@kevin @PastaThief Is that why they're called Single Sided Devices?
@PastaThief I know what it is, but I keep three three-version on MY computer desk.
adorfer@PastaThief i was never fan of GCR. For MFM drives (of shugart flavor) you could not operate without the index pulse.
So we opened the sleeves, removed the media and drilled that 2nd index hole.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_coded_recording
So we opened the sleeves, removed the media and drilled that 2nd index hole.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_coded_recording
zipkid - Breaker of Systems@PastaThief Like the little wad of paper to push in the hole in the side of the cassette tape :-)
Michael Weiss@zipkid @PastaThief I just used Scotch tape over the hole
Cegorach@dat I mean, I still have two working 80s-era computers on my desk (an Apple IIe and an Atari 130XE).
@PastaThief Ha! I know exactly why you have one of these on your computer desk.
Jon Quass@PastaThief
Classic debugger 😂
Classic debugger 😂
Ross of Ottawa@PastaThief in case of impromptu weddings.
UkeleleEric@PastaThief Although it wasn't strictly necessary (punch on ticket machine), I have used one of these in the past.
Darren Hobbs 
@PastaThief Old enough, but I was fancy. I had the one made for the task.
quadrivial, tall and graying@PastaThief takes me back to about 1984...
@quadrivial @PastaThief Snd I keep thinking 1984 was only a few years ago.
considerate@PastaThief you'll face consequences for stealing artifacts from museums! 😅
James DonohoeMy floppy of choice back in the day...when I could afford them.
@JamesMDonohoe Elephant was nice, although I was a bit of a Dysan afficianado.
@PastaThief Yepper - Dysan also a fantastic choice.
Murphestophelese MurphMeister@PastaThief I recall punching holes in the case with one of these, in my old computers, to reduce weight, and therefore increase speed.
Gemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐
Athena L.M.@PastaThief I am not old enough, but it's for making 5.25in diskettes double-sided, right?
rk: it’s hyphen-minus actuallyYou can make the flip side usable or, if you’re bad enough at it, both sides unusable.
Shriram Krishnamurthi@rk I see all the references to 5.25" floppies, which I knew well, but I have never used a punch with one. What does it do with a floppy?
@PastaThief
@PastaThief
http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/F/flippy.html
You could use a hole punch to make another write notch on the other side of a single-sided floppy, doubling your disk space (though at the time most drives could only read one side at a time).
Some disks were also shipped without a write notch at all, so that you couldn’t replace whatever was on them; a hole punch gave you a free reusable floppy!
Ray Lee@rk I used to own a square hole punch that had a spacer that aligned the floppy to the exact position for the hole. I was a hit at the BBS parties, let me tell ya.
@4raylee @shriramk @PastaThief
Don’t forget to take some Tylenol for your back.
@rk
Wait, this was true of *all* 5.25"s? I'm shocked that I never heard of this before, seems startling to miss a trick like this in India, when we could barely afford one floppy!
@PastaThief
Wait, this was true of *all* 5.25"s? I'm shocked that I never heard of this before, seems startling to miss a trick like this in India, when we could barely afford one floppy!
@PastaThief
Some manufacturers insisted that the back of a floppy wasn’t good or whatever, and I think in the *very* early days some of them weren’t hard-tracked/sectored on the back but by the mid 80s I’d’ve bet it would work on any of ‘em.
…I can *smell* 5.25” floppies in my memory now, sheesh.
@rk @shriramk @PastaThief
This "common knowledge" made it all the way to my village on the edge of the rainforest (Vancouver BC). And I'm sure there were some Indian students in CS at UBC (although they were likely 2nd or 3rd generation Punjabis, so perhaps had few connections with India or its tech community).
This "common knowledge" made it all the way to my village on the edge of the rainforest (Vancouver BC). And I'm sure there were some Indian students in CS at UBC (although they were likely 2nd or 3rd generation Punjabis, so perhaps had few connections with India or its tech community).
@PeterLudemann @rk @PastaThief
Well, the problem is I didn't know anyone in the Indian "tech community". All I knew was my best friend, a few teachers who knew far less than me, and people at a computer company who couldn't answer my questions until I realized why: they had actually, in a notable sense, faked their product. (The product was real, their contribution was not.)
Well, the problem is I didn't know anyone in the Indian "tech community". All I knew was my best friend, a few teachers who knew far less than me, and people at a computer company who couldn't answer my questions until I realized why: they had actually, in a notable sense, faked their product. (The product was real, their contribution was not.)
@shriramk @rk @PastaThief
You've travelled far ... much farther than me. My starting point was a paperback edition of "Teach Yourself Electronic Computers", which I discovered at a WH Smith bookstore when visiting my grandparents, who lived in south England (an exotic locale for someone living in the middle of Vancouver Island's rain forest): https://archive.org/details/teachyourselfele00west/page/n7/mode/2up
You've travelled far ... much farther than me. My starting point was a paperback edition of "Teach Yourself Electronic Computers", which I discovered at a WH Smith bookstore when visiting my grandparents, who lived in south England (an exotic locale for someone living in the middle of Vancouver Island's rain forest): https://archive.org/details/teachyourselfele00west/page/n7/mode/2up
@PeterLudemann
That's funny, I imagine Vancouver was pretty exotic for someone in south England, too. (-:
@rk @PastaThief
That's funny, I imagine Vancouver was pretty exotic for someone in south England, too. (-:
@rk @PastaThief
Vancouver Island != Vancouver.
https://www.town.lakecowichan.bc.ca/scenic.php
Veronica Olsen@PastaThief "Making" double density 3.5" floppy? I just used my dad's electric drill. Also need tape to make old driver disks writable. 😁
Dawn Tåke 🌙 
@PastaThief
I don't know, but I have a few guesses.
I don't know, but I have a few guesses.
Allan Chow@PastaThief is that how chads are born?
Michael Vilain@PastaThief They stopped selling 3-hole-punch paper at CostCo?