QuadMar 6
I actually used to store a KeePass database on a floppy.

Because it can be taken offline simply by removing the floppy disk. And since it's a floppy disk, you can very clearly HEAR it whenever anything accesses it. Nothing on my computer could access it without generating audio feedback.

Honestly a surprisingly good InfoSec feature for a password database.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@VeroniqueB99/116172125434927962
Show threadTim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPEMar 6

@quad Yeah, you used to be able to hear what a computer was doing and thus know when it next needed attention.

First this was the teletype, paper tape reader and paper tape punch. Then it was the floppy disk. Plus there's the printer. Then there was the rattling of the hard disk.

But these days of SSDs all you've got to go on is the fan noise - when the fan winds down your build is finished. Despite being such a small cue compared to what we've had before this is still useful!

(Yes, I did hear of people back in the day putting a loudspeaker across one of the higher address lines (A14 or whatever) and claiming to be able to tell from the resulting music exactly which bit of code was running.)

Show threadQuadMar 6
@TimWardCam Well, I guess the fan helps for devs, but personally I work in IT. (Which unfortunately means I also have to deal with horrible Windows all day).

I spend my time in E-mails, config files, RDP, control panels and ssh. So while my machine has a fan, it runs with it off or at minimum speed most of the time. If my fan does spin up, it's usually Windows doing some shenanigans, not me.
Show threadTim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE
@quad Windows used to tick the hard drive once a second but I think they eventually fixed that.
Mar 6 at 2:45pmWeb
Show threadQuadMar 6
@TimWardCam I dunno man, but I can tell you that modern Windows will hammer your storage device constantly for seemingly no reason and is borderline unusable on spinning rust.

The difference in pointless background IO between a Windows server and a Linux server is actually insane. I typically see a single Windows VM doing "nothing" will generate the same amount of iops as 20 Linux VMs running actual applications
Show threadQuadMar 6
@TimWardCam Heck, the SSD in my desktop broke last week, so it's currently running off a microSD card, good luck doing that with Windows https://akko.quad.moe/notice/B3nFYbDyeBhU7l2ORM
Quad (@[email protected])

my / is currently a microsd card lmao i have an eight node pi cluster in the basement, so i bought ten high endurance microsd cards for them and used one of the spares. it was the best i could fin...

Show threadDasMammutMar 6
@TimWardCam @quad Usually the OS caches disk sectors - so data could be leaked silently 🤔