Darren K. Hobbs 

@dkh@infosec.exchange
38 Followers
231 Following
532 Posts
Network Operations Analyst for a National Telecom | Blue Team | CTF | Wannabe Threat Hunter | Dad | Husband | Army Veteran | He/Him
Bloghttps://darrenkhobbs.com
Twitter/Xhttps://x.com/darrenkhobbs
LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenkhobbs/
Any other Americans just not feeling the 4th this year? I normally work anyway, because I can't pass up the overtime, but I normally at least go through the motions. The way things are right now I just can't stomach the 1000% markup on fireworks for a few minutes of sparks. (In my state, all we are allowed is sparklers, fountains, etc.)
@hal_pomeranz Marie Antoinette could tell you how it fails. So could the Roman Empire. Probably many other examples. We have certainly been here before.
Boost if you're old enough to know why I have one of these on my computer desk.
@PastaThief Old enough, but I was fancy. I had the one made for the task.
I did it.
I *fucking* did it!
I replaced Windows with Debian  
“Draw me like one of your French girls.”

Crap. I'm in a pretty good mood today. Great. You know what that means.

Beware the Fuckening.

I think the first AI murder is going to be a masc-configured sex bot that was trained on the fetishized abuse of modern porn.
@jack_daniel Yeah. It's terrible, but I instinctively don't trust nice, friendly people.
@kims Motorcycle WiFi provided by aircraft.
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Boost if you're old enough to know why I have one of these on my computer desk.
@PastaThief sometimes 720k just isn't enough!
@PastaThief oooof. Never saw any uned but I can guess :)
@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.

@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.
@MaitreCrevettes @temptoetiam @PastaThief betting shops used to have floors "carpeted" with losing betting slips. I suppose that's all on phones these days.
@PastaThief PROTIP: These don't work on SSDs.
@kevin @PastaThief Best post of the week.
@kevin @PastaThief Underrated comment of the day.
@kevin @PastaThief you have to squeeze real hard
@PastaThief Oh ye gods. Another way for me to feel how old my bones are XD
@PastaThief I know what it is, but I keep three three-version on MY computer desk.
@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
Group coded recording - Wikipedia

@PastaThief Like the little wad of paper to push in the hole in the side of the cassette tape :-)
@zipkid @PastaThief I just used Scotch tape over the hole
@PastaThief why you have one on your desk, now?

I have no idea... you like to feel old?
@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.
@PastaThief
Classic debugger 😂
@PastaThief the holes in punched cards or paper tape were rectangular , not round. Thinking this was perhaps used to destroy floppy disks ? (Prior to the 3.5 inch ones).
@jfmezei @PastaThief not destroy: double their capacity
@olivier_aubert @PastaThief ok remember now. Turn single sided to double sided. One if the corners, right?
@jfmezei @olivier_aubert On the side a bit beneath the corner, but yes. :)
@jfmezei @PastaThief paper tape used round holes
@PastaThief in case of impromptu weddings.
@PastaThief Although it wasn't strictly necessary (punch on ticket machine), I have used one of these in the past.
@PastaThief Old enough, but I was fancy. I had the one made for the task.
@PastaThief takes me back to about 1984...
@quadrivial @PastaThief Snd I keep thinking 1984 was only a few years ago.
@PastaThief you'll face consequences for stealing artifacts from museums! 😅

@PastaThief

My 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.
@PastaThief I recall punching holes in the case with one of these, in my old computers, to reduce weight, and therefore increase speed.
@PastaThief I am not old enough, but it's for making 5.25in diskettes double-sided, right?

@PastaThief

You can make the flip side usable or, if you’re bad enough at it, both sides unusable.

@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

@shriramk @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!

flippy

@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.

@shriramk @PastaThief

@4raylee @shriramk @PastaThief

Don’t forget to take some Tylenol for your back.