Formatted HD space way less than HD total?

[M.I.5¾]

In all fairness though, there's a heckuva lot more to know today than
there was thirty years ago.

Yes ... and No.

Thirty years ago, if you wanted to add some new widget, it often involved
having to hand hack the kernel chip to allow it to work correctly. These
days you just plug it into your USB port and away it goes.

Thirty years ago, if you wanted some graphic effect, it might take you 1-2k
of assembler to achieve it (taking you a week to write it and debug it).
Today a couple of lines of Java will achieve the same thing.

 

[Mike C#]

Yes ... and No.

Thirty years ago, if you wanted to add some new widget, it often involved
having to hand hack the kernel chip to allow it to work correctly. These
days you just plug it into your USB port and away it goes.

Thirty years ago, if you wanted some graphic effect, it might take you
1-2k of assembler to achieve it (taking you a week to write it and debug
it). Today a couple of lines of Java will achieve the same thing.

But today's users demand a lot more than the old-school techies, and while
an assembler chip-hack might have been the only way to get it done back in
the day today there are always dozens of ways to accomplish the same end
result. Just determining which tools and options are best for the task at
hand sometimes takes entire teams of people to figure out

 

[Big Al]

Yeah, back when 640KB was considered more memory than "anyone would ever
need" I was actually thinking about the old 10 MB hard drives when I
wrote that, just didn't want to date myself too much Geez, I can still
remember the thrill when I moved up to 20 MB!

Okay, I'm getting the walker out. I remember buying the first 10 pack
of floppies and thinking....."I'll never use all of these!" and began
selling a few to friends. At $25.00 + per 10 pack, I wanted to
minimize my damage!

 

[Mike C#]

Okay, I'm getting the walker out. I remember buying the first 10 pack
of floppies and thinking....."I'll never use all of these!" and began
selling a few to friends. At $25.00 + per 10 pack, I wanted to minimize
my damage!

But do you remember 8 inch floppies? If I recall correctly they held a
whopping 10K of data or so

 

[Big Al]

But do you remember 8 inch floppies? If I recall correctly they held a
whopping 10K of data or so

Yep, I worked with hardware that used them.
A bit older... I worked on a IBM Selectric that was modified with an
electronics package to allow the data streamed at it, to cause it to
print. The device had a 35mm tape reader with about a 10 foot loop,
allowing the user to compose and save to tape. Then play the tape back
as the message was transmitted to where ever. The tape was in a
Plexiglas box and they were used like removable floppies, except you had
to thread them manually.

 

[Ed Covney]

But do you remember 8 inch floppies? If I recall correctly they held a

whopping 10K of data or so

Actually Wang and a few other manufacturers squeezed
1 MByte on the 8-inchers and yes I still have a box here
(if I can find it!)

Ed