From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On 2024-04-16 21:31, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

On 16/04/2024 17:15, Carlos E.R. wrote:

On 2024-04-16 15:39, Marco Moock wrote:

On 16.04.2024 um 14:07 Uhr Carlos E.R. wrote:

However, hard disks could break down if used on a vehicle, the
vibrations could destroy them. On a single purpose dedicated machine,
it could make sense to use floppies instead of hard disks.

Floppies are being destroyed slowly when being used because the head
has traction on the floppy disk.

I've seen floppies where that was visible because the area where the
head ran was brighter than the verge.

Also, dust comes in and creates additional attrition.
Moisture is also very bad for them.

I love playing around with such things, but I wouldn't like to have a
production system relying on it.

There was software that kept the floppy drive turning non stop. When I
noticed that happening, I just opened the door or stopped the program.


At the time, if you needed to load some data, you had to use floppies.
There were no alternatives. Ok, there were some things, but
significantly more expensive. Mostly magnetic storage.

You could have some industrial machine doing a job; you designed the
task on your desktop, then fed it via floppy to the machine in the
machine shop.

Quite simple :-)

The modern sneakernet equivalent is an SD card or a 'thumb drive'

Also a nasty attack vector.

An USB thumb drive can be manufactured to emulate a keyboard, for
instance, and enter commands to an otherwise isolated and secured machine.

With a floppy, you had to reboot to activate the virus. Or load a program.
--
Cheers, Carlos.

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From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On 2024-04-17 02:42, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:

On Tue, 16 Apr 2024 14:11:05 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:

On 2024-04-16 00:09, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:

The trouble with “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is when you wait >>> until it *is* broke, and only then discover that you have no idea how
to fix it.

You don't replace an industrial setup worth millions just because the
computer is "obsolete".

If you could really afford to spend millions on the hardware, then it
would be peanuts by comparison to add on a software support contract that will provide maintenance and updates for the expected life of the
hardware.

Which probably they have. They get what they pay for, subject to terms
and conditions.
--
Cheers, Carlos.

--- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.114

From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On 17/04/2024 04:27, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:

On Wed, 17 Apr 2024 04:45:43 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:

On 2024-04-17 02:42, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:

On Tue, 16 Apr 2024 14:11:05 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:

On 2024-04-16 00:09, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:

The trouble with “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is when you wait
until it *is* broke, and only then discover that you have no idea how >>>>> to fix it.

You don't replace an industrial setup worth millions just because the
computer is "obsolete".

If you could really afford to spend millions on the hardware, then it
would be peanuts by comparison to add on a software support contract
that will provide maintenance and updates for the expected life of the
hardware.

Which probably they have.

Then the computer is not “obsolete”, if you can still get support for it.

You can still get spare parts for 1950s cars. That doesn't mean they are flawless or not obsolete.

Let's rephrase it. You have a system running on DEC PDP-11s: The guys
who wrote the software are dead, the company that supplied it went out
of business years ago, and no one will even offer a support contract on
it, But it runs your trains perfectly.

To replace it, a large software company quoted you $5m.

What do you do?
--
“A leader is best When people barely know he exists. Of a good leader,
who talks little,When his work is done, his aim fulfilled,They will say,
“We did this ourselves.”

― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

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