My first real computer job was with a Honeywell-Bull VAR. They had 8 inch

>floppy discs on some of their DPS mini and maimframe computers.. Looked jus
>like a 5.25 inch floppy only bigger.

I've never seen an 8 inch one. Some were probably still around when
I got into computers (1983) but likley those bigger ones were more
corporate than for home use, and it was me who bought and set up
the computers at the company where I was working at the time rather
than me having to adapt to what they were using.

I found some 8" install diskettes, for some long retired software package, while cleaning out a storage area at work. Not even sure what platform... mainframe or PC... they were for. We had no drives in the office for that size, and I have never seen one in the wild.

I hung onto them for a while... I had a shelf or two dedicated as a
"museum" to old tech I had found around the office over the years. At some point during an office move I got rid of them.

Mike

* SLMR 2.1a * If it's Tourist Season, howcum we can't shoot 'em, Pa?

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And I've heard there are still some COBOL jobs, mainly in the government for old computer systems.

Part of the reason there are still COBOL jobs is because, so far, any
attempts to replace them with something else usually fail. I started in
state government in 1997. Within a few years, there were several ideas to "modernize" to newer systems... usually fueled by server or software vendors w ith big promises.

Those projects often ended with a single subsystem existing on the new platform, taking over a day to process data that the mainframe/COBOL could process in an hour or two overnight. Those projects were eventually sunset
and the mainframe was still chugging along.

When I left in 2023, they were busy with another such project. About a
month ago I met with a former co-worker for lunch. The project is
continuing to fall several years behind... it was supposed to be mostly
done in 2023... they've managed to get two or three subsystems moved off (well, partially) but things are still not going well. Workers are being forced
to do a lot of things manually.

Part of the issue is that the users always realize that they will have to
give a lot of stuff up that they can do now in order to get a server-based system that has pretty screens.

In short, they can make a lot of pretty screens for users, but most of that tech is just not up to par when it comes to backend proessing of large databases. It takes a lot of expensive server power to replace a mainframe. Bear in mind that I live in a smaller state, too... the fed's databases must
be much larger than ours.

Don't get me started on the time some numbskull decided that replacing
COBOL with JAVA on the mainframe was a good idea.

* SLMR 2.1a * Who is General Failure, and why is he reading my disk?!

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What killed me about that job was my boss telling me that in preparation
for my coming, he'd cleaned up the server room and e-wasted "pallets" of
IBM ATs. Those would have been worth a LOT - and I would have taken one
home!

Sounds like a real dumbass. :D

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MIKE POWELL wrote to ROB MCCART <=-

I found some 8" install diskettes, for some long retired software
package, while cleaning out a storage area at work. Not even sure what platform... mainframe or PC... they were for. We had no drives in the office for that size, and I have never seen one in the wild.

The oldest thing I ever maintained at work was a Northern Telecom PBX
from the mid-70s, and it took 5 1/4" floppies.

The building it was in had the power shut down for 6 hours, so I needed
to come in and shut the system down. I came back in around 6am to bring
it up. I was warned it might take a while. Inserted the floppy, flipped
the power switch, and NOTHING. Waited. Waited some more. Was about to
call the HQ to figure out what to do, when 14 MINUTES LATER, I heard the
floppy head seek and saw a green light.

Longest 14 minutes of my life.



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Re: Re: 3.5 Floppies
By: MIKE POWELL to POINDEXTER FORTRAN on Wed Feb 25 2026 08:23 am

What killed me about that job was my boss telling me that in preparation
for my coming, he'd cleaned up the server room and e-wasted "pallets" of
IBM ATs. Those would have been worth a LOT - and I would have taken one
home!

Sounds like a real dumbass. :D

Speaking of which, that reminds me of when I was looking for jobs years ago, and I was at an interview where the interviewer seemed to have a dislike for Linux. He said he didn't trust Linux because since it's open-source, he thought that meant there's a high risk of someone putting malware of some kind into Linux.. On the other hand, he felt that since Windows is closed-source and developed by a small team of people who are paid to work on it, Windows should be more trusted. I suppose I can see the reasoning, though I've always heard that Linux being open-source is actually a strength: There are many people looking at the Linux code (moreso than the Windows code), and people who review it to ensure that malware isn't submitted to the codebase and that security issues are fixed soon after they're discovered.

Nightfox

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poindexter FORTRAN wrote to MIKE POWELL <=-

I found some 8" install diskettes, for some long retired software
package, while cleaning out a storage area at work. Not even sure what platform... mainframe or PC... they were for. We had no drives in the office for that size, and I have never seen one in the wild.

The oldest thing I ever maintained at work was a Northern Telecom PBX
from the mid-70s, and it took 5 1/4" floppies.

The building it was in had the power shut down for 6 hours, so I needed
to come in and shut the system down. I came back in around 6am to bring
it up. I was warned it might take a while. Inserted the floppy, flipped the power switch, and NOTHING. Waited. Waited some more. Was about to
call the HQ to figure out what to do, when 14 MINUTES LATER, I heard
the floppy head seek and saw a green light.

Longest 14 minutes of my life.

Do you use an AI bot to write these stories, or do you just make them up
all by yourself?




... Daddy, what does "now formatting drive C:" mean?
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I found some 8" install diskettes, for some long retired software package, while cleaning out a storage area at work. Not even sure what platform... mainframe or PC... they were for. We had no drives in the office for that size, and I have never seen one in the wild.

The oldest thing I ever maintained at work was a Northern Telecom PBX
from the mid-70s, and it took 5 1/4" floppies.

Hmmm... I don't know (or remember?) how old these were. I don't remember seeing a year on them but they didn't seem that old in the sense that the pre-printed labels were not crumbling off or yellowing.

The building it was in had the power shut down for 6 hours, so I needed
to come in and shut the system down. I came back in around 6am to bring
it up. I was warned it might take a while. Inserted the floppy, flipped
the power switch, and NOTHING. Waited. Waited some more. Was about to
call the HQ to figure out what to do, when 14 MINUTES LATER, I heard the floppy head seek and saw a green light.

Longest 14 minutes of my life.

Oh goodness, I'd have figured it was deader than a doornail by then! :O


* SLMR 2.1a * Tip: Never take a beer to a job interview.
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Speaking of which, that reminds me of when I was looking for jobs years ago, and I was at an interview where the interviewer seemed to have a dislike for Linux. He said he didn't trust Linux because since it's open-source, he thought that meant there's a high risk of someone putting malware of some kind
into Linux.. On the other hand, he felt that since Windows is closed-source and developed by a small team of people who are paid to work on it, Windows should be more trusted. I suppose I can see the reasoning, though I've always
heard that Linux being open-source is actually a strength: There are many people looking at the Linux code (moreso than the Windows code), and people wh
review it to ensure that malware isn't submitted to the codebase and that security issues are fixed soon after they're discovered.

Now I am not sure it matters as much but, back in time when I used to hear people say things like this interviewer did, I would likely be thinking
that there being malware in the Windows code isn't so much the problem as
there being malware written to exploit Windows code.

Nowadays, as more mission critical things are running linux, the hackers
are starting to write more malware for it also. IIRC, there has been at
least one instance of someone getting malware/a back door/something else
not good through the review process that it got out in the wild, too. I
can't remember which package it was now.


* SLMR 2.1a * Op'ti-mism n. 1. A Yugo with a trailer hitch
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Re: Re: 3.5 Floppies
By: Dumas Walker to NIGHTFOX on Wed Feb 25 2026 03:51 pm

are starting to write more malware for it also. IIRC, there has been at least one instance of someone getting malware/a back door/something else
not good through the review process that it got out in the wild, too. I can't remember which package it was now.

It was a package in Arch Linux. Luckily, you always know who is running Arch Linux, because they will tell you.

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I found some 8" install diskettes, for some long retired software package,

>while cleaning out a storage area at work.

I hung onto them for a while... I had a shelf or two dedicated as a

>"museum" to old tech I had found around the office over the years. At some
>point during an office move I got rid of them.

I think I might have had one put in a frame to hang on a wall somewhere
as a rememberanc of the past.. B)

Then again, we usually think of these things later, after it's too late..

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Do you use an AI bot to write these stories, or do you just make them up
all by yourself?

LOL now I am tempted to ask AI to write me an IT story involving
poindexter FORTRAN and Gamgee to see what it comes up with. :D

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Nightfox wrote to MIKE POWELL <=-

Speaking of which, that reminds me of when I was looking for jobs years ago, and I was at an interview where the interviewer seemed to have a dislike for Linux. He said he didn't trust Linux because since it's open-source, he thought that meant there's a high risk of someone
putting malware of some kind into Linux..

That sounds like the old head of IT who wore suits and read DATAMATION
magazine. Read an executive summary about the newest trend and asks
management to look into it.

My old boss had an anti-linux bent, mostly because he paid for support
and wanted someone to blame if/when things broke. We used a paid
virtualization host, which ironically, was based on Linux, kvm and
qemu, just like the F/OSS alternative I brought up.

Gotta say, the support for the commercial product was top notch.




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Rob Mccart wrote to MIKE POWELL <=-

>"museum" to old tech I had found around the office over the years. At some
>point during an office move I got rid of them.

I think I might have had one put in a frame to hang on a wall somewhere
as a rememberanc of the past.. B)

It really should be stuck on the fridge - with a magnet.

I was cleaning out my server room last year when I found a 5 1/4" floppy
in my server room with "SECRET LAUNCH CODES" written in bold letters on
the label.



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Re: Re: 3.5 Floppies
By: Rob Mccart to MIKE POWELL on Thu Feb 26 2026 08:06:10

I think I might have had one put in a frame to hang on a wall somewhere
as a rememberanc of the past.. B)

I thought of doing something similar. I have samples of pretty much all the off-line data storage formats used with personal computers. I thought I'd turn them into an evolution-type of display, a-la Human Evolution chart.

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MIKE POWELL wrote to GAMGEE <=-

Do you use an AI bot to write these stories, or do you just make them up
all by yourself?

LOL now I am tempted to ask AI to write me an IT story involving poindexter FORTRAN and Gamgee to see what it comes up with. :D

Hahahaha, might be interesting!




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