Do you TiVo? VCR? DVD-R/RW?

On Tue, 21 Nov 2006 00:21:28 GMT, wrote:


"Bob Ward" wrote in message
.. .
On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 09:47:08 -0500, krw wrote:


There's a reason that the floppy disk is dead...

Yes, it's too small to hold a useful amount of data. DVDs aren't.

DVD's aren't a satisfactory replacement for a floppy, either. The
technology that killed the floppy is the USB flash drive. Quick,
portable, and re useable.

Yeah, but the unit cost is still too high to give it away- and I hate
using up a 700mb CD blank for a 1mb file, no matter how cheap they are. Yes,
I'm a luddite, but I won't have a PC without a floppy. I even have a box in
the corner that still speaks 5 1/4, for the odd old disk that turns up.
There are still some things a floppy does better than anything else.

aem sends...

While I wouldn't necessarily give one away liker I might a floppy, I'm
never without one for my personal use, and just about anyone who might
expect to transport a file to or from my computer is similarly
equipped.

Otherwise, I would simply email it or use yousendit.com/

On 21 Nov 2006 03:30:56 GMT, (Michael Black)
wrote:

) writes:
"Bob Ward" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 09:47:08 -0500, krw wrote:


There's a reason that the floppy disk is dead...

Yes, it's too small to hold a useful amount of data. DVDs aren't.

DVD's aren't a satisfactory replacement for a floppy, either. The
technology that killed the floppy is the USB flash drive. Quick,
portable, and re useable.

Yeah, but the unit cost is still too high to give it away- and I hate
using up a 700mb CD blank for a 1mb file, no matter how cheap they are. Yes,
I'm a luddite, but I won't have a PC without a floppy. I even have a box in
the corner that still speaks 5 1/4, for the odd old disk that turns up.
There are still some things a floppy does better than anything else.

I think the fuss over the cost of CDROMs is more perception than
reality.

When I got my first floppy drive in 1984, I turned around and spent
another fifty dollars on a box of name brand floppy disks. Obviously
the price dropped, and I can't remember what the cost per floppy was
the last time I bought a box (because it's been long enouhg).

But I can buy a pack of fifty blank CDROMs for twenty dollars here in
Canada, that's without looking for a bargain, so it's forty cents
per blank. That isn't very much. Find a bargain, and you pay less.

Oddly, I'm noticing blank DVDs are coming down faster in price, with
packages of 100 costing less on sale than a pack of 100 CDROMs.

Thus one can get blank DVDs for less than the price of a VHS videotape
(I don't see them selling here for under a dollar).

People never griped about giving floppy disks away, at least not
after they reached a reasonable price per floppy. They also didn't
lament the cost of putting a filled one on the shelf to be part of
an archive. There is little I can buy for forty cents at this point.

So my take is the fuss over the cost of the medium is more perception.
Unlike those floppies, they can be used only once, so there's never
the option of "well I can keep this tape now, and if I really need
a blank, I can tape over it". Even giving away a floppy meant
someone could reuse it, as we recall from the days when AOL gave
their software away on floppy disk.

But DVDs have the advantage of not taking nearly as much space up
as those VHS tapes. So unlike videocassettes, there's not the
issue of space to cause the occasional pruning of the collection.

Now, you can keep things on DVD no matter how unlikely you are to
want to see it again, because the cost of the blank is next to nothing,
and the space is close to nothing.

Michael


There are many CD-burning programs that allow multi-session burns, so
that's not really a viable argument either. The USB drive still wins
out in capacity and convenience.

On 2006-11-21, Bob Ward wrote:
On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 09:47:08 -0500, krw wrote:


There's a reason that the floppy disk is dead...

Yes, it's too small to hold a useful amount of data. DVDs aren't.

DVD's aren't a satisfactory replacement for a floppy, either. The
technology that killed the floppy is the USB flash drive. Quick,
portable, and re useable.

Even a 2.5" HD makes a better floppy replacement than DVD's.

As the "march of technology" continues, many people will have
old 40G and 100G disks laying around. You can pretty cheaply add a very
compact bus powered USB chasis to such drive and end up with tens of
Gigs of free random access storage that's so small that' you're prone
to lose it.

--

Truth is irrelevant as long as the predictions are good. |||
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In article , net
says...
On 2006-11-21, Bob Ward wrote:
On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 09:47:08 -0500, krw wrote:


There's a reason that the floppy disk is dead...

Yes, it's too small to hold a useful amount of data. DVDs aren't.

DVD's aren't a satisfactory replacement for a floppy, either. The
technology that killed the floppy is the USB flash drive. Quick,
portable, and re useable.

Even a 2.5" HD makes a better floppy replacement than DVD's.

You're going to give 2.5" HDs away? I'll take a dozen.

As the "march of technology" continues, many people will have
old 40G and 100G disks laying around. You can pretty cheaply add a very
compact bus powered USB chasis to such drive and end up with tens of
Gigs of free random access storage that's so small that' you're prone
to lose it.

The USB enclosures go for $20 up. That's not free.

--
Keith

On 2006-11-22, krw wrote:
In article , net
says...
On 2006-11-21, Bob Ward wrote:
On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 09:47:08 -0500, krw wrote:


There's a reason that the floppy disk is dead...

Yes, it's too small to hold a useful amount of data. DVDs aren't.

DVD's aren't a satisfactory replacement for a floppy, either. The
technology that killed the floppy is the USB flash drive. Quick,
portable, and re useable.

Even a 2.5" HD makes a better floppy replacement than DVD's.

You're going to give 2.5" HDs away? I'll take a dozen.

No, I'll just take the drive out of my coat pocket and plug
it into the front USB port on your desktop. (same as a thumbdrive)

You might also be familiar with this concept known as borrowing.


As the "march of technology" continues, many people will have
old 40G and 100G disks laying around. You can pretty cheaply add a very
compact bus powered USB chasis to such drive and end up with tens of
Gigs of free random access storage that's so small that' you're prone
to lose it.

The USB enclosures go for $20 up. That's not free.

It's cheaper than a spindle of DVD's and you will be able to
continue using it long after your DVD-R's have started to detiorate
due to old age.

--

Truth is irrelevant as long as the predictions are good. |||
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Posted Via Usenet.com Premium Usenet Newsgroup Services
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In article , net
says...
On 2006-11-22, krw wrote:
In article , net
says...
On 2006-11-21, Bob Ward wrote:
On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 09:47:08 -0500, krw wrote:


There's a reason that the floppy disk is dead...

Yes, it's too small to hold a useful amount of data. DVDs aren't.

DVD's aren't a satisfactory replacement for a floppy, either. The
technology that killed the floppy is the USB flash drive. Quick,
portable, and re useable.

Even a 2.5" HD makes a better floppy replacement than DVD's.

You're going to give 2.5" HDs away? I'll take a dozen.

No, I'll just take the drive out of my coat pocket and plug
it into the front USB port on your desktop. (same as a thumbdrive)

You might also be familiar with this concept known as borrowing.

You don't read well, eh? Let me review for you; floppys were cheap
enough to give away. The replacement for this is a CD or DVD
recordable. If you're expecting the device to come back home, use
USB sticks.

As the "march of technology" continues, many people will have
old 40G and 100G disks laying around. You can pretty cheaply add a very
compact bus powered USB chasis to such drive and end up with tens of
Gigs of free random access storage that's so small that' you're prone
to lose it.

The USB enclosures go for $20 up. That's not free.

It's cheaper than a spindle of DVD's

I just bought a spindle of HP DVD-Rs for $15. IOW, you lie.

and you will be able to
continue using it long after your DVD-R's have started to detiorate
due to old age.

Give me a break! Ever hear of "stiction"?

--
Keith

On Wed, 22 Nov 2006 08:11:37 -0600, JEDIDIAH
wrote:

On 2006-11-21, Bob Ward wrote:
On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 09:47:08 -0500, krw wrote:


There's a reason that the floppy disk is dead...

Yes, it's too small to hold a useful amount of data. DVDs aren't.

DVD's aren't a satisfactory replacement for a floppy, either. The
technology that killed the floppy is the USB flash drive. Quick,
portable, and re useable.

Even a 2.5" HD makes a better floppy replacement than DVD's.
.

Maybe if you can buy 10 of those for less than $10

As the "march of technology" continues, many people will have
old 40G and 100G disks laying around. You can pretty cheaply add a very
compact bus powered USB chasis to such drive and end up with tens of
Gigs of free random access storage that's so small that' you're prone
to lose it.

Thinking of losing stuff, I just heard about a teenage girl who lost
too many cell phones.
--
33 days until the winter solstice celebration

Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"I have found Christian dogma unintelligable. Early
in life I absented myself from Christian assemblies."
-- Benjamin Franklin

On Wed, 22 Nov 2006 11:09:05 -0500, krw wrote:

In article , net
says...
On 2006-11-21, Bob Ward wrote:
On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 09:47:08 -0500, krw wrote:


There's a reason that the floppy disk is dead...

Yes, it's too small to hold a useful amount of data. DVDs aren't.

DVD's aren't a satisfactory replacement for a floppy, either. The
technology that killed the floppy is the USB flash drive. Quick,
portable, and re useable.

Even a 2.5" HD makes a better floppy replacement than DVD's.

You're going to give 2.5" HDs away? I'll take a dozen.

As the "march of technology" continues, many people will have
old 40G and 100G disks laying around. You can pretty cheaply add a very
compact bus powered USB chasis to such drive and end up with tens of
Gigs of free random access storage that's so small that' you're prone
to lose it.

The USB enclosures go for $20 up. That's not free.

You could just get the IDE/USB adapter for less than half that. That
solution doesn't work when you have a dog with overactive salivary
glands.
--
33 days until the winter solstice celebration

Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"I have found Christian dogma unintelligable. Early
in life I absented myself from Christian assemblies."
-- Benjamin Franklin

"Bob Ward" wrote in message
...
On 21 Nov 2006 03:30:56 GMT, (Michael Black)
wrote:

) writes:
"Bob Ward" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 09:47:08 -0500, krw wrote:


(snip)
But DVDs have the advantage of not taking nearly as much space up
as those VHS tapes. So unlike videocassettes, there's not the
issue of space to cause the occasional pruning of the collection.

Now, you can keep things on DVD no matter how unlikely you are to
want to see it again, because the cost of the blank is next to nothing,
and the space is close to nothing.

Michael


There are many CD-burning programs that allow multi-session burns, so
that's not really a viable argument either. The USB drive still wins
out in capacity and convenience.

You make the common geek mistake and assume everyone has those skill levels,
or patience. While a multi-session CD is trivial for you or me, for many of
the people I deal with and support, it is not. They 'get' floppies, they
'get' A:, etc. Not everyone has a nice USB port on the front of the box-
many, many machines still in use, if they have it all, have it out back
somewhere. (Hell, my current-issue laptop at work, the dock blocks the USB,
and the USB on the dock is buried under the 80-lb monititor, in the
inaccessible corner of the modular cubicle. I finally begged a USB extender
so I could use my camera and thumb drive.) Nor does everyone have broadband
or the casual understanding of pushing files around, that another posting
assumed. For handing off some files, to some users, floppies are still the
most painless way to go, and will be for some time.
aem sends...

On 2006-11-18, MegaZone wrote:
Mike Hunt shaped the electrons to say:
80G is woefully insufficient for SD. Anything less than 180 hours I would
say just isn't justified in today's market.

It all depends on how much TV you record and how long you tend to keep
it. I usually watch things within a day or two of recording, if not
later the same day.

True, and it depends on how you view your DVR. I view it as a VOD type of
unit where I store hundreds of hours of variety. That way, I have the
ability to watch whatever I'm in the mood for. I have comedy, drama,
suspense, movies, half-hour shows, hour shows, two hour shows, specials,
documentaries, etc. There are shows like 24 where I might record almost
an entire season before starting to watch. It's really nice when others
visit too as we almost always have something they might enjoy.

--
This is my .sig