Oh the things companies did to try and increase their profits! Bad idea
indeed, reversible just meant half the profit for the suppliers!
On the same vein, we ordered a TWX line form Bell but supplied our own
machine. Bell said they were not responsible if the line caused errors,
and sent a man out with a bit error rate tester - all for 110 baud!
I remember when we sold DSD440 floppies, and the DEC salesmen were going
around saying that it could not format floppies when their RX02 could -
although the only thing that the RX02 could do was change the density
bit from single to double!
cheers,
Nigel
On 13/12/2019 21:06, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote:
On 12/13/19 8:22 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
On 12/13/19 5:11 PM, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote:
I never saw any flippies commercially made but many
companies made punches for flippy 5.25" disks. I always
had to make my own for 8".
They were standard products. Let's see if I can find a period ad...
Well, not an ad, but a precise description:
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/3M/3M_Diskette_Reference_Manual_May83.pdf
Page 8, top illustration. 3M added an "R" to the stock number for
"reversible". I have a few in my stash.
Must have been targeted at the home market as I don't
remember ever seeing them in any of the supplies catalogs
I dealt with. And there were numerous white papers
talking about why it was a really bad idea to spin
floppies in both directions.
bill
--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
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