Building PC, to floppy or not to floppy?

On Fri, 25 Jul 2003 23:16:21 +0100, "Ben Pope"
wrote:

NoRemorse wrote:
"Ben Pope" wrote in message
...
R_Supp wrote:
It can be embarrasing to save your MYOB stuff to a USB device then
have your accountant tell you he can`t use it and in the meantime
you are paying in excess of a hundred bucks an hour for his
services.
Kind of makes the floppy drive look good.

Kind of makes your 100 bucks an hour accountant look crap for not
investing in a 50bucks 6in1 card reader.

How will that help with his accountant? If the accountant doesn't
have USB, he probably can't read flash cards either.

Yeah, I got that confused, but if his accountant is using a PC that doesn't
have USB then shame on him for not spending 20bucks on a USB PCI card. You
can see where I'm going with this...

Yes, you're trying to blame people for not being as technically up to
date as you would expect them to be. Fair enough, but the fact is that
some people just aren't. I know plenty of people who still think that
a floppy is the best way - some of them doubtless still regard it as
the *only* way - of getting data easily from one PC to another.And in
some of those cases, they're right. My mother (who is 70) has a
computer without a CD writer (until recently she didn't even have a
CD drive at all), and a slow, and erratic, dial up internet
connection. If I want to get some files to her, the easiest way to do
it is to put them on a floppy and give her the disk. You don't know my
mother, but you can't say thet you'll never need to exchange files
with someone like her, and, for $10, a floppy is the ideal solution.
If a floppy drive were $100, it would be a different issue, but
there's just no downside.

Brian

bigbrian wrote:
On Fri, 25 Jul 2003 23:16:21 +0100, "Ben Pope"
wrote:

NoRemorse wrote:
"Ben Pope" wrote in message
...
R_Supp wrote:
It can be embarrasing to save your MYOB stuff to a USB device then
have your accountant tell you he can`t use it and in the meantime
you are paying in excess of a hundred bucks an hour for his
services.
Kind of makes the floppy drive look good.

Kind of makes your 100 bucks an hour accountant look crap for not
investing in a 50bucks 6in1 card reader.

How will that help with his accountant? If the accountant doesn't
have USB, he probably can't read flash cards either.

Yeah, I got that confused, but if his accountant is using a PC that
doesn't have USB then shame on him for not spending 20bucks on a USB
PCI card. You can see where I'm going with this...

Yes, you're trying to blame people for not being as technically up to
date as you would expect them to be.

Not at all, I'm just saying that for the sake of a few quid (bucks) they
could be using a much more secure, reliable, and just generally better media
to receive files from their paying clients.

snip lovely tale of mother

If a floppy drive were $100, it would be a different issue, but
there's just no downside.

Apart from them being the least reliable media currently in use.

Ben
--
I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a string...

"Ben Pope" wrote in message
...
NoRemorse wrote:
"Ben Pope" wrote in message
...
NoRemorse wrote:
Copying a paper (five minutes from the deadline) from my laptop to a
school computer, so I can print it out.

Quicker over a network. If you or your school is not connected,
shame on you/them.

Oh it's connected. It's just that they charge us for printing and the
software that keeps track of the printing money in your account is
only installed on the school's computers. Hooking up to the network
in labs is tricky. (I've obtained a connection once out of several
tries with the same DNS and IP settings.) Public areas do let you
connect using DHCP, but that won't help me transfer a file to a lab
computer.

Oh well when you say the computers are connected I'm assuming you can use
something like email or ftp to transfer the files... if you can't, then
they're not very connected!

Yes I could use email, ftp, or scp. Five minutes from the deadline, I won't
fiddle with any software that will most likely fail (Murphy's law). Didn't I
already say that hooking a laptop to the network in a computer lab with a
printer is impossible at my school? I also won't bother to dive under the
desk to get to the rear usb ports to use a usb keychain. A floppy is quicker
and faster in this case.

--
NoRemorse
"Expect me when you see me."

"Ben Pope" wrote in message
...
NoRemorse wrote:
"Ben Pope" wrote in message
...
NoRemorse wrote:
"Ben Pope" wrote in message
...
NoRemorse wrote:
Copying a paper (five minutes from the deadline) from my laptop
to a school computer, so I can print it out.

Quicker over a network. If you or your school is not connected,
shame on you/them.

Oh it's connected. It's just that they charge us for printing and
the software that keeps track of the printing money in your account
is
only installed on the school's computers. Hooking up to the network
in labs is tricky. (I've obtained a connection once out of several
tries with the same DNS and IP settings.) Public areas do let you
connect using DHCP, but that won't help me transfer a file to a lab
computer.

Oh well when you say the computers are connected I'm assuming you
can use something like email or ftp to transfer the files... if you
can't, then they're not very connected!

Yes I could use email, ftp, or scp. Five minutes from the deadline, I
won't fiddle with any software that will most likely fail (Murphy's
law).

ftp has been around since before the internet - it's likely to work. If
you're behind a firewall or being NAT'd you may need to use passive mode.

sarcasmReally? No way./sarcasm


Didn't I already say that hooking a laptop to the network in a
computer lab with a printer is impossible at my school?

No, you said you need to get from your laptop to your school computer
(presumably the ones with the printers), I asked you if you could use a
network, you said they are connected to a network and that there are
public
areas for you to connect, but that that wouldn't help you. I then said
that
you could transfer the files (from your laptop, plugged into the public
area
to the lab computer), using ftp, email or whatever.

Yes, I did say that. "Hooking up to the network in labs is tricky. (I've
obtained a connection once out of several tries with the same DNS and IP
settings.)" And let me clarify something. I would have to specifically go
out of my way to a public area (usually that's another building) to hook up
my laptop to the school's network and then email it to myself and then go
back to the computer lab with the printer and retrieve the email and print
it.

Instead all I have to do is go the printer lab, pop the floppy into the
laptop, copy the file, and put it in the school's computer, and print it
out. It's easy to accomplish in five minutes.


I didn't realise that you would follow that up with "I won't fiddle with
any
software that will most likely fail".

If you have problems with ftp (Even microsoft have managed that in
explorer)
then you're doing something wrong.

LOL. Oh I have no problems with FTP. You're quoting me out of context. That
sentence read "Five minutes from the deadline, I won't fiddle with any
software that will most likely fail (Murphy's law)." You missed the "five
minutes" part and "Murphy's law" I believe they change the meaning of that
sentence. Things generally fail exactly when you need them most.

The FTP implementation in Explorer is really bad, BTW. IE has problems with
slow or lagging FTP servers.


I also won't
bother to dive under the desk to get to the rear usb ports to use a
usb keychain. A floppy is quicker and faster in this case.

Well if you won't use networks or anything other than a floppy then
clearly
a floppy is your best bet. I'm just saying it's possible.

I was stating reasons for not using certain things in that situation, not
condemning them. You're making me sound like some sort of floppy fanboy who
won't use anything but the floppy. I think you're missing my point. I have a
network at home that's been running for several years. I use FTP and SCP
regularly. I obviously use email as well. I just don't use these things in
the situation where I have five minutes to copy a file from my laptop to a
school computer to print it out.

I really want to use a usb keychain, but no school computers have rear
mounted usb ports. This means that I would have to either dive under the
desk or pull the computer out to get to the usb ports. Not very comfortable,
is it? If the computers had usb in the front, to hell with the floppy.

--
NoRemorse
"Expect me when you see me."

NoRemorse wrote:
sarcasmReally? No way./sarcasm

Well I apologise for insulting your intelligence.

Yes, I did say that. "Hooking up to the network in labs is tricky.
(I've obtained a connection once out of several tries with the same
DNS and IP settings.)" And let me clarify something. I would have to
specifically go out of my way to a public area (usually that's
another building) to hook up my laptop to the school's network and
then email it to myself and then go back to the computer lab with the
printer and retrieve the email and print it.

Well I'm unclear of the exact situation and the order in which you would do
things and where you would be at the time. Clearly we have our wires
crossed.

LOL. Oh I have no problems with FTP. You're quoting me out of
context. That sentence read "Five minutes from the deadline, I won't
fiddle with any software that will most likely fail (Murphy's law)."
You missed the "five minutes" part and "Murphy's law" I believe they
change the meaning of that sentence. Things generally fail exactly
when you need them most.

It's hardly like floppies are immune to such failure. I don't believe I was
quoting you out of context.

The FTP implementation in Explorer is really bad, BTW. IE has
problems with slow or lagging FTP servers.

I've never had any major problems with it, although I prefer dedicated ftp
programs for anything more complicated than a small file or two.

Ben
--
I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a string...

"Ben Pope" wrote in message
...
NoRemorse wrote:
sarcasmReally? No way./sarcasm

Well I apologise for insulting your intelligence.

Thank you. Apology accepted.


Yes, I did say that. "Hooking up to the network in labs is tricky.
(I've obtained a connection once out of several tries with the same
DNS and IP settings.)" And let me clarify something. I would have to
specifically go out of my way to a public area (usually that's
another building) to hook up my laptop to the school's network and
then email it to myself and then go back to the computer lab with the
printer and retrieve the email and print it.

Well I'm unclear of the exact situation and the order in which you would
do
things and where you would be at the time. Clearly we have our wires
crossed.

Yeah I agree.


LOL. Oh I have no problems with FTP. You're quoting me out of
context. That sentence read "Five minutes from the deadline, I won't
fiddle with any software that will most likely fail (Murphy's law)."
You missed the "five minutes" part and "Murphy's law" I believe they
change the meaning of that sentence. Things generally fail exactly
when you need them most.

It's hardly like floppies are immune to such failure. I don't believe I
was
quoting you out of context.

True. Floppies are terrible when it comes to reliability. I usually work
around that by making several copies of the same file on the same floppy.


The FTP implementation in Explorer is really bad, BTW. IE has
problems with slow or lagging FTP servers.

I've never had any major problems with it, although I prefer dedicated ftp
programs for anything more complicated than a small file or two.

Yeah it's perfect for simple transfer. I'd never entrust it with anything
big, however.

--
NoRemorse
"Expect me when you see me."

On Thu, 31 Jul 2003 22:13:31 GMT, "Scott"
wrote:

Thanks to everyone who gave thoughtout, insightful replies. I decided to go
with the thumb drive. I start building the PC on Saturday. I keep my
fingers crossed.
-- Scott

I hope you don't have to install raid drivers for an NT based OS.

Have a look at http://zdnet.com/2100-1104-5063018.html

"b p" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 31 Jul 2003 22:13:31 GMT, "Scott"
wrote:

Thanks to everyone who gave thoughtout, insightful replies. I decided to
go
with the thumb drive. I start building the PC on Saturday. I keep my
fingers crossed.
-- Scott

I hope you don't have to install raid drivers for an NT based OS.

On Thu, 14 Aug 2003 07:39:31 -0700, jaeger wrote:

In article ,
says...

Do these devices install as the A: drive?

Maybe, but for the purposes of installing RAID drivers they won't work.
WinXP requires a genuine physical floppy or a slipstreamed install CD.

Don't know why it would make a difference if it was the a: drive. but
i'll take your word for it.

Win2003 does away with this absurd limitation.

Bout time

On Fri, 15 Aug 2003 22:16:25 GMT, "Frank" wrote:

|
| Do these devices install as the A: drive?

I have a high speed Sony USB FDD it installs as an A drive on a
system without a floppy. On a system with one floppy it installs
as B drive. There is also in my bios a choice to boot from USB
floppy. Other hardware I don't know about. GA-8I900 and GA-8I1000
are the mb's I am referencing.

I was afraid of that. Now I'm going to have to go and buy one.