8 ms·

There is something to be said about using proven technologies. But there is also something to be said about using still supported technologies. Really, are the

• throwanem 10y ago
  > are there producers of 8" floppy media anymore? It would appear so, and in the US, yet: http://www.athana.com/html/diskette.html#8 http://www.athana.com/html/diskette.html#8
  • joshavant 10y ago
    I seem to remember someone telling me how there are a couple of cottage industries that center around the fact that the US Government has to buy goods that are US-made. I think ceiling fans are one example. (i.e. There's relatively few US-based ceiling fan manufacturers. For one of them, I think the large chunk of their business is the US Government.) I have a feeling this may be an example of that.
    • deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
  • akg_67 10y ago
    At one of my jobs, we used CPU (pre-Intel design), made by a defense manufacturer, in our control systems. When mfr. decided to discontinue CPU manufacturing, we bought all the inventory from last few production runs. AFAIK, we are still running those control systems using the same CPUs and hardware for now 30+ years.
  • Scarblac 10y ago
    Cool, a web page linked in a serious discussion that has copyright 1997 on it. The page was created about half way between the heydey of 8" floppies (late 70s) and today.
    • Grishnakh 10y ago
      What's really sad is I remember 1997 well; I was still in college at the time, and I laughed any time I saw 8" floppies because they were so antiquated. I remember laughing about them in 1991 even because I came across some in that year. I remember also watching WarGames somewhere around that time (high school) and laughing about the 8" floppies in that move. And now more time has passed since those times than there was between the heyday of the 8" floppies and when I laughed about them. I feel really old... but I also really question WTF is going on with our government that they're still using the things. Disk drives don't last forever.
      • gravypod 10y ago
        Would it be bad to mention I was born in 1997? February to be more specific. That site and I are about the same age.
• draw_down 10y ago
  Yeah, we should really be using off-the-shelf components for our nuclear weaponry.
  • andyjdavis 10y ago
    Please wait, updates are being applied... :D
  • nickpsecurity 10y ago
    Yeah, they can be quite reliable and available compared to machines no longer produced whose parts are pulled off eBay at times. ;) Examples: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCA_1802 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCA_1802 http://gaisler.com/index.php/products/components/gr712rc http://gaisler.com/index.php/products/components/gr712rc Off-the-shelf for government even more so: http://www.rockwellcollins.com/~/media/Files/Unsecure/Products/Product%20Brochures/Information%20Assurance/Crypto/AAMP7G%20data%20sheet.aspx http://www.rockwellcollins.com/~/media/Files/Unsecure/Produc... https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/jared/ssp-hase-submission.pdf https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/jared/ssp-hase-submission.pd...
  • reality_czech 10y ago
    If the pointy haired bosses ever decide to upgrade our "nuculur" systems from DOS to the "more modern" Windows 95, we're all done for. All the folks who are whining about how we should be using USB sticks should Google "stuxnet."
• na85 10y ago
  If the NSA can run its own semiconductor fab, then I'm sure the US Gov't can pony up a few million annually to manufacture floppy media for something as critical as its nuclear arsenal.