I found this old software on a medium I don’t recognize at my church. Does anyone know if this has value to anybody? this

  • jsveiga@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    It’s the guts of 3.5" floppies, like these, they usually stored 720kB, then 1.44MB, but the latest versions (double sided) were 2.88MB.

    The larger one at the bottom is from a 5 1/4" (orange in this picture, the bug daddy in the picture is 8", first type I used, with COBOL)

    … and now you kids know where the “save” button icon came from.

    • redimk@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      This reminds me of when I got a new PC when I was younger and I was shocked… “WHAT?! THEY COME WITH 128MB RAM NOW!!! AND THEY HAVE A DVD TRAY??? No more floppy disks!!!”

      Fuck, those were nice times (except for dial-up internet).

      • PlutoniumAcid@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I remember upgrading my Macintosh computer from 512kB to A FULL MEGABYTE! Wow, what a difference, suddenly I could run two programs at once - even three small ones.

        Ah, the eighties… Those were the days.

      • milkjug@lemmy.wildfyre.dev
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        1 year ago

        There’s nothing quite like passing around copies of games that are eight-diskettes large and finding out that disk #8 is unreadable after a 30min install. Good times.

      • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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        1 year ago

        The part that’s wild to me is I have an SD card in a computer in my pocket that cost $10 or so and is basically disposable but it’s larger than the hard drive in my first computer from 25 years ago

    • Philote@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      First game I ever played was on those 8” floppies. It was a turtle game where you would type in DOS commands and make it move. I can’t remember the command prompts but it was fun enter like forward 1000 and it would blast across the screen.

  • wewbull@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    Beagle Bros was a software company that developed useful quirky software for the Apple ][ computer. They had a schtick that all of their manuals and promotional materials were styled like flyers from “old West” salesmen. They were actually pretty funny if you were in on the joke.

  • moose@reddthat.com
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    1 year ago

    As everyone else said, they’re floppy disks with the plastic case removed.

    Since you found them in a church, could they have belonged to a church bell system? I’ve seen other church bell systems in the past where the songs came on weird mediums.

    This is just a random guess, I don’t know why anyone would remove the casing.

  • MinimumChips@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    12 megabytes of RAM, 500 megabyte hard drive, built-in spreadhseet capabilities and a modem that transmits it over 28,000 bps

  • TheScribbler@lemmy.worldOP
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    1 year ago

    Thanks, everyone. I thought that’s what they were, but thought there was maybe something I didn’t know. I think we’ll probably just trash them.

  • manitcor@lemmy.intai.tech
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    1 year ago

    old floppy disks of different sizes. the bottom looks like 5 1/4" the ones on top with the metal centers are all 3 1/2". Both standards needed sleeves to be read. Many of these are likely trash now but that wouldn’t stop me from trying to load them.

    • Davel23@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Both standards needed sleeves to be read.

      For 3.5", yes. 5.25" disks could be removed from their protective enclosures, inserted into a drive, and used as normal. At least until the exposed medium was damaged by fingerprints or other debris. Not something you would normally do though. Source: Did it myself a few times mostly out of curiosity.

      • vettnerk@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        This. When my favourite floppies started to have a worn sleeve (especially 3.5", where that metal protective covers started to bend out a bit, threatening to jam in the drive), I usually transplanted the disk itself over to a new sleeve.