Just had a 1GB Kingston Data Traveller give up the ghost.
I see you can get up to 64GB USB memory sticks these days
Which makes and sizes have the best reputation/longest lives ?

Jim Hawkins

On 24/09/12 17:26, Jim Hawkins wrote:
Just had a 1GB Kingston Data Traveller give up the ghost.
I see you can get up to 64GB USB memory sticks these days
Which makes and sizes have the best reputation/longest lives ?

By the time anyone has tested them they have become obsolete and you
can't buy them any more. Buy a reputable brand and hope.



--
Bernard Peek

Jim Hawkins wrote:
Just had a 1GB Kingston Data Traveller give up the ghost.
I see you can get up to 64GB USB memory sticks these days
Which makes and sizes have the best reputation/longest lives ?

they are all teh sae chips inside more or less.

Kingstion is usually a safe brand.

1GB is SO old it must go back YEARS.



Jim Hawkins






--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc-ra-cy) €“ a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.

Jim Hawkins wrote:
Just had a 1GB Kingston Data Traveller give up the ghost.
I see you can get up to 64GB USB memory sticks these days
Which makes and sizes have the best reputation/longest lives ?

As TNP says, they're all the same chips, and are probably all made in a
random factory in China.

Kingston have a good reputation. and most of the USB sticks I've had
fail have been for mechanical reasons such as being driven over or
stepped on. If you can find one where the whole thing retracts into the
body, they're a touch safer than ones where the connector is permanently
exposed, even if that's under a cap.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

Yes indeed, I've never had one fail though the newer ones do seem to be
faster.
I just hope the format keeps going as a lot of players now use them for
video and audio.
Brian

--
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active
"Bernard Peek" wrote in message
...
On 24/09/12 17:26, Jim Hawkins wrote:
Just had a 1GB Kingston Data Traveller give up the ghost.
I see you can get up to 64GB USB memory sticks these days
Which makes and sizes have the best reputation/longest lives ?

By the time anyone has tested them they have become obsolete and you can't
buy them any more. Buy a reputable brand and hope.



--
Bernard Peek

On Sep 24, 5:26*pm, "Jim Hawkins" wrote:
I see you can get up to 64GB USB memory sticks these days
Which makes and sizes have the best reputation/longest lives ?

I don't know _any_ = 16GB that are acceptably reliable, and I've
tried loads. My robust backups are on a box of 4GB no-names that seem
indestructible (one of them went through an autoclave!).

On Sep 24, 5:55*pm, John Williamson
wrote:
As TNP says, they're all the same chips, and are probably all made in a
random factory in China.

This has never been true for memory - Korea is a big player.

"Jim Hawkins" wrote in message
m...
Just had a 1GB Kingston Data Traveller give up the ghost.
I see you can get up to 64GB USB memory sticks these days
Which makes and sizes have the best reputation/longest lives ?

They all last a couple of years, then they are too small and get replaced by
a bigger one.
These days they get replaced by SDcards as they fit the camera as well.

As with all digital media, don't rely on them for anything important.
They fail, get broken, stolen or lost.
You need multiple copies at all times to be safe.

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 17:26:44 +0100, Jim Hawkins
wrote:

Just had a 1GB Kingston Data Traveller give up the ghost.
I see you can get up to 64GB USB memory sticks these days
Which makes and sizes have the best reputation/longest lives ?

Jim Hawkins




Very recently got a Transcend 16 GB USB3 - and it certainly works very
much faster than any I have previously used (yes - in a USB3 socket). And
not too much of a premium when I got it.

--
Rod

On Sep 24, 5:51*pm, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

Kingstion is usually a safe brand.


I've just had a Kingston SD card fall to pieces inside a card reader,
after only a couple of months of light use. Had to pick out the
remains with a needle. If I had the receipt I'd send the bugger
back. I also thought Kingston was a reliable brand but not quite so
sure now...

"Jim Hawkins" wrote in message
m...
Just had a 1GB Kingston Data Traveller give up the ghost.
I see you can get up to 64GB USB memory sticks these days
Which makes and sizes have the best reputation/longest lives ?

The actual electronics (the memory etc.) tends to be fine, the bit that
generally fails is the connector- often as not the joint(s) between the PCB
and the "pins" on the USB plug. If you've something on the device you need
to recover, it is worth a try to repair it.

Remove the plastic case (carefully) and look between the metal shell of the
connector and the PCB. You should see a row of 4 soldered joints- these tend
to fail. Remake them and try the device.

The joints often fail because of stress, people hang key etc from the memory
stick when it is inserted into the PC or it gets a "knock".

I've repaired a number like this- several for my daughters and some for
pupils at school who had important work on them.
--
73
Brian G8OSN/W8OSN
www.g8osn.net

--
73
Brian G8OSN/W8OSN
www.g8osn.net


"Jim Hawkins" wrote in message
m...
Just had a 1GB Kingston Data Traveller give up the ghost.
I see you can get up to 64GB USB memory sticks these days
Which makes and sizes have the best reputation/longest lives ?

Jim Hawkins

"Jim Hawkins" wrote in message
m...
Just had a 1GB Kingston Data Traveller give up the ghost.
I see you can get up to 64GB USB memory sticks these days
Which makes and sizes have the best reputation/longest lives ?

I now buy mine from MrMemory.


http://www.mrmemory.co.uk/usb-flash-...SB+Flash+Drive


MrMemory's service is excellent.


--
73
Brian G8OSN/W8OSN
www.g8osn.net

En el artículo
roups.com, mike escribió:

I also thought Kingston was a reliable brand but not quite so
sure now...

Prolly a knock-off one. Millions of the buggers on ebay.

--
(\_/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

On 24/09/2012 19:15, Mike Tomlinson wrote:
En el artículo
roups.com, mike escribió:

I also thought Kingston was a reliable brand but not quite so
sure now...

Prolly a knock-off one. Millions of the buggers on ebay.


+1

The only problem I ever had with a Kingston card turned out to be a copy.
DONT buy these from ebay or an Amazon seller. Use 7dayshop or ebuyer or
similar.

"Jim Hawkins" wrote in message
m...
Just had a 1GB Kingston Data Traveller give up the ghost.
I see you can get up to 64GB USB memory sticks these days
Which makes and sizes have the best reputation/longest lives ?

Jim Hawkins





Be very wary of the write speed of cheap sticks. Some 64GB sticks have a
write speed of 7MB/s or less. At 7MB/s it will take over 2.5hours to fill.

Beware of buying unbadged chips, or what may be faked brand-name
products. Where possible buy a respected brand-name from their own
company site.

The world of 'grey' USB sticks is ripe with trickery, many cheap ones
are a scam - one that claims to be, say 16GB, actually turns out to
be, say, 2GB, with its memory addressing rolling over to fill the same
2GB eight times, thus looking to the computer as though it has 16GB,
but it fills up after only 2GB, when you think it should have another
14GB to go. Yet, even when full, when examined in Explorer or Disk
Manager, it may still say 14GB free!

This is the complete thread where I first read about this ...
Flash Drive Recommendations

http://groups.google.com/group/uk.co...39795d1399b6b1
.... but you may wish to go straight to the most relevant post ...
#9 Theo Markettos

The manufacturer's blog linked in the latter is also worth reading, if
you get sufficiently interested in the case.

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 17:26:44 +0100, "Jim Hawkins"
wrote:

Just had a 1GB Kingston Data Traveller give up the ghost.
I see you can get up to 64GB USB memory sticks these days
Which makes and sizes have the best reputation/longest lives ?
--
================================================== =======
Please always reply to ng as the email in this post's
header does not exist. Or use a contact address at:
http://www.macfh.co.uk/JavaJive/JavaJive.html
http://www.macfh.co.uk/Macfarlane/Macfarlane.html

On Sep 24, 7:49*pm, AlanD wrote:
On 24/09/2012 19:15, Mike Tomlinson wrote:

En el artículo
roups.com, mike escribió:

I also thought Kingston was a reliable brand but not quite so
sure now...

Prolly a knock-off one. *Millions of the buggers on ebay.

+1

The only problem I ever had with a Kingston card turned out to be a copy.
DONT buy these from ebay or an Amazon seller. Use 7dayshop or ebuyer or
similar.

It was from ebuyer.

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 17:51:38 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Jim Hawkins wrote:
Just had a 1GB Kingston Data Traveller give up the ghost.
I see you can get up to 64GB USB memory sticks these days Which makes
and sizes have the best reputation/longest lives ?

they are all teh sae chips inside more or less.

Kingstion is usually a safe brand.

1GB is SO old it must go back YEARS.

I was given a 1GB promotional one only last Friday.

--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

*lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 17:26:44 +0100, Jim Hawkins wrote:

Just had a 1GB Kingston Data Traveller give up the ghost.
I see you can get up to 64GB USB memory sticks these days Which makes
and sizes have the best reputation/longest lives ?

There are definitely differences - I suspect that there are 'cheap' chips
and 'not-so-cheap' chips.

I use Sandisk.



--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

*lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor

Bob Eager wrote:
On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 17:51:38 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Jim Hawkins wrote:
Just had a 1GB Kingston Data Traveller give up the ghost.
I see you can get up to 64GB USB memory sticks these days Which makes
and sizes have the best reputation/longest lives ?

they are all teh sae chips inside more or less.

Kingstion is usually a safe brand.

1GB is SO old it must go back YEARS.

I was given a 1GB promotional one only last Friday.


^^^^^

Proves my point. Obsolete, worthless - have to give 'em away


--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc-ra-cy) €“ a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.

Bob Eager wrote:
On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 17:26:44 +0100, Jim Hawkins wrote:

Just had a 1GB Kingston Data Traveller give up the ghost.
I see you can get up to 64GB USB memory sticks these days Which makes
and sizes have the best reputation/longest lives ?

There are definitely differences - I suspect that there are 'cheap' chips
and 'not-so-cheap' chips.

There are chips that have passed tests and chips that have failed.

I use Sandisk.





--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc-ra-cy) €“ a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.

Brian Reay. wrote:
"Jim Hawkins" wrote in message
m...
Just had a 1GB Kingston Data Traveller give up the ghost.
I see you can get up to 64GB USB memory sticks these days
Which makes and sizes have the best reputation/longest lives ?

The actual electronics (the memory etc.) tends to be fine, the bit
that generally fails is the connector- often as not the joint(s)
between the PCB and the "pins" on the USB plug. If you've something
on the device you need to recover, it is worth a try to repair it.

Remove the plastic case (carefully) and look between the metal shell
of the connector and the PCB. You should see a row of 4 soldered
joints- these tend to fail. Remake them and try the device.

The joints often fail because of stress, people hang key etc from the
memory stick when it is inserted into the PC or it gets a "knock".

I've repaired a number like this- several for my daughters and some
for pupils at school who had important work on them.

Thanks for the tip Brian!
I tried simply pushing the USB plug firmly back into the plastic
case - and the thing now works!
I've copied everything onto another drive now in case it does finally give
up.

Jim Hawkins

On 24/09/2012 17:51, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

1GB is SO old it must go back YEARS.




I remember when I started secondary school back in 2006, I was well
respected for having a 1GB memory stick :-) I was one of 2 who had one
with such a large capacity at the time. I have just been given a free
2GB one from work!

--
David

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 22:11:33 +0100, wrote:

On 24/09/2012 17:51, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

1GB is SO old it must go back YEARS.




I remember when I started secondary school back in 2006, I was well
respected for having a 1GB memory stick :-) I was one of 2 who had one
with such a large capacity at the time. I have just been given a free
2GB one from work!

I remember at my secondary school being given some punch cards and being
pointed at a hand-punch and a code chart. And we were incredibly ahead of
most schools...

--
Rod

In article ,
John Williamson wrote:

Kingston have a good reputation. and most of the USB sticks I've had
fail have been for mechanical reasons such as being driven over or
stepped on. If you can find one where the whole thing retracts into the
body, they're a touch safer than ones where the connector is permanently
exposed, even if that's under a cap.



Used to recommend the Sandisk titanium but they stopped making them a
while back :-(

Now tend to use these http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B006YBARCA/

Far from the fastest, but reliable, and made of metal. I've had one on
my office keyring for many months and it's not showing any sign of wear
(unlike the plastic ones that only last a few weeks...)

Darren

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 18:58:05 +0100
"Brian Reay." wrote:

"Jim Hawkins" wrote in message
m...
Just had a 1GB Kingston Data Traveller give up the ghost.
I see you can get up to 64GB USB memory sticks these days
Which makes and sizes have the best reputation/longest lives ?

The actual electronics (the memory etc.) tends to be fine, the bit
that generally fails is the connector- often as not the joint(s)
between the PCB and the "pins" on the USB plug. If you've something
on the device you need to recover, it is worth a try to repair it.

Remove the plastic case (carefully) and look between the metal shell
of the connector and the PCB. You should see a row of 4 soldered
joints- these tend to fail. Remake them and try the device.

The joints often fail because of stress, people hang key etc from the
memory stick when it is inserted into the PC or it gets a "knock".

I've repaired a number like this- several for my daughters and some
for pupils at school who had important work on them.

That is worth knowing, thanks. It fits the death of my first stick,
suddenly it refused to connect. No point even looking for it now, I
think it was a massive 256k in size.
--
Davey.

In message , Bernard Peek
writes
On 24/09/12 17:26, Jim Hawkins wrote:
Just had a 1GB Kingston Data Traveller give up the ghost.
I see you can get up to 64GB USB memory sticks these days
Which makes and sizes have the best reputation/longest lives ?

By the time anyone has tested them they have become obsolete and you
can't buy them any more. Buy a reputable brand and hope.

I use them to back up my company database

I always use two


--
geoff

In message , polygonum
writes
On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 22:11:33 +0100, wrote:

On 24/09/2012 17:51, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

1GB is SO old it must go back YEARS.




I remember when I started secondary school back in 2006, I was well
respected for having a 1GB memory stick :-) I was one of 2 who had one
with such a large capacity at the time. I have just been given a free
2GB one from work!

I remember at my secondary school being given some punch cards and
being pointed at a hand-punch and a code chart. And we were incredibly
ahead of most schools...


I remember getting shown an "electronic calculator" at school

about the size of a desktop PC


--
geoff

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 22:16:46 +0100, polygonum
wrote:

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 22:11:33 +0100, wrote:

On 24/09/2012 17:51, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

1GB is SO old it must go back YEARS.




I remember when I started secondary school back in 2006, I was well
respected for having a 1GB memory stick :-) I was one of 2 who had one
with such a large capacity at the time. I have just been given a free
2GB one from work!

I remember at my secondary school being given some punch cards and being
pointed at a hand-punch and a code chart. And we were incredibly ahead of
most schools...

Wow.. punch cards, how modern... we had to make do with coils of 7-hole
punched paper tape and could do some crafty editing with a hand punch if
the character we wanted happened to have more holes than the one that
needed editing. I remember you could delete a character by punching out
all the remaining holes (127 = delete). We were coding in Algol-60 on an
Elliot 803 IIRC.

Phil

On Tue, 25 Sep 2012 00:46:17 +0100, Phil Addison wrote:

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 22:16:46 +0100, polygonum
wrote:

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 22:11:33 +0100, wrote:

On 24/09/2012 17:51, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

1GB is SO old it must go back YEARS.




I remember when I started secondary school back in 2006, I was well
respected for having a 1GB memory stick :-) I was one of 2 who had
one with such a large capacity at the time. I have just been given a
free 2GB one from work!

I remember at my secondary school being given some punch cards and
being pointed at a hand-punch and a code chart. And we were incredibly
ahead of most schools...

Wow.. punch cards, how modern... we had to make do with coils of 7-hole
punched paper tape and could do some crafty editing with a hand punch if
the character we wanted happened to have more holes than the one that
needed editing. I remember you could delete a character by punching out
all the remaining holes (127 = delete). We were coding in Algol-60 on an
Elliot 803 IIRC.

pedant
It would have been 9-hole (8 data plus one sprocket)!
/pedant

I worked with 5-hole (OK, 6) tape for a while. It came off teleprinters
but we fed it into an ICL 1902S.



--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

*lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor

On Tue, 25 Sep 2012 00:03:33 +0100, geoff wrote:

In message , polygonum
writes
On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 22:11:33 +0100, wrote:

On 24/09/2012 17:51, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

1GB is SO old it must go back YEARS.




I remember when I started secondary school back in 2006, I was well
respected for having a 1GB memory stick :-) I was one of 2 who had one
with such a large capacity at the time. I have just been given a free
2GB one from work!

I remember at my secondary school being given some punch cards and
being pointed at a hand-punch and a code chart. And we were incredibly
ahead of most schools...


I remember getting shown an "electronic calculator" at school

about the size of a desktop PC

At my first job in the 60's they had electro-mechanical "desk-top"
calculators (Friden?), green beasts about 1/2 the size of a typewriter
with typewriter-like keys. Clever bit of kit though ISTR they could do
long devision and square roots, lord knows how they did it.

Phil

On 24 Sep 2012 23:48:42 GMT, Bob Eager wrote:

On Tue, 25 Sep 2012 00:46:17 +0100, Phil Addison wrote:

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 22:16:46 +0100, polygonum
wrote:

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 22:11:33 +0100, wrote:

On 24/09/2012 17:51, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

1GB is SO old it must go back YEARS.




I remember when I started secondary school back in 2006, I was well
respected for having a 1GB memory stick :-) I was one of 2 who had
one with such a large capacity at the time. I have just been given a
free 2GB one from work!

I remember at my secondary school being given some punch cards and
being pointed at a hand-punch and a code chart. And we were incredibly
ahead of most schools...

Wow.. punch cards, how modern... we had to make do with coils of 7-hole
punched paper tape and could do some crafty editing with a hand punch if
the character we wanted happened to have more holes than the one that
needed editing. I remember you could delete a character by punching out
all the remaining holes (127 = delete). We were coding in Algol-60 on an
Elliot 803 IIRC.

pedant
It would have been 9-hole (8 data plus one sprocket)!
/pedant

I worked with 5-hole (OK, 6) tape for a while. It came off teleprinters
but we fed it into an ICL 1902S.

It did come off teleprinters, that's what we typed the code on. Maybe it
was 5 hole (I don't count the sprocket), it certainly only supported
upper case but 32 characters doesn't sound enough for Algol text. Are
you sure it couldn't be 7-hole, I seem to recall it was an odd number
with the sprocket hole not quite in the centre, e.g. 4 holes + sprocket
+ 3 holes, but its very hazy now.

Phil

"Bob Eager" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 25 Sep 2012 00:46:17 +0100, Phil Addison wrote:

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 22:16:46 +0100, polygonum
wrote:

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 22:11:33 +0100, wrote:

On 24/09/2012 17:51, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

1GB is SO old it must go back YEARS.




I remember when I started secondary school back in 2006, I was well
respected for having a 1GB memory stick :-) I was one of 2 who had
one with such a large capacity at the time. I have just been given a
free 2GB one from work!

I remember at my secondary school being given some punch cards and
being pointed at a hand-punch and a code chart. And we were incredibly
ahead of most schools...

Wow.. punch cards, how modern... we had to make do with coils of 7-hole
punched paper tape and could do some crafty editing with a hand punch if
the character we wanted happened to have more holes than the one that
needed editing. I remember you could delete a character by punching out
all the remaining holes (127 = delete). We were coding in Algol-60 on an
Elliot 803 IIRC.

pedant
It would have been 9-hole (8 data plus one sprocket)!
/pedant

I worked with 5-hole (OK, 6) tape for a while. It came off teleprinters
but we fed it into an ICL 1902S.

Good god, Bob. I trust your slippers are warming by the fire?
LOL
I remember playing startrek on a teletype 43 and pdp9 (i think).
42'ish years back.

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 23:58:03 +0100, geoff wrote:
I use them to back up my company database

I always use two

One possible gotcha: if one dies, do make sure that it wasn't the
computer that you just plugged it in to which was responsible before
immediately trying the other :-)

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 20:28:23 +0000, Bob Eager wrote:

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 17:51:38 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Jim Hawkins wrote:
Just had a 1GB Kingston Data Traveller give up the ghost. I see you
can get up to 64GB USB memory sticks these days Which makes and sizes
have the best reputation/longest lives ?

they are all teh sae chips inside more or less.

Kingstion is usually a safe brand.

1GB is SO old it must go back YEARS.

I was given a 1GB promotional one only last Friday.

Shame nobody ever gives away RAM like that; this 'ere comp could use a
bit more!

I don't think I've ever needed more than a 1GB on a USB stick. In most
cases, I've just needed a few MB for whatever reason (and a fair few of
those cases would have been OK with a floppy, were such things really
still around :-)

cheers

Jules

On Tue, 25 Sep 2012 00:46:17 +0100, Phil Addison wrote:
I remember at my secondary school being given some punch cards and
being pointed at a hand-punch and a code chart. And we were incredibly
ahead of most schools...

Wow.. punch cards, how modern... we had to make do with coils of 7-hole
punched paper tape and could do some crafty editing with a hand punch if
the character we wanted happened to have more holes than the one that
needed editing.

In my day it were t'abacus, and it were uphill both ways in the snow

(Nah, I missed all the good stuff - the computing industry got dull as
dishwater at about the same time I graduated, bah!)

cheers

Jules

On Tue, 25 Sep 2012 01:07:07 +0100, brass monkey wrote:

"Bob Eager" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 25 Sep 2012 00:46:17 +0100, Phil Addison wrote:

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 22:16:46 +0100, polygonum
wrote:

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 22:11:33 +0100, wrote:

On 24/09/2012 17:51, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

1GB is SO old it must go back YEARS.




I remember when I started secondary school back in 2006, I was well
respected for having a 1GB memory stick :-) I was one of 2 who had
one with such a large capacity at the time. I have just been given
a free 2GB one from work!

I remember at my secondary school being given some punch cards and
being pointed at a hand-punch and a code chart. And we were
incredibly ahead of most schools...

Wow.. punch cards, how modern... we had to make do with coils of
7-hole punched paper tape and could do some crafty editing with a hand
punch if the character we wanted happened to have more holes than the
one that needed editing. I remember you could delete a character by
punching out all the remaining holes (127 = delete). We were coding in
Algol-60 on an Elliot 803 IIRC.

pedant
It would have been 9-hole (8 data plus one sprocket)!
/pedant

I worked with 5-hole (OK, 6) tape for a while. It came off teleprinters
but we fed it into an ICL 1902S.

Good god, Bob. I trust your slippers are warming by the fire? LOL I
remember playing startrek on a teletype 43 and pdp9 (i think).
42'ish years back.

That was actually 39 years ago! I had a vacation job working for Advance
Linen (roller towels in pub loos, etc.) and 5 track tape was how their
depots sent back stock levels every day....



--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

*lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor

On Tue, 25 Sep 2012 01:07:02 +0100, Phil Addison wrote:

On 24 Sep 2012 23:48:42 GMT, Bob Eager wrote:

On Tue, 25 Sep 2012 00:46:17 +0100, Phil Addison wrote:

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 22:16:46 +0100, polygonum
wrote:

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 22:11:33 +0100, wrote:

On 24/09/2012 17:51, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

1GB is SO old it must go back YEARS.




I remember when I started secondary school back in 2006, I was
well respected for having a 1GB memory stick :-) I was one of 2
who had one with such a large capacity at the time. I have just
been given a free 2GB one from work!

I remember at my secondary school being given some punch cards and
being pointed at a hand-punch and a code chart. And we were
incredibly ahead of most schools...

Wow.. punch cards, how modern... we had to make do with coils of
7-hole punched paper tape and could do some crafty editing with a
hand punch if the character we wanted happened to have more holes
than the one that needed editing. I remember you could delete a
character by punching out all the remaining holes (127 = delete). We
were coding in Algol-60 on an Elliot 803 IIRC.

pedant
It would have been 9-hole (8 data plus one sprocket)!
/pedant

I worked with 5-hole (OK, 6) tape for a while. It came off teleprinters
but we fed it into an ICL 1902S.

It did come off teleprinters, that's what we typed the code on. Maybe it
was 5 hole (I don't count the sprocket), it certainly only supported
upper case but 32 characters doesn't sound enough for Algol text.

We weren't using it for Algol. But it could have been used; there were in-
band shift characters.

Are
you sure it couldn't be 7-hole, I seem to recall it was an odd number
with the sprocket hole not quite in the centre, e.g. 4 holes + sprocket
+ 3 holes, but its very hazy now.

8 hole, 5 one side and 3 the other. You can see some here, just a little
way down on the right:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_tape
It shows 7 holes, sure, but the capacity for an 8th hole was there. Not
used for source text, but used for storing a full byte when storing
binary information (the 1902S operating system was on paper tape,
although it used disks for data storage).



--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

*lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor

in 1165016 20120924 221133 gremlin_95 wrote:
On 24/09/2012 17:51, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

1GB is SO old it must go back YEARS.




I remember when I started secondary school back in 2006, I was well
respected for having a 1GB memory stick :-) I was one of 2 who had one
with such a large capacity at the time. I have just been given a free
2GB one from work!

I just bought two 16GB sticks for under £8