I was as bad about labeling as Oliver. A box of floppies came with a pack of pre-lined stickers. Once you put the sticker on the floppy, it was best to use a felt-tip pen to write on it. A ball point could damage the media inside if you pressed to hard. (At least that’s what we were all convinced.) It also came with a box of write-protect stickers. There was a little notch cut out on the side that lined up with physical switch inside the drive. If notch was there, you could write to the disk. If the notch was covered by one of those little stickers, it was write-protected.
Back when software was written in machine code or BASIC and stored on compact audio tape cassettes. That was a few years before the Bloom County strip even began. Before that we booted an HP 2100 “mini-computer” with 16K of RAM using switches on the front to enter instructions to make the paper tape reader work, then fed it a long, long strip of punched tape containing the program. With any luck after a half hour to an hour you were “up and running”, if nothing went wrong. And woe to the fumble-fingered person who tore the paper tape! We thought we were pretty advanced since only 40 years earlier IBM had predicted that only five computers were needed world-wide.
Imagine almost 3 years ago
Close enough.
Jesy Bertz Premium Member almost 3 years ago
Recipes for a meaningful life.
Red33410 almost 3 years ago
“It’s time to start labeling my software!”
hariseldon59 almost 3 years ago
Floppy disks. There’s a blast from the past.
Dobby53 Premium Member almost 3 years ago
Bacon bits and 42. We’re good.
biglar almost 3 years ago
I was as bad about labeling as Oliver. A box of floppies came with a pack of pre-lined stickers. Once you put the sticker on the floppy, it was best to use a felt-tip pen to write on it. A ball point could damage the media inside if you pressed to hard. (At least that’s what we were all convinced.) It also came with a box of write-protect stickers. There was a little notch cut out on the side that lined up with physical switch inside the drive. If notch was there, you could write to the disk. If the notch was covered by one of those little stickers, it was write-protected.
Droptma Styx almost 3 years ago
Oliver can unlock the secrets of the universe with a 386 processor and 16mb of RAM.
Black4dder almost 3 years ago
File names were limited to 8 characters back then.
Steverino Premium Member almost 3 years ago
I once had a floppy disk in my back.
ComicRelief almost 3 years ago
All of his executables are named a.out
monya_43 almost 3 years ago
Sounds like a pretty decent party dip. All that’s needed is crisps or potato chips.
Bill D. Kat Premium Member almost 3 years ago
Sooooo…. which disk will answer that question???
aerotica69 almost 3 years ago
Who puts sauerkraut in their baked potato topping? Ick.
Sir Bugsy almost 3 years ago
I think the answer to that one maybe 42 as well.
schaefer jim almost 3 years ago
Damn straight!
Lanfryd almost 3 years ago
Shortly after this strip ran, my theology professor used it in class. Lots of laughter at first but it led to some insightful discussion…
bunrabbit99 almost 3 years ago
the bear looks upset!
ron almost 3 years ago
Back when software was written in machine code or BASIC and stored on compact audio tape cassettes. That was a few years before the Bloom County strip even began. Before that we booted an HP 2100 “mini-computer” with 16K of RAM using switches on the front to enter instructions to make the paper tape reader work, then fed it a long, long strip of punched tape containing the program. With any luck after a half hour to an hour you were “up and running”, if nothing went wrong. And woe to the fumble-fingered person who tore the paper tape! We thought we were pretty advanced since only 40 years earlier IBM had predicted that only five computers were needed world-wide.
Sisyphos almost 3 years ago
Oliver, disorganized?! Teddy is needed for support for the abused computer. It’s recipe for “God” is probably mislabelled indeed….
rcourt13 almost 3 years ago
What’s the recipe for?
GreggW Premium Member almost 3 years ago
Ah, memories…