Which track was least reliable?

From: John Foust <jfoust_at_threedee.com>
Date: Tue Aug 25 13:49:58 1998

On <http://webreview.com/wr/pub/98/07/31/frames/index.html>,
Michael Swaine (of Dr Dobbs early days) writes:
>
>When I first started writing full-time about computer
>technology back in 1981, I worked with some suspicious
>characters who have gone on to become legends in their own
>minds. Folks like John Markoff, now holding the New York
>Times to its well-known high standard of accuracy on all
>topics technical, and John Dvorak, ubiquitous curmudgeon
>and loose cannon on the media deck. At that time Dvorak
>was launching a new column called Inside Track, and he
>explained to me the hidden significance of the title:
>
> "On disk platters," he said, "the inside track
> is the least reliable one."
>
>It was a very popular column.

Of which ancient systems was this true?

Today's CD-ROMs are the opposite, I've heard: as the head positions
to the outermost area of the disc, it tends to push dust along the
guides, and many CD drives accumulate a pile of dust out there,
preventing it from reaching "the end."

- John
Received on Tue Aug 25 1998 - 13:49:58 BST

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Fri Oct 10 2014 - 23:30:45 BST