hard-sector 5 1/4 disk

From: Sellam Ismail <foo_at_siconic.com>
Date: Tue Nov 6 14:52:12 2001

On Mon, 5 Nov 2001, Richard Erlacher wrote:

> I don't know what you Apple-Computer-Co pimps have been smoking ...
> I've never said ANYTHING about products manufactured and sold after
> 1990 or so, and I certainly have limited my comments to the products
> using the Wozniak floppy disk interface, which is the basis of the
> complaints I've had to deal with since 1978. That's not to say that

That's the problem I have with your comments...the fact that they are so
very wrong and invalid. Like I said, I wish you would explicitly limit
your comments to being your opinion and not insisting on stating them as
"facts".

<OPINION>
> I'll repeat, that I find the Apple disk interface of the type
> associated with the Apple][ family to be ridiculously fragile,
> requiring extensive precautions in day-to-day use and extensive
> maintenance on a frequent (weekly) basis in order to make them at all
> useful. That's a disappointment because technology available at the
> same time these devices became popular worked MUCH better, though
> people wanting to buy fully integrated systems which the Apple
> "computers" of the time were marketed to be, weren't willing to pay
> the price, hence, were stuck with the Apple product instead.
</OPINION>
 
> Now, as for the post 1985 products, all of you Microsoft-haters ought
> to remember how Apple dealt with its user base during the Lisa and
> early MAC years, whenever you disparage M$ (not to defend these
> practices ... ) for its distribution of different OS API's to
> different software vendors, depending on the "deal" that was made.

Ok, they both have bad policies with regards to their API. It's just that
MS is excessively more egregious about it.

<FACTUALLY INCORRECT OPINION>
> All this stems from the fact that back in the '80's, if even the
> teensiest thing went wrong in the Apple]['s interaction with its own
> FD subsystem, the Apple][ went "TILT" and unless you knew things not
> yet published, you had no option but to restart and lose your current
> set of working data. What's more, if you were foolish enough to power
> down the system with a diskette in the drive, or if you were foolish
> enough to set the Apple up as shown in numerous installations, with
> the monitor atop the 2 FDD's and that pair atop the Apple box, your
> disk subsystem gave you what they (Apple Computer Co) figured you
> deserved.
</FACTUALLY INCORRECT OPINION>

Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
Received on Tue Nov 06 2001 - 14:52:12 GMT

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