I realize he's a bit eccentric, (even more so than many of us ;-) ), but I think we're being a little hard on Tony, especially considering the many contributions he's made to our hobby over the years with reverse-engineered schematics and other obscure documentation.
If there weren't so much water between us I'd happily drop off a small form-factor vintage PC that'd probably serve to extract/archive/whatever numerous diskette formats with the various format conversion programs of the day. But it sounds like he'll explore one of the flux-transition gizmos; good luck, Tony, and I hope you enjoy the experience! m On Tue, May 23, 2023 at 9:21 AM Paul Koning via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > > > > On May 23, 2023, at 5:41 AM, Tony Duell via cctalk < > cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > > > > On Mon, May 22, 2023 at 5:25 PM j...@cimmeri.com <j...@cimmeri.com> wrote: > >> > >> On 5/22/2023 5:38 AM, Tony Duell via cctalk wrote: > >>>>> I hereby formally retract my erroneous suggestion of a "386 98,SP2 > desktop > >>>>> with floppies and USB", and replace my suggestion with: > >>>>> "a PC with USB and floppies", and let Tony decide what vintage to > use. > >>>> Fully concur. If it were me, I'd probably suggest some box with from > >>>> the end of the era which came with an onboard floppy controller, and > >>>> dual-boot 98SE and some old Linux that can handle such a thing, like > >>>> Slackware or Debian. That would cover the most bases. > >>> I am sorry, but I think this is a stupid suggestion for many reasons. > >> > >> > >> It is, however, a viable suggestion, and that is better than none :) > > > > I do seriously wonder why nobody has been suggesting the > > flux-transition type of device. If it can be got to work then it would > > seem the ideal solution in that it can handle anything the disk drive > > [1] can handle, including non FM/MFM formats. > > Sure it is likely to work. But the point of the other suggestions, such > as the one I wrote saying just to use a stock floppy drive, is that it > offers another option that is easy. It would also be a particularly > convenient choice for anyone who already has such a system sitting in the > closet, or can get his hands on one easily. > > While those flux widgets have at times tempted me, I haven't had a > requirement for one yet, and unless at some point in the future I do, > chances are I'll just stick with my existing off the shelf PC. > > paul > > >
