Hysterical Photos: The 1st photo is from my time at NAS Pensacola, FL in photo school. Would love to have the Speed Graphic in my collection. Can't justify it. The watch I'm wearing is...

nicksr1125 Loc: Mesa, AZ

The 1st photo is from my time at NAS Pensacola, FL in photo school. Would love to have the Speed Graphic in my collection. Can't justify it. The watch I'm wearing is still functional.

The second is "few" years (about 1982) later at Hickam AFB, HI. I was a shift supervisor in the Quality Control shop. The computer is a Tektronix 4051. It had 16K of memory, an L cassette, & 3 8" floppy drives. The contractor who maintained it & others upped the memory to 64K. We told them we didn't need that much memory. Our programs weren't that large.

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Dannj

I’m wondering if you still have the hat? Is that what Sailors call a “Dixie”?

Also, when you say “floppy” I take it you’re referring to the approx. 4 or 5 inch squares that actually were floppy...not the smaller hard disks that assumed that name.

rlv567 Loc: Baguio City, Philippines

As he said: "3 8" floppy drives". I used a lot of those in the early days - and eventually a small hard drive in a floor-standing case about the size of a current washing machine! If I recall correctly, it cost about $10,000.

Loren - in Baguio City

Dannj

rlv567 wrote:

As he said: "3 8" floppy drives". I used a lot of those in the early days - and eventually a small hard drive in a floor-standing case about the size of a current washing machine! If I recall correctly, it cost about $10,000.

Loren - in Baguio City

Sorry, but I’m still not sure what he’s referring to. I’m familiar with 5 inch, flexible diskettes that had a hole in the middke. I think they were 8 inches when first made. These “floppies” were eventually replaced by the smaller, right rigid disks which for reasons I never understood were still referred to by a lot of people as “floppies”. Maybe the term was just a carryover from the original.

KenY Loc: Glenside, Pa

The sequence was: 8" floppy, 5" floppy, 3.5" floppy. The first two had flexible outer shells, the third had a rigid case, but all had a thin, flexible inner disk with magnetic coatings. The term "floppy" actually referred to the inner media disk.

Dannj

KYShop713:

Thanks for the clarification. That last sentence puts it all together...the storage device is essentially the same in different packaging. Or at least that’s how I see it as a non-techie.

nicksr1125 Loc: Mesa, AZ

The 8" floppy disks were single sided meaning that data was only written to 1 side where the 5.25" & 3.5" disks wrote data to both sides. If I remember correctly, they only stored 180K of data per disk.

Yes, I still have 1 of my dixie cup hats. Don't have any of my Navy uniforms. Couldn't get into them now even if I did.

Kmgw9v Loc: Miami, Florida

Thanks for posting.

Dannj

nicksr1125 wrote:

The 8" floppy disks were single sided meaning that data was only written to 1 side where the 5.25" & 3.5" disks wrote data to both sides. If I remember correctly, they only stored 180K of data per disk.

Yes, I still have 1 of my dixie cup hats. Don't have any of my Navy uniforms. Couldn't get into them now even if I did.

Thanks
And I know what you mean about the old uniforms☹️

TBerwick Loc: Houston, Texas

nicksr1125 wrote:

The 8" floppy disks were single sided meaning that data was only written to 1 side where the 5.25" & 3.5" disks wrote data to both sides. If I remember correctly, they only stored 180K of data per disk.

Yes, I still have 1 of my dixie cup hats. Don't have any of my Navy uniforms. Couldn't get into them now even if I did.

The first 5-1/4" floppies were single sided but they quickly released double-sided discs capable of a whopping 360k storage. Higher densities were developed pretty rapidly and the 1.2MB 5-1/4" became the norm, prior to the introduction of the 3-1/2 drives. Those drives had 720K & 1.44mb discs available.

To think I carry a 128GB thumb drive in my pocket that contains the bulk of the software "tools" that I use with my clients. When you look at the line of progression from the old IBM PC to today's current I7 systems, the changes have been very rapid. And to think that the first ACTUAL computer I played with was our daughter's Commodore 64.

DAN Phillips Loc: Graysville, GA

A truly great camera, and profession thanks for everything!

Wes Loc: Dallas

NIck, I was PX officer in Korea and persuaded the PX in Japan to provide cameras. No Nikons, Canons or Leicas, and no Speed Graphics of course, but The Samocas made me a popular soldier. I had a generator that the regimental headquarters envied. When it went out I offered to get a camera for the officer if he would repair it. No problem.

nimbushopper Loc: Tampa, FL

Nice shots, I checked into NAS Pensacola in Jan '68.

Blair Shaw Jr Loc: Dunnellon,Florida

Those were SPECIAL DAYS unlike anything currently happening. Thanks for sharing the history you lived.

EdJ0307 Loc: out west someplace

Dannj wrote:

I’m wondering if you still have the hat? Is that what Sailors call a “Dixie”?

If they do call it a "Dixie" they may want to consider changing the name. I saw on a news program this morning that the Dixie School District in San Rafael, CA is going to change their name. According to an article in the LA Times, "The Dixie school board voted Tuesday night to change the name of its 150-year-old district after critics linked it to the Confederacy and slavery." California strives to be politically correct if nothing else.