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You might want to check out Lee Hart's 1802 "Membership Card" computer kit, it is an ELF with modern hardware on a visa-card sized PCB.

The old-school Silicon Graphics web - the Zeye 1.3 - had a little blue plastic shutter to cover the lens. Picture http://www.retrotechnology.com...

Even more fun: build one yourself...

COSMAC ELF Clone: http://www.retrotechnology.com/memship/memship.html & http://www.sunrise-ev.com/membershipcard.htm

You never had a 3.25" floppy. You mean 3.5".

Perhaps you are talking about an ANSI X3.171-1989 90mm drive? ;^)

Which some people in the UK occasionally called a 3.5" "stiffy" to distinguish it from its larger/floppier predecessor like the 8" floppy and the 5.25" mini-floppy...

FWIW, although I never personally had a 3.25" drive, one of my buddies did purchase the Amdisk 3" compact floppy disc system for his Apple ][+....

You never had a 3.25" floppy. You mean 3.5".

The point is that you wouldn't be "hard pressed" to find working 8" floppy equipment. Sure, it's not a simple as driving to the nearest convenience store and picking up a USB flash drive, but it's not as difficult as you make it seem. Media and hardware are available on eBay, and http://www.retrotechnology.com/ has info on connections, drivers, manuals etc. I'm sure there are other sites and vintage computer clubs out there as well.

The May 1975 issue of IEEE Computer magazine had a one-page ad from MITS for the Altair 8800. In the ad, they mention their "DOS Extended BASIC Language System for $6649" for an Altair with 16K memory, terminal and interface, "disc controller and 2 disc drives, DOS and Extended BASIC software."

And another:

An IMSAI ad in June 1976, mentions a "floppy controller with on-board processor and DOS"

So obviously not only was the term DOS being used for Micro-Soft's BASIC-oriented OS in 1976, it was being used on 8080 computers from multiple manufacturers, and as we established earlier, being widely pirated (or at least widely enough for Bill to complain loudly). Case closed, and be careful arguing with old guys about history they lived through. Sometimes we can still remember stuff!

What I find interesting about the story of PC input devices is that the trackball was never really advanced as a better alternative to mice.

How many millions of cases of RSI (and often, associated medical costs) could have been prevented simply by using a trackball, which you work only with a few fingers instead of your arm and wrist.

I've been using trackballs since Kensington came up with the classic "expert" (the one on the left here, for those that don't remember).

Nowadays I use an old Trackman Marble FX at home. Unfortunately it's not made anymore, and it doesn't have a scroll wheel, which is pretty much its only drawback (if you have one of those in the box you can hoist it on eBay for $400, they're that sought after) as well as a newer Logitech Marble Mouse, which unfortunately also does not have a scroll wheel. I avoid TBs that have to worked with the thumb, because they're less precise.

A few years ago I was hoping Logitech would come up with a revised TrackMan, but instead they committed the idiocy of releasing the most stupid product concept of all time: a cordless trackball. Sigh.

http://retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/325_inch.jpg

Also, *I've* never heard of 8.5" disks....

My old 6100 Performa? Is that you? Mirage?

Finally I'll be able to keep a pizza on my DVD player and not worry about it falling off when I try to take a piece!

Only reason I ask is that I remember the Z-100 as having a very nice keyboard, dished like a Selectric and with a good feel to it.

http://retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/d_dri.html# saga Apparently it passed through Lineo and Devicelogic and maybe now Metroworks! I don't feel too badly for getting mixed up- I'm still not clear who has owned cp/m in recent years

ok.. blast from the past for a minute.. what about the OLD Caddy Systems (remember this?) Macs used to have where the CD is in a plasic case and the whole unit is put into the reader... I don't know much about these or if the idea could be re-created better. Bit I like the idea of having a standard media (CD for example) however with soemthing like a special case.