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Comment by gravypod | Hacker News Reader

I'd rather use outdated technology then use new technology that could introduce bugs.

There is something to be said about using proven technologies. But there is also something to be said about using still supported technologies.

Really, are there producers of 8" floppy media anymore? Are we relying on "new-but-old" stock for occasional replacement needs for these systems? Sounds like that wrench that had to be FedEx'ed between silo bases for Minuteman maintenance:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-wrench-nuclear-bases/story...

> are there producers of 8" floppy media anymore?

It would appear so, and in the US, yet: http://www.athana.com/html/diskette.html#8

I seem to remember someone telling me how there are a couple of cottage industries that center around the fact that the US Government has to buy goods that are US-made.

I think ceiling fans are one example. (i.e. There's relatively few US-based ceiling fan manufacturers. For one of them, I think the large chunk of their business is the US Government.)

I have a feeling this may be an example of that.

At one of my jobs, we used CPU (pre-Intel design), made by a defense manufacturer, in our control systems. When mfr. decided to discontinue CPU manufacturing, we bought all the inventory from last few production runs. AFAIK, we are still running those control systems using the same CPUs and hardware for now 30+ years.

What's really sad is I remember 1997 well; I was still in college at the time, and I laughed any time I saw 8" floppies because they were so antiquated. I remember laughing about them in 1991 even because I came across some in that year. I remember also watching WarGames somewhere around that time (high school) and laughing about the 8" floppies in that move. And now more time has passed since those times than there was between the heyday of the 8" floppies and when I laughed about them. I feel really old... but I also really question WTF is going on with our government that they're still using the things. Disk drives don't last forever.

Would it be bad to mention I was born in 1997? February to be more specific.

That site and I are about the same age.

Yeah, we should really be using off-the-shelf components for our nuclear weaponry.

Please wait, updates are being applied... :D

Yeah, they can be quite reliable and available compared to machines no longer produced whose parts are pulled off eBay at times. ;) Examples:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCA_1802

http://gaisler.com/index.php/products/components/gr712rc

Off-the-shelf for government even more so:

http://www.rockwellcollins.com/~/media/Files/Unsecure/Produc...

https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/jared/ssp-hase-submission.pd...

If the pointy haired bosses ever decide to upgrade our "nuculur" systems from DOS to the "more modern" Windows 95, we're all done for.

All the folks who are whining about how we should be using USB sticks should Google "stuxnet."

If the NSA can run its own semiconductor fab, then I'm sure the US Gov't can pony up a few million annually to manufacture floppy media for something as critical as its nuclear arsenal.

What about the level of hardware failure with floppy disks?

CF cards seem pretty suitable. They're simple and well established; there's likely to be a supply of them for a long time, and it seems feasible to have a batch custom made if that's necessary 30 years down the line.

I can verify that a floppy disk can resist a long time.

I have 3" 1/4 disks from early 90's that keep working fine, plus this last year, I saw a bunch of old 80's 8" floppy disks working on a old Z80 computer.

The word new is very detrimental.

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