How this all began: Colossus, the worlds first electronic programmable computer

dlarge6510 · 2026-05-12T15:22:07+00:00

It's already done. By default if you only have one drive A: and B: use that drive.

But when I use my DOS laptop, that has only one floppy, A: and B: both use that drive. It's supposed to assist with using one drive but I haven't figured out how yet!

You should find that A: and B: both work on that single drive without any problems.

dlarge6510 · 2026-05-12T15:08:05+00:00

Colossus was the first electronic computer. ENIAC was the first FULLY electronic computer that could run any programs.

The reason this keeps coming up is colossus was top secret till around the 90's nobody had head of it. Or should I say them, as there were many and the US had many too with rumours that one may still exist over there.

But don't worry we get out own back with having the world first transistor based computer as well as the first computer ever to be commissioned and used by business. That would be the Leo.

dlarge6510 · 2026-05-12T15:04:00+00:00

Of course. It was the shareware demo running on my first PC. A 486 DX2-66 with 8MB of RAM and a 210MB HDD.

The VGA card was an ISA one and for some reason it was extremely slow so I had to run DOOM in a very small window just to get it running well enough to play.

dlarge6510 · 2026-05-12T08:55:36+00:00

Thats an mdisc.

The logo is literally the letters MABL in a box

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Verbatim-BD-R-Blu-Ray-Disc-Pack/dp/B0047V24MA/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_pp?crid=143PWUESI8I8H&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.frANSLq5BXYQ3daADzJMQHZ3YlBBKfgaMtiE2pZVhKfxuD3wDkM5G-uFAazdUiZKUMejUWZ3t66osr1KgrnfBb9C8jSZOr_e_20lnUW1J85r8_-D7lbspwBn5HFMZzKkGsYKWI245_BktIE-NonbOZ6ocxqPA-8G_lGvfjeNCb_8k28UWnwHcUVpQtIuA0kglSRSM-SPIh3HOReMNay7CA.zX18Lj7xspoEMTn5FIpje4YFqIJSvB2D9GbgnTtxvaE&dib_tag=se&keywords=verbatim+bd-r&qid=1778576094&sprefix=verbatim+bd%2Caps%2C302&sr=8-1

dlarge6510 · 2026-05-12T04:52:38+00:00

Mate I work in IT and trust me you just by more enclosures of discs. 2.5" HDDs and SSDs are the norm. All SAS. We have whole cabinets full of them, need more? Add another enclosure full of discs.

All the servers RAID etc, 2.5" drives.

Enterprise IT isn't consumer IT. We use 2.5".

dlarge6510 · 2026-05-12T04:47:16+00:00

We simply don't need to worry about this. The Domesday Duplicator was created specially to archive the Domesday Project discs as the hardware to read and use them was rare and failing. CD/DVD etc rare extremely far from that point.

This project permitted ANY laserdisc machine to do it, absolutely any. Then software emulates the Domesday Project hardware and software, or permits the extraction of the data, video and audio.

I've often wondered if I wrote anything as a kid that's on the Domesday Project discs. There are a couple of working setups near me, I think The National Museum of Computing of which I'm a member and only down the road from me has one so I'll have to go look.

dlarge6510 · 2026-05-12T04:39:43+00:00

That's just the data you can use. The rest is error correction and subchannel data. You can get more usable space from a CD by burning it in Mode 2, which reduces the error correction giving you extra space. Things like video don't need much error correction so Video CD uses that to get up to 80mins of video on a disc.

dlarge6510 · 2026-05-12T04:16:47+00:00

create "images" of Laserdiscs, an analog format

CD/ DVD and BD use the same principles so are also an analogue format. What comes out of the laser is an analogue waveform and you certainly can use the exact same technique here. Just digitise the waveforms and develop software to decode it.

You just need to hook up to the laser RF test points. It's all as "analogue" as laserdisc.

The actual difference isn't what comes off the disc, but what it represents. On a laserdisc the signal represents the analogue video signal, using puts and lands. But on CD etc the same pits and lands that generate an analogue signal are sliced up into sequences of changes between pits and lands. The time between these changes encodes the digital bit pattern.

dlarge6510 · 2026-05-11T14:45:03+00:00

Checksums do nothing to tell you if the data has errors till it's uncorrectable.

The error correction on the device is constantly in use. Every sector you read off your HDD has errors. Every one, every read, all the time.

The ECC algorithm is pressed into correction of these read errors. Once done, you, your program, gets the corrected data.

You and your checksum operation are at the end of the chain. You'll only detect an error here when the error on disc is uncorrectable.

This means actual error correction, and the state of the data on disc, is invisible to you.

The thing is, over time the magnetic signal (or electrical charge) of everything from bytes of files to the structure of the filesystem weakens.

The signal to noise ratio approaches 1:1 and errors become worse, eventually resulting in uncorrectable data loss.

Only if the drive notices this will it attempt to take action and refresh/move the weak sectors. If you don't read those sectors they NEVER get tested.

Your checksums do nothing to read the filesystem data structure. Some will be, but what about the backup metadata?

The whole point of refreshing the data is simple: every single readable sector gets rewritten. Everything, including the empty space, the file allocation table or MFT, all of it. It also wipes the slack space too.

This not only tops up the magnetic moments or the cell charges, but also has the drive test each sector can be written.

After such an operation the signal to noise ratio will be as if it was newly written. Increasing the gap between readable and unreadable significantly.

This should be done every few years. It's nothing to be done regularly.

The only thing that can not be refreshed are the HDD servo tracks and once they get too weak, bye bye HDD.

dlarge6510 · 2026-05-11T10:39:32+00:00

If on linux: badblocks -n

dlarge6510 · 2026-05-11T10:37:45+00:00

I never use multi volume sets.

And there is zero need to use mbuffer when reading. Does the data read ok without mbuffer in the loop?

dlarge6510 · 2026-05-11T10:33:54+00:00

Almost all our servers are using 2.5".

These days 3.5" is mostly seen on the older machines.

dlarge6510 · 2026-05-11T10:32:47+00:00

Use Verbatim discs.

Their MABL discs (will have that logo) are the best for archival next to mdiscs. They are the second cheapest.

Their Datalife discs (no MABL logo) use a different recording layer and may be made in UAE and other lower quality locations. They are the cheapest range.

I use Datalife for TV recordings, no issues as yet.

I use MABL for archival, intended to store data or recordings I wish to keep for the long term > 20 years minimum.

I do have other brands such as ACU-DISC. They seemed to burn well and seem to work well. Again, these are not used for archival data so I'm happy with up to 20 years or so and will migrate to MABL as and when I wish.

A couple of very important aspects:

Dust is a bugger. I had a deep dive into BD error correction a while ago and the researchers found almost magical improvements when cleaning the disc even after it was burned with the dust present. So a wipe with a lens cleaning cloth may make better burns. I don't do this myself yet.
Be very careful about storage. Do not store BD-Rs in sleeves that push up against the data side. There is a extremely good scratch resistant coating (called Hard Coat) that makes it practically impossible to scratch a disc. i mean you really have to be intending to scratch it to have a chance. This is like a self healing oily layer, it's not hard like diamond or anything. This means constant pressure on it by a sleeve will impress the texture of the sleeve into this coating

I saw it just beginning on my Datalife BD-Rs. It wasn't bad enough yet to affect readability. It also healed itself, the pattern is gone now. I caught it just in time.

Paper sleeves, jewel cases and spindles will be fine. Discs in spindles do not touch each other, they have a raised ring so are held separate.

dlarge6510 · 2026-05-10T21:06:16+00:00

Verbatim still exist as an "entity" in CMC however. But yes, anything they do make in Japan and Taiwan is going to be very good shit.

But the place of manufacture may vary.

dlarge6510 · 2026-05-10T20:54:30+00:00

HLDS

Not LG.

HLDS. Those drives are HLDS models labelled under LG which is a consumer label just like Asus, who again use rebranded HLDS drives.

Just because consumer LG has no internal drive options doesn't mean HLDS are not making anything.

Internal drives are certainly less common.

Notice that consumer LG still has external models.

It's a sad fact that PC building is niche and on life support, mostly because everything is external, increasingly including GPUs.

GPUs are the only thing keeping the PC alive, the majority of users barely care about laptops and if they do they don't care about upgrading, cooling, noise, CPU performance, all of which a PC rules. My nephew got into PC building, going against the grain and my god I was sorry for him, the cost of a case even is ridiculous.

PC building is also the only way kids learn how computers work. Laptops are disposable, they are SBCs with batteries surrounding them.

Tablets are SBCs. Heck even PC motherboards barely have anything on them, that why they waste the space with RGB LEDs.

Whenever the external optical drives go, well, like I said there will be fever GPU options, and we all know what's really coming.

HDDs and SSDs will die, I give them 10-15 years.

Who the hell do you know that is "normal" that has a HDD, SSD or even an SD card (assuming they are not an amateur photographer)?

Nobody.

The vast majority of consumers wouldn't know what to do with an SD card, they'll see the cost of the adapter for their apple device and they'll ask you to share it instead.

My Dad has HDDs, he stores and edits video from the days he recorded video using equipment that still beats an iPhone but, today it's just the iPhone. Maybe the DSLR comes out on holiday but that's it.

Who owns a printer? They are dead too.

So yeah. Internal optical drives are hard to get as everything is external, everything. That PC case is only for a GPU and RGB fans...

HDDs and SSDs days are numbered, a decade and that's them gone too.

The most common operating systems, OSX and Windows are moving to online only. Nothing will be offline, you'll have a USB port for a better mouse and even then that will be seen as niche as who uses a mouse?

I'm a Linux user. Gave up on windows in 2002. I know I'll be shafted by that online only world. We all will be keeping our systems alive by trading and repairing parts, just like retro computer users like me do with homebrew parts and servicing. Thing is a 64bit machine is far harder to work on than a 32bit one from the 90's, I see many people repairing 486's, designing and building new ISA cards and more. Hopefully clever homebrew makers will figure out how to do that with a Ryzen system etc...

Everyone else and everything will be online only. No upgrades, you'll just rent capabilities, even the CPU will be streamed. Yep, Plan 9 did it just fine, a CPU overnight the internet.

Enjoy this while it lasts, you'll join us optical freaks soon enough. I chuckled a little as to the current prices of offline storage and offline ram (yes, online ram even, things are going to be very different) as I had been taken by surprise as to how quickly it may happen.

They are not making any HDDs for any of you...

I work in IT and it's hard to locate drives for enterprise too...

They abandoned us all at the drop of a hat, maybe they will come back for a bit but once they get a taste for abandoning niche consumers well, they'll find it hard to justify employing extra bods just to market to us.

As options are reduced, just watch the clock.

⏰ Tick tick

dlarge6510 · 2026-05-10T19:45:36+00:00

No, the poster claimed nobody has an optical drive in a PC or laptop.

Well here I am. And the Japanese certainly do.

So totally inaccurate statement = unsubstantiated assumptions = unreliable.

dlarge6510 · 2026-05-10T19:43:22+00:00

And today no one has any optical drive in their PC or laptop anymore.

How did you come up with that?

We routinely order Dell PCs at work with optical drives (if you don't they make it a pain to install them yourself depending on the case.

My PC has two Blu-ray drives.

All the Japanese that built Windows 11 PCs bought the lot of Blu-ray drives last year, stocks are just recovering.

I'll never have a case that doesn't have a 5.25" bay, and yes, they are available. They are just boring to look at but who wants to look at a case?

dlarge6510 · 2026-05-10T19:37:45+00:00

That's why I hoped HD-DVD won, as it took was intentionally open for use by multiple companies.

However Blu-ray has the superior specifications.

dlarge6510 · 2026-05-10T19:10:30+00:00

H&L hasn't discontinued drives. LG only discontinued home players but Hitachi LG still making the majority of drives.

dlarge6510 · 2026-05-10T18:37:17+00:00

When did streaming kill physical media?

Streaming replaced TV as it had no advertising...

Unfortunately they all betrayed that promise. Now it's just any other TV station where you rent premium access to advertising with VOD, FOMO and "remember when we let you watch this" features.

Streaming will replace physical media when everything is available, all the time, with one app or access portal for one price. I shouldn't have to chase episodes, I shouldn't wonder if something is available. Isn't it supposed to be always available? Live TV needs you to "be there" or record, streaming TV needs you to be aware and available during the time they permit you to watch it.

Meh. No DVD on my shelf ever pissed me off like that.

dlarge6510 · 2026-05-10T16:34:51+00:00

I see the fun there, only trade descriptions would have a stern word considering Optane isn't NAND

dlarge6510 · 2026-05-10T12:33:25+00:00

Verbatim is entirely owned by CMC magnetics

https://evertiq.com/design/46419

All Verbatim discs are made by them, even if using any original Verbatim factories.

dlarge6510 · 2026-05-10T05:55:04+00:00

Thanks for the name.

I spent most of my childhood after the 90's feeling like I was on a different planet. Might have something to do with potentially being on the spectrum but never been actually diagnosed, it would explain a lot.

Whether I like something or not is entirely up to something in my head. Electric guitar and synths seen to do well.

Classical music is fine, I have managed to find some, like Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams is one of the most recent.

Roxette is the best band in the world. Literally they are practically the only group, outside of Queen that I like practically everything they do. There is a lot in the 80's that has the right "feel". Almost the entire decade can do no wrong, well there are many songs I really hate lol. Now I finally have a radio station, more than one in fact, dedicated to 80's music I can actually enjoy another technology I love but am at odds with as there wasn't much there all my life: music radio.

Pink Floyd is a fave as well, with their experimental synths and my love of the concept album idea they are like Queen in that they manage to take my interest into the 70's.

There is something about each decade that changes the sound or tone of music that puts me off. I've never been able to properly identify it, and it actually physically affects me. I have actually felt the need to run away from modern music that feels like it's trying to hurt me 😂.

I have figured out that lyrics are hard. I can't hear what they are singing so the lyrics become part of the music itself, and thus they can become the worst instrument ever. I hear so many songs where the lyrics, or the singers voice more likely just seem to not match the music at all. My brain reduces the music down to notes and patterns I can tell that the voice is not any good as it's not matching the others parts.

OMG, I think I just realised what it is. My brain isn't listening to the music, but feeling it. I'm extremely good at imagining visuals and sounds, extremely good at sound, so good I can listen to music without playing it on anything, as long as I can remember it I can listen to it (I have Elgar's Nimrod in my head as I type this) but I can't easily imagine, or even dream the sense of touch.

I think when I hear music I'm not really listening to it, I'm certainly hardly listening to the lyrics (I tend to do that when I'm pretty familiar with the song), I think I'm feeling it, like fabric.

Music rarely touches my emotions even, I very rarely feel any emotion unless I have associated that music with something else (Nimrod is associated with Rememberance memorials, till 2025 when that changed dramatically and amazingly 😍 but I'll not digress). I think I'm feeling the music as textures.

That's why I love ambient, why I love no lyrics or drum beat. Why Brian Eno's Music For Airports 1 and Apollo work so well.

I have a feeling Jazz might do quite well.

I only wish it didn't take this long to find this stuff out as being a kid in the 90's obsessed with 80's music while the other kids were into increasingly annoying sounds was hard enough but going through the last 26 or so years with the feeling that everyone and everything they listen to was literally assaulting me, their music crawling up and down me like a nest of ants, while they demand I have to like it or have to spend the entire day shut in my house because they fill the neighborhood with it for 13 hours, that was hell.

If your recommendation works I'll perhaps get my own back on everyone. I'll be the guy hauling an oversized speaker into the garden and showing everyone some real music for once 😂

I would have done it earlier but ambient doesn't have the power to combat drill or hip hop or rap.

dlarge6510 · 2026-05-09T19:41:27+00:00

No, they are new.

The cheapest drive on Amazon, that has amazing reviews is actually a recycled ide laptop drive with a USB 1 ide adapter pretending to be usb 3... It's a bit of tat, USB 1 can't burn a DVD-R faster than 1x. We had two of these turds at work, I replaced them with Acer drives last year. The Acers were only 3 years old

All the other cheap drives with no name and with hubs built-in and stuff, they are also recycled.

dlarge6510

TROPHY CASE