Floppy Disk Research Articles

The glamour of the shiny box solution

When computers emerged, blinking (metaphorically) from the depths of IT departments, they were exposed to predators everywhere. Viruses were introduced by floppy discs or even straight from the internet by unsuspecting users. If staff members happened to have computers at home there was a good chance they had poor or inadequate antivirus software and very little chance they had a home network with firewall. People working at home were a huge risk to the IT security of any organisation in the 1990s.

Role of the support material on laser desorption/ionization mass spectra

We report the results of experimental studies on the effects of sample supports in laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (LDI-MS). LDI time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectra obtained for C(60) and insulin samples deposited onto standard stainless steel substrate and/or onto some non-metallic materials (glass, scotch tape, floppy disc foil, Teflon foil, photocopy film), all recorded under identical, typical experimental conditions, have been compared with regard to their intensity and quality. The LDI investigations show that compared with stainless steel, glass and floppy disc foil sample supports boost (2-3.5 times) ion yields for C(60)(+) and C(60)(-) ions, respectively. The stainless steel and scotch tape sample supports are the best for the mass resolution of positive ions and the formation of (C(60))(n)(-) (n <or= 4) cluster ions, respectively. In the case of detection of insulin by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) we did not observe significant differences in sensitivity for the support materials tested. A mechanism of ion formation in the desorption plume is suggested.

IT’S ALL ABOUT ACCESS

MORE AND MORE scientific journal articles, books, and data are flowing into online archives and databases, potentially broadening access to the material for both scientists and the public. This trend raises issues such as who should have access to what material, what should be saved for the long haul, and how best to preserve the information. Without proper precautions, a disastrous loss of access to old data could occur. Just think how hard it is to find equipment to play an eight-track tape. Even accessing the data on a 5.25-inch floppy disk is problematic. Skip ahead a century or two, through multiple transformations in software and hardware, and you’ll get a sense of the nightmare bedeviling data preservationists. Other stakeholders are more concerned with providing current access. Google, for instance, is scanning the book collections of several major libraries so readers can view the books online and then buy or borrow them. The National Institutes ...

“Computers in the future may weigh less than 1.5 tons.” Popular Mechanics, 1949

The use of computers in health care, specifically in pain medicine, has the potential to improve the quality of care provided to patients, increase its efficiency, and decrease costs. For the past half century, computer technology has undergone rapid evolutionary change. In 1948, the first computer program ran on “Baby” in Manchester, England; in 1949, the first computer bug was reported—a moth stuck between relays in the Harvard Mark II computer. The IBM selective sequence electronic calculator used from 1948 to 1952, which occupied 1,000 square feet of floor space, produced the first moon position tables for the 1969 Apollo flight. In the 1960s, a student might spend hours punching holes in cards to run a program to solve a monumental problem such as finding the mean and standard deviation of a column of numbers. After submitting the “job” to the administrators of the only computer around, the “new job” got in line for processing, and the user waited for days before learning the results. If there were even one mistake on a single card, a new card had to be typed, reinserted into the deck, and all the cards resubmitted. Eight-inch floppy disks were invented in 1971, and 3-inch floppies became available in 1982. Kenbak Corp. began selling the first personal computer for $750 in 1971 and went out of business 2 years later after selling only 40. The first computer worm was discovered as recently as 1979 and was named after a powerful “tapeworm” that infected computers, as described in John Brunner's …

Infrared thermography: Experience from a decade of pediatric imaging

The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of clinical application of infrared thermography (IRT) in the pediatric population and to identify pathological states that can be diagnosed as well as followed up using this non-invasive technique. In real time computer-assisted IRT, 483 examinations were performed over a period of 10 years from 1990-2000 on 285 patients in the pediatric age group (range 1 week-16 years) presenting with a wide range of pathologies. The temperature was measured in centigrade ( degrees C), and color images obtained were computer analyzed and stored on floppy discs. IRT was found to be an excellent noninvasive tool in the follow-up of hemangiomas, vascular malformations and digit amputations related to reimplantation, burns as well as skin and vascular growth after biomaterial implants in newborns with gastroschisis and giant omphaloceles. In the emergency room, it was a valuable tool for rapid diagnosis of extremity thrombosis, varicoceles, inflammation, abscesses, gangrene and wound infections. In conclusion, IRT can be performed in the pediatric age group, is non-invasive, without any biological side effects, requires no sedation or anesthesia and can be repeated as desired for follow-ups, with objective results that can demonstrated as colored images. Periodic thermographic studies to follow progression of lesions seem to be a useful and reproducible method for repeated and long-term examination.

Scanning nonlinear magnetic microscopy

Scanning nonlinear magnetic microscopy (SNMM) is introduced as a new microscopic technique for measurement of the distribution of magnetization. The technique is based on the detection of inductance variation in a magnetic material under application of an external alternating magnetic field. The measured inductance thus reflects the nonlinear magnetic response of the material, giving the nonlinear magnetic permeability (mu(333)) and the direction and magnitude of magnetization. SNMM is demonstrated in application to measurement of the magnetization distribution of a floppy disk.

Computer Applications in Chemistry: An Introduction for PC Users By K. Ebert, H. Ederer and T. L. Isenhour, VCH Verlagsgesellschaft, Weinheim, 1989, pp. 1 + 714 (+ 2 5$1/4 floppy discs), price DM 98.00. ISBN 3-527-27807-9

Journal of Chemical Technology & BiotechnologyVolume 50, Issue 1 p. 143-143 Book Review Computer Applications in Chemistry: An Introduction for PC Users By K. Ebert, H. Ederer and T. L. Isenhour, VCH Verlagsgesellschaft, Weinheim, 1989, pp. 1 + 714 (+ 2 5$1/4 floppy discs), price DM 98.00. ISBN 3–527–27807–9 E. L. Short, E. L. ShortSearch for more papers by this author E. L. Short, E. L. ShortSearch for more papers by this author First published: 1991 https://doi.org/10.1002/jctb.280500120AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume50, Issue11991Pages 143-143 RelatedInformation

The geneology of malware

Malware used to be simple. Viruses, then worms, were written by individuals or small numbers of people and were discrete, static examples of malicious code. Now that the malware world has become commercially focused, however, malware writers have stepped up the battle to take control of PC platforms. This has resulted in a myriad of different malware types and variants that are used to create new attacks. Fernando de la Cuadra examines how these malware variants develop, exploring the ways that different malware groups adapt each other's code. Thanks to a graphing mechanism that visually illustrates the functional structure of malware variants, we can see how this constant adaptation leads not to refinement, but to additional complexity and inefficiency as malware groups trade off elegance for time to market. This development also sheds new light on best practice methods for spotting and neutralising new malware variants more quickly. A long time ago, viruses were very simple. Today's features, such as hiding the virus or giving it a very fast propagation system, were not considered necessary. In the early days viruses were spread by transferring a floppy disc from one computer to another, and at that time virus creators were really experts, creating incredible infection systems in just a bunch of kilobytes.

Air Bearing Slider-Disk Interface for Single-Sided High Speed Recording on a Metal Foil Disk

There are disk-drive data storage applications best served by single-sided recording configurations. These include situations where (i) storage requirements can be achieved on a single side of a disk and (ii) dimensional constraints on the disk drive prohibit the presence of a recording head and its associated mounting device on each side of the disk. Even if dimensional requirements are not a concern, the most cost-effective and operationally efficient slider-disk air-bearing interface for single-sided recording is one that does not include an air-bearing slider, pressure pad, or other air-bearing structure on the nondata side of the disk. A metal foil disk offers some of the best characteristics of both the hard disk and floppy disk for digital data storage. It offers hard disk recording densities, increased shock resistance, reduced manufacturing cost, and requires less operational energy than a hard disk. However, use of a conventional recording head slider assembly without opposing air-bearing support for single-sided recording on a high-speed metal foil disk presents a fundamental problem because the air-bearing surface of the slider produces a net transverse force to the disk. This force causes the disk to deflect and can result in flying height and stability problems at the slider-disk interface. The current work describes an air-bearing interface for low flying height single-sided recording on a high-speed metal foil disk that minimizes disk deflection and instability without the presence of air-bearing components on opposing sides of the disk. The new interface utilizes a vacuum cavity-type air-bearing with little or no preload. Examples will be presented and discussed for the new interface that illustrate the flying characteristics of a picosized slider on a 1.8in. stainless steel disk with thickness of 25.4μm.

A retrospective study of changes in cerebral oxygenation using a cerebral oximeter in older patients undergoing prolonged major abdominal surgery

The objective was to carry out a retrospective study of changes in regional cerebral oxygen saturation (rSO2) using the Somanetics Invos Cerebral Oximeter (SICO) in older patients undergoing prolonged major abdominal surgery. Since evidence is accumulating that detection and correction of falls in rSO2 may be associated with a reduced incidence of postoperative cognitive dysfunction, the study assessed the incidence and possible predisposing factors for significant falls in rSO2 and strategies for correction. Data from 46 consecutive patients aged 55 yr or above undergoing major abdominal surgery were collected and studied. A SICO electrode was placed over the right forehead prior to commencement of anaesthesia and values of rSO2 were recorded automatically on a floppy disk at 20 s intervals throughout the procedure and until transfer of the patient to the postanaesthesia care unit. Anaesthesia and physiological data were routinely collected by the author on an anaesthetic record computer and transferred to an Excel spreadsheet for analysis. Average duration of the surgery exceeded 7 h. Average blood loss was 1363 mL (interquartile range 500-2000). In 11 of the 46 patients the rSO2 drop exceeded 20%, and in six, there was a significant temporal association of rSO2 drop with ongoing major haemorrhage. In 23 of the 46 patients, a maximum drop in rSO2 occurred, which was about 15% or more. Fall in rSO2 in the 46 patients significantly correlated with blood loss (P < 0.05) and percentage fall in haemoglobin (Hb) (P = 0.01) but not with lowest Hb. Despite maintenance of conventional haemodynamic parameters such as systolic blood pressure (BP) in most patients, the fall in rSO2 seemed only reversible by blood transfusion. In five of the six patients who experienced the greatest decline in rSO2 during haemorrhage, there was no correlation between fall in rSO2 and systolic BP. This retrospective study confirms that a significant reduction in rSO2 is a common accompaniment to prolonged major abdominal surgery in elderly patients, especially if associated with blood loss, and is correctable by blood transfusion. In most cases, these changes would have gone unnoticed with conventional monitoring.

Hardware and software instrumentation continually contribute to quality

tion when program changes were needed. A TRS-80 cost more than US$3,000 and had a small, poor resolution, black and white CRT monitor, a single 5 1/4-in floppy disk (then more properly known as a Winchester drive), and 64 KB of memory. The IBM PC-1 and the PC-2 were introduced during the early 1980s. The IBM PC-1 had more memory, as large as 128 kB, one or two floppy drives, and the soonto-become ubiquitous Disk Operating System (DOS). Larger and

The Protein Society: Celebrating 20 years in 2006—The founding and early years

A person is clearly identified as “old” when he begins to get requests to write a history of an organization with which he has been associated for many years. So it was not exactly a surprise when The Protein Society requested that I write a history of the Society and its journal upon the occasions of the 20th yearly American Symposium of The Protein Society and my announced retirement as Editor of Protein Science, since I have been active in both throughout their entire histories and am certifiably at an age that most of the attendees of the 20th Symposium will consider advanced.

Oral and Written Transmission of the Exact Sciences in Sanskrit

The size of the four Vedas combined would be very close to that of the Old Testament, which is, in King James version, 3,720,000 bytes. One of the reasons of similarity may be that this much size was nearly maximum for an ordinary man to correctly memorize. In other words, the memory capacity of a person is about that of one floppy disk. Some extraordinary persons may have four floppy disk capacity – in ancient India such person might have been highly respected as caturvedin, ‘one who is versed in the four Vedas’. In fact the Vedas were not written composition but they were ‘what were heard’ ( sruti) by the inspired sages and they were transmitted exclusively by oral method in the first millennium after its formation. Even after the written method of recording was introduced from the west sometime around the fourth century B.C., oral method was preferred to written method. This was observed by Monier Monier-Williams in his Introduction to the Sanskrit–English Dictionary (Oxford, 1888, page xxv) as follows:

STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF VEHICLE DRIVER BEHAVIOUR ON VEHICLE EMISSIONS OF CARBON MONOXIDE AT SIGNALIZED INTERSECTIONS

Considerable concentrations of vehicular emissions at signalized intersections and streets, in urban area are health-related issues of concern to society in general. This paper presents an examination for the effect of vehicle driver behaviour on vehicular excess CO emissions. The examination process based on site observations. in Erbil City which, satisfy the objectives and specifications of this Four signalized intersections study selected, and the necessary traffic behaviour and vehicle exhaust emission data collected. The traffic data were collected using video recording technique and the Analytical Mobile Gaseous Emissions CART P8334 machine used to measure vehicle exhaust emission data. The required traffic data abstracted from video play back using EVENT computer program, which provide coded digital representation for the requisite traffic activities. The abstracted data stored on floppy disks in the form of digital computer files. These files processed using computer programs developed for this purpose to abstract the necessary information from the raw data. Among the obtained traffic information are vehicle data classified according to the type of fuel used into two classes. The first class is gasoline powered vehicles which consisted of taxis and private cars covering different model year, engine condition and size, type of fuel injection system, number of cylinders. These data observed under different ambient air temperatures. The second class is the diesel-powered vehicles, which consists mainly of truck type vehicles. Following the processing stage, the obtained data presented and analyzed statistically to evaluate of the relationship between driver behaviour and vehicle excess of CO emission. Among the driver behaviours studied is queuing driver behaviour, which showed reasonably good relationship with the excess CO emissions. The results of this study are useful for the Local Authorities, traffic engineers and transportation planners. This is because, the obtained results assist in the adoption of suitable method of intersection control for the purpose of reduction of CO emissions and hence, reduce level of this type of air pollution.

The electronic information revolution and how to exploit it.

Medical information is increasingly stored in electronic format, enabling faster and more flexible access to the literature. Online, compact disc and floppy disc databases are widely available. The origins and development of these different database media are described. The strengths and weaknesses of each, and the ways in which they complement each other, are examined. Ease of access to medical information can result in data management problems; the role of bibliographic software in ensuring full exploitation of the electronic information revolution is therefore emphasized.

Design of Optimized Opposed Slider Air Bearings for High-Speed Recording on a Metal Foil Disk

A metal foil disk offers some of the best characteristics of both the hard disk and floppy disk for digital data storage. The current work defines an opposed slider air-bearing arrangement that provides advantages when used with a high-speed metal foil disk in either a fixed or removable format. Use is made of the fact that the opposing sliders interact through their influence on the flexible disk that is sandwiched between them. Asymmetry of opposing air bearings is created by etching the air-bearing pad opposite the recording element pad to a depth sufficient that the flying height and air film stiffness of the opposing pad reach desired levels. The result is an air-bearing interface with low flying height and high stiffness over the recording element directly opposed by a high flying height and low stiffness on the other side of the disk. This air-bearing interface was found to provide an enhanced dynamic flexibility to the metal foil disk when it is subjected to mechanical shock. As a result, the opposed slider arrangement with metal foil disk is able to avoid contact and impact when subjected to substantial levels of mechanical shock. Thus, wear and damage to slider and disk surfaces are reduced as well as the possibility of lost recorded data. This should make the metal foil disk a strong candidate as a rotating storage medium for mobile and portable applications where a shock environment is common. Computer simulation of the new air-bearing configuration will be presented and discussed. The current work is related to but distinct from that reported recently by White (2005, ASME J. Tribol., 127, pp. 522–529) for a Mylar disk.

BladeCenter midplane and media interface card

This paper describes the electrical architecture and design of the IBM eServerTM BladeCenter® midplane and media interface card. The midplane provides the redundant interconnects among processor blades, switch modules, media interface card, and management modules. It also serves as the redundant power distribution medium from the power modules to all blades and other devices. A major attribute of the BladeCenter electrical design is the redundant nature of the interconnects, which gives this product superior reliability and availability. The media interface card provides the interface between the CD-ROM and floppy disk drives and the blades that share these devices. The sharing of these devices was a key BladeCenter innovation. Also, to ensure that the architecture will be flexible enough to support multiple input/output fabric protocols, SerDes (serialized/deserialized) is used as the internal high-speed communication electrical interface. Since high-speed designs can easily result in higher implementation costs, a significant predesign simulation effort was undertaken to analyze and prioritize design guidelines in order to develop a high-speed midplane at a competitive cost. This paper highlights how we reduced board costs by finding solutions that overcame some of the challenges of 2.5-Gb/s data transmission over multiple printed circuit boards and connectors.

Computerized radiotherapy planning: retrospective analysis and current methods

To present the development of treatment planning methods at the National Institute of Oncology (NIO) from 1969 till 2005. The methods and devices of treatment planning is described chronologically. First we did the treatment planning with in-house made devices: body contour drawing instrument, simplified anatomical cross sections, treatment planning table for the cross section projection, archives of isodose curves adjusted to body contours, etc. It was a significant improvement when the graphical addition of isodose curves was followed by computerized dose calculation. In 1978 the work of the Computerized National Treatment Planning Network was started. The Network was organized by IAEA, Ministry of Health Hungary and NIO. The modern treatment planning started at NIO in 1981. From this year, the treatment planning was based on CT, using the CT apparatus of the Medical Postgraduate University. In 1991 a Siemens MEVAPLAN treatment planning system was installed at NIO. The CT data were transferred to the system via floppy disk. The 3D treatment planning program (Pinnacle software of ADAC) started in 2000. The CT, the treatment planning system and newer linear accelerators are connected through the computerized radiotherapy network. Patient positioning, fixing and control devices (mask, EPID etc.) increased the efficacy of the treatment. In-house made devices help this aim too: mirrors at the linear accelerators, special skin marks for CT, block verification unit, multileaf collimator for x-ray treatment simulator. In this year the intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) will be started at NIO. The treatment planning at NIO developed to high degree during the investigated time, and it had a considerable effect on the efficacy of radiotherapy.

SERS of Gold/C 60 (/C 70) nano-clusters deposited on floppy disk and hard disk

It is important to apply the surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectra to study the interfacial properties of films and the adsorption behavior of molecules on substrates. In this paper, SERS spectra of good quality of gold/C 60 (/C 70) nano-clusters deposited on floppy disk and hard disk were reported with the pyridine as a kind of solvent intermediate. The floppy disk or hard disk, as a new and effective substrate for SERS, provides a plank for C 60/C 70 molecules to adsorb on the gold nano-particles. The number of vibrational modes was greatly increased, especially some modes that were forbidden in Raman spectrum, appeared and even split as prediction of group theory. The enhancement factor is estimated to over 10 6. It provides convenience for probing the C 60/C 70 vibrational structure and the physical properties with the high sensitivity, as well as the adsorption behavior, the interaction of fullerene with gold surface and the SERS mechanism of molecules adsorbed on substrates. What’s more, the SERS sensitivity of the magnetism is demonstrated by comparing the SERS of gold/C 60 (/C 70) nano-clusters deposited on floppy disk and hard disk.

Special issue: One hundred years of PVI, the Fuchs–Painlevé equation

Special issue: One hundred years of PVI, the Fuchs–Painlevé equation