frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

3M Diskette Reference Manual (1983) [pdf]

https://retrocmp.de/fdd/diskette/3M_Diskette_Reference_Manual_May83.pdf
83•susam•5d ago

Comments

mrblampo•10h ago
This is pretty cool
pilaf•9h ago
I get a 403 error. Any mirrors?
glxxyz•9h ago
Check the diskette for physical damage on the recording surface and at the hub centerhole.
BoorishBears•8h ago
The liner inside the jacket cartridge is a special-purpose, non-woven, highly-durable fabric... so I'd be surprised if there was any physical damage.
Brian_K_White•8h ago
worked for me so idk
kalleboo•6h ago
Same here. Even going directly to the front page it's a 403.

Looks like it's on the Internet Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20241104214425/https://retrocmp....

vincheezel•7h ago
That’s the first time I’ve ever read the measurement “microinches”
summa_tech•7h ago
You see it used sometimes for plating thickness, for instance gold plating on PCBs or connectors.
userbinator•7h ago
1/1000th of a thou.
commandersaki•7h ago
Back when things came with real documentation.
billfor•6h ago
It's interesting that the index hole is not on y-axis, if it is actually used to allow operations. I used all my SS 5.25" as DS just by flipping them I think, and they just worked. You weren't supposed to do that, but all the SS diskettes were coated on the other side, so you just fliped it and it would work, but it wouldn't be certified for that use case.
teddyh•6h ago
From what I heard, the index hole was not used except by extremely old systems; i.e. IBM PCs never used them.
zkmon•5h ago
Includes a bit about manufacturing process and disk writing as well. Amazing!
herpessimplex10•4h ago
For all of computing eternity, the only person I've ever heard refer to it as a "diskette" is icon-lady Susan Kare.
proactivesvcs•4h ago
At 1,685,278 bytes this almost fits on within the hallowed 1.44 megabytes. Maybe the front and rear covers can be discarded?
alentred•2h ago
Just recently I wanted to show my kids the 5.25" floppy disk - I had a small stack somewhere, but could not find it. I have finally found an 3½" floppy and have shown it to my kids (14 y.o. max). Evidently they never used such a thing, but I was genuinely surprised they didn't even know what it was. After a considerable amount of time one of my daughters hesitated but said something like: "Wasn't it like old USB stick thingy?". Given they have no USB stick either that's not bad, I guess. Then I proceeded to explain that a floppy disk is pictured on Save buttons - you just had to see their faces, it was a moment of the big revelation.
integricho•4m ago
Since they have never seen floppy disks before, why were you surprised that they did not recognize what they were?
glgrau•1h ago
such a clean documentation, that's actually inspiring

Backpropagation is a leaky abstraction (2016)

https://karpathy.medium.com/yes-you-should-understand-backprop-e2f06eab496b
149•swatson741•5h ago•62 comments

Notes by djb on using Fil-C (2025)

https://cr.yp.to/2025/fil-c.html
100•transpute•5h ago•17 comments

When O3 is 2x slower than O2

https://cat-solstice.github.io/test-pqueue/
24•keyle•4d ago•2 comments

Visopsys: OS maintained by a single developer since 1997

https://visopsys.org/
351•kome•13h ago•69 comments

We reduced a container image from 800GB to 2GB

https://sealos.io/blog/reduce-container-image-size-case-study
15•untrimmed•6d ago•8 comments

How I use every Claude Code feature

https://blog.sshh.io/p/how-i-use-every-claude-code-feature
272•sshh12•11h ago•86 comments

Claude Code can debug low-level cryptography

https://words.filippo.io/claude-debugging/
330•Bogdanp•16h ago•163 comments

Updated practice for review articles and position papers in ArXiv CS category

https://blog.arxiv.org/2025/10/31/attention-authors-updated-practice-for-review-articles-and-posi...
454•dw64•20h ago•208 comments

Crossfire: High-performance lockless spsc/mpsc/mpmc channels for Rust

https://github.com/frostyplanet/crossfire-rs
69•0x1997•8h ago•6 comments

Pomelli

https://blog.google/technology/google-labs/pomelli/
186•birriel•12h ago•64 comments

LM8560, the eternal chip from the 1980 years

https://www.tycospages.com/other-themes/lm8560-the-eternal-chip-from-the-1980-years/
49•userbinator•6h ago•17 comments

FlightAware Map Design

https://andywoodruff.com/posts/2024/flightaware-maps/
26•marklit•5d ago•10 comments

GHC now runs in the browser

https://discourse.haskell.org/t/ghc-now-runs-in-your-browser/13169
312•kaycebasques•18h ago•100 comments

Show HN: Why write code if the LLM can just do the thing? (web app experiment)

https://github.com/samrolken/nokode
334•samrolken•17h ago•239 comments

Automatically Translating C to Rust

https://cacm.acm.org/research/automatically-translating-c-to-rust/
63•FromTheArchives•1w ago•15 comments

Anonymous credentials: rate-limit bots and agents without compromising privacy

https://blog.cloudflare.com/private-rate-limiting/
68•eleye•10h ago•33 comments

SQLite concurrency and why you should care about it

https://jellyfin.org/posts/SQLite-locking/
309•HunOL•22h ago•140 comments

Hyperbolic Non-Euclidean World (2007)

http://web1.kcn.jp/hp28ah77/
17•ubavic•6d ago•2 comments

Beginner-friendly, unofficial documentation for Helix text editor

https://helix-editor.vercel.app/start-here/basics/
136•Curiositry•15h ago•45 comments

3M Diskette Reference Manual (1983) [pdf]

https://retrocmp.de/fdd/diskette/3M_Diskette_Reference_Manual_May83.pdf
83•susam•5d ago•18 comments

Context engineering

https://chrisloy.dev/post/2025/08/03/context-engineering
5•chrisloy•2h ago•0 comments

Chip Hall of Fame: Intel 8088 Microprocessor

https://spectrum.ieee.org/chip-hall-of-fame-intel-8088-microprocessor
27•stmw•6d ago•1 comments

From 400 Mbps to 1.7 Gbps: A WiFi 7 Debugging Journey

https://blog.tymscar.com/posts/wifi7speedhunt/
110•tymscar•15h ago•82 comments

The Smol Training Playbook: The Secrets to Building World-Class LLMs

https://huggingface.co/spaces/HuggingFaceTB/smol-training-playbook
195•kashifr•2d ago•12 comments

CLI to manage your SQL database schemas and migrations

https://github.com/gh-PonyM/shed
24•PonyM•4h ago•11 comments

A Few Words About Async

https://yoric.github.io/post/quite-a-few-words-about-async/
52•vinhnx•10h ago•18 comments

How to Build a Solar Powered Electric Oven

https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2025/10/how-to-build-a-solar-powered-electric-oven/
57•surprisetalk•1w ago•28 comments

SailfishOS: A Linux-based European alternative to dominant mobile OSes

https://sailfishos.org/info/
282•ForHackernews•13h ago•116 comments

You Don't Need Anubis

https://fxgn.dev/blog/anubis/
119•flexagoon•7h ago•97 comments

Dating: A mysterious constellation of facts

https://dynomight.net/dating/
101•tobr•2d ago•95 comments