[Nelug] Minutes from tonight's meeting.

[Douglas Nisbet]

Matters arising:

It will come as no surprise to Aleksander, Martin and Richard that I am 
more or less totally wrong about Winchester. I was right in as much that 
Winchester was used as a term for hard disk drive, but wrong in thinking 
it had something to do with the cathedral city of Winchester. From 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_disk:


    IBM 3340

The *IBM 3340 Direct Access Storage Facility*, code named /Winchester/, 
was introduced in March 1973 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973> for use 
with IBM System/370 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System/370>. It was 
named after the famous 30-30 Winchester rifle 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_rifle>. Its removable disk 
packs were sealed and included the head and arm assembly. There was no 
cover to remove during the insertion process. Access time was 25 
millisecond and data transferred at 885 kB/s. Three versions of the 
removable *IBM 3348 Data Module* were sold, one with 35 megabyte 
capacity, another with 70 megabytes, the third also had 70 megabytes, 
but with 500 kilobytes under separate fixed heads for faster access. The 
3340 also used error correction 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Error_correction>. It was withdrawn in 1984.


Other matters discussed included webcams in nestboxes, PC World, tips 
for getting 19" CRT monitors into lofts, accountants, DRM and itunes, 
bit rates of Radio transmissions on DAB and streaming radio, The 
Simpsons, Debian, power consumption of PCs, lying Bosch dishwashers, and 
probably some other stuff. And I think I left my torch.