Today's boot fair bargain...

[ffutures]

A Sony Vaio 3.5" USB drive for £2. Seems to be working correctly, but it's probably going to go to eBay since I have another drive. Anyone in the UK interested before I list it, for cost plus postage?

I also got an optical slide copier, the type that goes on an SLR instead of a lens. I suspect that on my DSLR the minimum zoom will be about 2/3rds of a slide, which isn't ideal, but it's got to be better than my attempts to scan slides with a faulty scanner. I need a T-mount for it, so it'll be a few days before I have any results.

Comments

Sony Vaio 3.5" USB drive

[mrs-norris-mous.livejournal.com]

I would give you £5 plus postage, you have to make a profit.

There are 3 strange machines are work which if they ever need a firmware update or a new motherboard will need a floppy drive. While they are under maintenance and IBM will be able to do it one way or another having an drive in the desk would be nice.

Re: Sony Vaio 3.5" USB drive

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Yours! YHM

[uk-sef.livejournal.com]

A floppy disk drive is one of the things I'm going to continue to need in order to install the only decent version of certain programs (before subsequent owners or editions ruined them!) which only exist on their original floppy disks - and the local computer store says I can't get a floppy drive any more. However, Sony shipped me such a defective Vaio that I'm not sure how much point there is in installing the rest of my usual work environment. :-/

Meanwhile, still-functional floppy drives are presumably getting scarcer and possibly more expensive due to being made of unobtainium.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Actually, they're still available fairly cheaply new on ebay - the one I have is a fairly typical USB model and seems to work pretty well. I suspect that it isn't nearly as rugged as the Vaio model, but in all honesty I've only used it once and I doubt it'll be used often enough to worry about it breaking down or wearing out.