[ale] how do I list big files

[jim]

I used to clean the "fixed" platter by hand! I had a plastic flat stick 
and I slid a cotton sock looking thing over it. Then I sprayed it with 
this chemical and wiped the surface of the disk as I turned it by hand. 
I also slid the cleaning swab between the heads to clean them. It's 
weird to think about it now. I think the fixed platter was 2.5 MB and 
the removable platter was another 2.5 MB for a total of 5. And it was 
HUGE. Like 18" across or something.

On 03/20/2011 10:39 PM, Ron Frazier wrote:
> Yup. Times sure have changed a lot since then. I used to work with some
> of those giant drives at Delta Air Lines. A whole stack of ~ 15"
> platters held a whopping 300 MB. It was made very clear to me that you
> had to shut those down properly and treat them gingerly.
>
> Ron
>
> On 03/20/2011 09:26 PM, Scott Castaline wrote:
>> On 03/20/2011 04:07 PM, Ron Frazier wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Scott,
>>>
>>> That's pretty cool. It was good of you to check before shutting down.
>>> That's one thing I try to reinforce to anyone I advise about computers
>>> of modern vintage, never never just power off. Always use the shutdown
>>> procedure and wait for it to finish. Modern drives will autopark the
>>> heads, but you don't want a bunch of open OS and applications files
>>> hanging around at power off.
>>> Ron
>>>
>>>
>> Actually if memory serves me correctly the heads not parking or just
>> landing wherever they were at power off was on stepper drives and the
>> one or two servo drives at the time did auto-retract at power off. When
>> I started with UNIX on mini systems and super-minis the HDDs used then
>> had the large 18" platter(s) and were servo controlled with huge
>> voice-coils that the heads would retract into. The first time I used a
>> DOS system I thought it strange that you only had to enter the date&
>> time after turning it on. When I went to shut it off I entered my
>> usually shutdown -g0 -y and it gave me an error, probably something like
>> Command not found and I was afraid to just shut it off. After making a
>> call to NY from FL I had some doubts and confusion that if you're at a C
>> prompt just flip the switch. I also knew nothing about stepper drives at
>> the time as I never seen a small drive before at least a hard drive. Had
>> 2 floppies and a cassette on my Commodore 64, which to me was a toy at
>> first.
>>
>>> On 03/20/2011 03:37 PM, Scott Castaline wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 03/20/2011 11:28 AM, Ron Frazier wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Hi Michael,
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks for the tips.  I suspected it was something like that, but didn't
>>>>> know what.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm learning all the time, but it's a slow process.  I've been learning
>>>>> DOS / Windows for 26 years, Linux for 1 year.  It will take a while to
>>>>> develop comprehensive knowledge.  The first part of the learning curve
>>>>> is the hardest.
>>>>>
>>>>> Sincerely,
>>>>>
>>>>> Ron
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> I went the other way, UNIX first than DOS. It cost me a $5 LD call to
>>>> find out that DOS didn't have a shutdown command. I later wrote a bat
>>>> file that parked the heads and echoed "Safe to Power Down!"
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> On 03/20/2011 10:21 AM, Michael Trausch wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> Yes,>      is the shell redirection operator. 2>      says to redirect CD
>>>>>> number two, which is the stderr stream.  Without an integer supplied,
>>>>>> the stdout stream (number 1) is the default.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The<      operator is input redirection. Its default target is the
>>>>>> process' fd 0 (stdin), though again that can be changed. A program
>>>>>> that, for example, opened a socket connection as fd 5 and fd 6 could
>>>>>> be used with shell redirection (and even fancier pipelining) if desired.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Again, I think you should spend some time getting familiar with "UNIX"
>>>>>> as a whole.  Even concepts from the late 60s and 70s are still
>>>>>> applicable on moden systems, and the basics are essentially unchanged.  :)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Sent from my phone... a G2 running CM7 nightlies!
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>