During my PhD, at the University of Otago as mentioned (I remember The Critic). I had three boxes of 1.4MB discs. One set at work, one set at home which came in once a week for backup and one set which lived in my backpack, was backed up daily and travelled with me. So if work and home burned down/got flattened in an earthquake/tsunami/volcainic eruption etc but I survived I had a copy on me.
The lab postdoc told me of the guy back in the day before computers who handed his hand written thesis to the typist he had contracted to type it up (de rigeur back in the day). She put it on the back of her moped but it wasn't there when she got home. The guy went and vented his frustration on a reinforced fire door (he paid for the damage) then reconstructed it painfully from his notes.
I still have a set of those discs. I just don't have a drive which can read them any more.
I submittted in '93. In '87 we were the first Honours year to write our theses direct into computers.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
