Reply to post: Re: Times change

A floppy filled with software worth thousands of francs: Techie can't take it, customs won't keep it. What to do?

jdiebdhidbsusbvwbsidnsoskebid Silver badge

Re: Times change

Reminds me of a time in the 90s when we had a system installed on a military platform. It was the sort of platform where the weight of everything had to be accounted for.

We had a software update to do one day, so rocked up with a floppy disk, did the job then went to leave. Our host first went through the checklist of equipment that had been fitted or modified that visit. Since it was just a software install, we thought the "how much does the new equipment weigh?" question was an easy zero answer. But no, our host said the auditors wouldn't like that as everything must be accounted for and they didn't understand the concept of software only. We had an amusing few minutes speculating about how the change of bits on the disk might change the energy states of magnetic parts and reached a compromise. The platform kept the disk and we put in a figure of 10grams.

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