Tech Support Pits:

From Rita===
Dear Webby,
I am planning to buy a laptop as a second computer, mostly
just for use when I am away from home, because I do love
my big monster and it's huge screen.
The problem I have is that the laptops I want don't have a
floppy drive, just a CD / DVD burner and reader, and I
don't want to lug along an external floppy drive. I just don't
understand how I could cope without floppies.
Rita

Dear Rita
It's actually not that hard at all to say "Good Riddance!"
to floppies. Get a Compact Memory reader for the laptop.
It fits into one of the PCMCIA slots and costs $12 - $15.
Also get a USB connected Compact memory reader for
the desktop machine. It costs $15 - $20. Then get one
or more Compact memory chips like the ones used for
digital cameras. You can get them in size from 8 MB all
the way up to 1000 MB. (1 GB).

When you compare the slow and not so reliable
1.44 MB floppies with the lightning fast
1000 MB memory chips, the argument is over before it
starts.

In addition to that, sooner or later you will probably get a
$5 cable to network the two machines. It makes
synchronizing and updating a lot easier. Also, that way,
if you do ever need to read one of the old floppies, you
can read it over the network.

I have not touched a floppy in over a year, and I don't
miss them at all.

Have FUN
Dear Webby