@LizardSF @hu_logic @dyslexxicon @rodhilton until not so long ago, the master key for the mainframe crypto cards had to be kept in three 3,5 floppy disks, handled by three different people (who should not know each other) in different safes.
Then, to recover the key they should come one by one to insert they floppy in an old thinkpad running OS/2. That thinkpad should be placed in a safe room with the keys stored in a safe protected by armed guards.

@LizardSF @hu_logic @dyslexxicon @rodhilton

Length-delimited??? Mother of god

@LizardSF @hu_logic @dyslexxicon @rodhilton

My mom was a computer operator for a large bakery and all she did was every 4 hours save a file from the as400 to a floppy, type some command and then move floppy to the Univac (or whatever). She did that for *years*.

@LizardSF @hu_logic @rodhilton I recently found an old floppy disk from when I went to a tech class in my community college times. That was when thumbdrives were still becoming a Thing™ and it cost, like $30 for a 1GB thumb drive.

@LizardSF @hu_logic @dyslexxicon @rodhilton ...plaintext, length-delimited files in a mix of IBM-specific encodings, some of which presuming the existence of decimal fixed point hardware? Because I seem to be having flashbacks to my time in the wonderful world of finance