The floppy copy workstations are required by the contract to be airgapped (no network). Thus, the human operator (usually a temp or intern), doesn’t even have to touch the keyboard. A barcode on each label and a barcode reader on every USB floppy reader makes sure everything matches up. The other Haskell application is the one reading the barcodes on the floppy labels and writing the correct file. From the EBCDIC encoded files we receive every month, one application generates labels for envelopes and floppies. To make sure every floppy gets the correct file, and gets sent to the correct doctor, we developed two applications in Haskell. When that stock is empty, or they refuse to sell us any more, we will start buying from . It is what seems to be the sole global supplier with enough in stock. We are now buying them from the previous company holding the contract.
Since then we have bought tens of thousands of floppies, emptying the stocks of most local online retailers. We all had fond memories of floppies growing up and it just seemed like a fun thing to do. Nicely stacked before a visit from the national broadcasting company (NRK).Īt work, we took over the distribution from a large american document management company mid-2014, mostly for kicks. This list, although essentially only a list of names, is classified as health-related information, leading to some restrictions on distribution.ġ500 disks, about 2.1 GB.
#Ancient wars sparta disk floppy free#
Since patients are free to switch (to any doctor with an available spot) at any time, the government needs to continuously send doctors a list of their main patients. This patient-to-main-doctor directory is maintained by the government. Why a floppy a month? In Norway, every citizen selects one doctor to be their go-to doctor for everyday needs. Given the historical restriction of delivery by mail, and the data volume being less than 1.44MB, they are the logical choice. The floppy disks are inexpensive they cost far less than a USB drive and are far less time-consuming to write to than a CD-ROM for this amount of data. The reason floppy disks are used instead of CD-ROMs or flash drives is partly historical and partly economical. Problem is, a lot of doctors love their MSDOS-based electronic journals and haven’t switched yet. For a long time this applied to all of them, but for about the last decade a secure online option has been available. Norwegian doctors get one 3.5″ floppy in the mail from the government (the Norwegian Directorate of Health) every month.