# How Many Phones Sport a 5 and 1/4 Diskette Drive? This One.

In a stroke of genius or sheer madness, [Paul Sanjay] decided to take on the gauntlet thrown down by Hackaday reader Joseph Eoff, who had asked how many phones sport a 5 and 1/4 inch diskette drive. The response was clear: this one does. But it wasn't always so.

It all began with a lighthearted post on Redox OS for smartphones, which [Paul Sanjay] shared as a hack of his own. However, the conversation quickly took a turn for the serious, and the question at hand became UNIX file directories. The debate sparked a challenge that [Paul Sanjay] couldn't resist, embracing it with the motto "Challenge accepted."

[Paul's] solution involved hooking up an old Commodore 1541 floppy drive to his somewhat-less-old Google Pixel 3 running Postmarket OS. Yes, you read that right – a phone and a forty-year-old disk drive might not seem like an ideal combination, but [Paul Sanjay]'s ingenuity made it work.

To facilitate the connection between the ancient disk drive and the modern phone, [OpenBCM] created an Arduino Pro Micro configured with the XUM1541 firmware. This clever translator enabled the VICE emulator on the phone to pretend to be a Commodore 64, successfully loading Impossible Mission from an original disk.

While it might seem like the phone is playing dress-up with the old floppy drive, [Paul Sanjay]'s achievement proves that even seemingly insurmountable differences in size and technology can be bridged. As [Paul] demonstrated, a little creativity and hacking know-how can go a long way in resolving disagreements.

So, the next time you find yourself at odds with someone over something trivial, consider taking a cue from [Paul Sanjay]. Grab your Arduino, dust off that old Commodore 1541, and show them how it's done. Who knows? You might just find that hacking through your differences is the best way to resolve the issue – and maybe even have some fun while doing it.

Thanks to [Joseph Eoff] for issuing the challenge and sharing his idea with us. We'd love to hear from you if you've been vexed into hacking or have been on the receiving end of a well-deserved hacking from someone else.