1. 08:00 26th Jun 2009

    notes: 24

    image: download

    This, friends, is a 3.5 inch floppy disk. We used to use them all the time. Then writable CDs and the Internet came along and suddenly they weren’t so useful anymore. (Around that time, coincidentally, fewer people lost critical files due to inexplicable disk failure). About eight years back when I wanted to install a floppy drive in my computer, Marco told me it wasn’t worth the effort. I insisted. Marco relented. Well, mostly. He put it in—but upside down. I noticed a few years later, when I finally had an excuse to use it. Of course, I mentioned it—just to gloat. “See? I knew it would be useful. By the way, did you know it was upside down?” “You just noticed that?” Okay. So maybe it wasn’t that useful. But what do you do when your harddrive dies and the old operating system you’re installing on it can’t recognize your ethernet card? You have a laptop—but the laptop can’t burn a CD. Also, you don’t own a flashdrive because they used to be expensive and you still think of them as too costly to buy? How can you get that ethernet driver from Internet to the desktop, presumably via the laptop? It’s easy if you have a USB floppy drive. (On a side note, a USB floppy drive with a disk in it functions much like a memory stick—except that it sucks.) Excluding showing off to your grandchildren, when is the last time you used a floppy disk?

    This, friends, is a 3.5 inch floppy disk. We used to use them all the time. Then writable CDs and the Internet came along and suddenly they weren’t so useful anymore. (Around that time, coincidentally, fewer people lost critical files due to inexplicable disk failure). About eight years back when I wanted to install a floppy drive in my computer, Marco told me it wasn’t worth the effort. I insisted. Marco relented. Well, mostly. He put it in—but upside down. I noticed a few years later, when I finally had an excuse to use it. Of course, I mentioned it—just to gloat. “See? I knew it would be useful. By the way, did you know it was upside down?”

    “You just noticed that?”

    Okay. So maybe it wasn’t that useful.

    But what do you do when your harddrive dies and the old operating system you’re installing on it can’t recognize your ethernet card? You have a laptop—but the laptop can’t burn a CD. Also, you don’t own a flashdrive because they used to be expensive and you still think of them as too costly to buy? How can you get that ethernet driver from Internet to the desktop, presumably via the laptop? It’s easy if you have a USB floppy drive. (On a side note, a USB floppy drive with a disk in it functions much like a memory stick—except that it sucks.)

    Excluding showing off to your grandchildren, when is the last time you used a floppy disk?

     
    1. yellowbricksfail answered: In 2002, to save my senior thesis.
    2. loucindy answered: 2004
    3. monkeytypist answered: I think I saved an assignment on one in 2000.
    4. great-perhaps answered: We used them in fifth grade…five-six years ago. I still have a floppy drive, too.
    5. nosmo answered: Around half a year ago, recovering some old files. I have an oldish server in my room that I use solely for file serving and floppy reading.
    6. pilnick answered: A friend was just recently searching for a floppy drive to get some old data off a disk.
    7. fleetfootedfox answered: when I was installing SATA RAID in a webserver, for work. about a year ago.
    8. bunnynico answered: 2004
    9. apatosaur answered: There’s one on my keys… but mprobably 7 or 8 years ago, when I was in forth grade
    10. inky reblogged this from beret and added:
      writing assembly code for this fine piece of hardware,...that particular computer lab...
    11. beret reblogged this from squashed and added:
      At least 6 months ago,...copy of stressrelief.exe. It’s
    12. notemily answered: we sell them for one dollar at the library where I work, so people can save things. one patron was like “really? a floppy disk?” sorry, guy.
    13. marco answered: When I installed Windows with RAID drivers in 2002. I used my 33.6 modem more recently. (And your upside-down installation was Mark’s idea.)
    14. terryblakey answered: About 3 years ago, in Karachi, at the same time as I used mag tapes.
    15. sds answered: I can’t remember the last time. It’s hard to fathom a 1.4 MB capacity these days.
    16. datingrahm answered: I used them every week in college (I graduated a year ago) because it was the only format our teleprompter read. I looked like a freak.
    17. bellatoris answered: I’ve had to use one this year for work, because a client used it. Only I had to save the info on the network, because I didn’t have a drive.
    18. shorterexcerpts answered: 10 or 11 years ago.
    19. squashed posted this
     
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