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January 31, 2007 - 6:35 A.M.

So farewell then, floppy disk (and boldy model)

Ssshik, whirrr... A:\IT_Blogwatch.txt, in which we predict the death of the humble floppy disk (film at 11). Not to mention how to make a model from a dead floppy...

Aunty Beeb has the scoop:

The time has come to bid farewell to one of the PC's more stalwart friends - the floppy disk. [UK-based] computing superstore PC World said it will no longer sell the storage devices, affectionately known as floppies, once existing stock runs out. New storage systems, coupled with a need to store more than the 1.44 megabytes of data held by a standard floppy, have led to its demise. Only a tiny percentage of PCs currently sold still have floppy disk drives.
...
In 1998, an estimated 2 billion floppy disks were sold, according to the Recording Media Industries Association of Japan. Since then global demand has fallen by around two-thirds to an estimated 700 million by 2006.
...
The first floppy disk was introduced in 1971 by IBM and heralded as a revolutionary device. The brainchild of a group of Californian engineers led by Alan Shugart, it replaced old-fashioned punch-cards.

Here's Nick Holmes, with a perspective:

Only yesterday I finally donated a CopyPro disk copier, purchased in the early 90s for a substantial 4-figure sum, to a worthy recipient who runs jumble sales of PC stuff. In its heyday it was used to produce thousands of copies per month. Now it is worthless.

The death of the floppy disk has been a long time coming and it deserves a suitable obituary. Although the best-known floppy format was the 3½-inch 1.44Mb version, did you know that the first, 1969, floppy was the 8-inch IBM 23FD (read-only) with 81.7 kb capacity? or that it reached the dizzy heights of 200 MB capacity in 1998 with the HiFD? It’s all there in the Wikipedia.

Sydney Smith MD (not her real name) worries:

Will the medical records I create today in an electronic format be readable twenty years from now? How about ten? I have recipes from ten years ago that I diligently put on a computer but which are unreadable now, even though the computer I now have is made by the same manufacturer who made the one I used ten years ago. Once they changed the operating system and their word processing program, the recipes were gone.

HomelessInLaJolla is glad they're going:

Since '95 the quality control on floppy disks has been so low that it hasn't been worth buying them anyway. At one time a SS/DD 5.25" could be used as a DS/DD reliably for five years or more without errors "just appearing". Maybe a patent ran out or QA began paying more attention to HD and CD manufacturing. Whatever it was, though, after '95 the floppy disks which I've bought have an average lifespan of about three months before random errors begin appearing on the media.

But Dogtanian calls shenanigans:

This is the third time that they've pulled this stunt. That is, with great ceremony, announcing that they are to stop selling a technology that is (supposedly) becoming long-in-the-tooth and obsolete, and getting lots of attention from the press, who use it as an excuse to describe the (supposed) passing of a particular technology:-

In the case of the VCR, their announcement was misleading at best, and more likely just a pack of lies ... nice publicity stunt.

JeffH also sees a PR problem:

They say they will stop selling when the inventory runs out? So technically, floppies will be available forever, because nobody in their right mind buys them anymore.

the_callipygian notes that Office 2007 still uses a floppy as the "save" icon:

I do hope this never changes. Won't it just be quite cool in, say, 40 years' time, when Microsoft Word 2047 still has that familiar icon, and we have to explain to our grandchildren about the 3-and-a-half inch disk. :) They'll be the next generation's phonograph.

Dubi Kanengisser agrees:

What we're seeing here is the birth of a symbolic sign from what was previously iconic -- i.e., once the icon of the floppy disk was directly indicating the object with which the operation behind the icon was performed. But now, this icon is merely a symbol, a shadow of a past physical object which is no longer in use. Kinda like the drawing of a train on the warning sign at train-crossings -- it doesn't look anything like modern trains, but we immediately identify it as symbolizing these trains.

And Jim Finnis brings us this gem:

Soon you'll be able to say "floppy disk" to a youngster and they'll just fall about laughing. Blimey. I still remember 8" disks, me.

Something I never knew about 3.5" floppies : "the write-protect and high-density holes on a 3½-inch disk are spaced exactly as far apart as the holes in punched A4 paper (8 cm), allowing write-protected floppies to be clipped into European ring binders." (according to Wikipedia). Typical that I find out something like that just as the format finally becomes obsolete.

Buffer overflow:

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And finally... Make a Model Starship Enterprise from a Floppy Disk

Richi Jennings is an independent technology and marketing consultant, specializing in email, blogging, Linux, and computer security. A 20 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. Contact Richi at blogwatch@richi.co.uk.

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