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Sony Says Sayonara

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Sony Says Sayonara

Postby Mike Oxlong » Mon May 24, 2010 7:33 pm

[SIZE="5"]Sony boots out floppy disks[/SIZE]
Bigger and better tech overpowers the floppy market
With new technology coming out all the time, some of our iconic favourites are being scrapped.

And this time the death bell has finally sounded for floppy disks with Sony, one of the few companies who has kept this tech alive, announcing it will end sales of floppy disks by March 2011.

The Japanese company, which had a 70 percent share of the 12 million disks sold last year put the reason for the final nail in the coffin as a result of "dwindling demand."

Sony was the first company to kick start the global floppy disc market, launching the world's first 3.5-inch floppy disks in 1981, and back then the disks were seen as a great storage medium for personal computers and word processors. It even stood its ground right into 2000 when these disks were shipping around 47 million.

However with the development of large-capacity storage devices such as USB flash drives, companies have been burying this technology for a while.

Apple was the first computer maker to eliminate the floppy in 1998 and then Dell followed in 2003. Will the CD be the next piece of technology to suffer the same fate?
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Postby Midwinter » Mon May 24, 2010 8:45 pm

Floppy disk, I salute you *sniffs* So many good memories... anyone else remember the 5.25-inch floppys? It's always sad to see old technology die like this :(
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Postby Yokohammer » Mon May 24, 2010 9:01 pm

Midwinter wrote:... anyone else remember the 5.25-inch floppys?

Um ... how about 8-inch floppy disks?
If the farthest back you can remember is 5-1/4 inchers, you're a spring chicken!

Let's not even get into core memory ...
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Postby Midwinter » Mon May 24, 2010 9:44 pm

Yokohammer wrote:Um ... how about 8-inch floppy disks?
If the farthest back you can remember is 5-1/4 inchers, you're a spring chicken!

Let's not even get into core memory ...


No doubt, compared with some of you relics, I'm positively virile :D For me, it was the Commodore-64 and the tape loader, followed by the 5-.25 inch floppys. LOL we lived in fear of bending the disc back then *gasps* the horror!
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Postby Neo-Rio » Mon May 24, 2010 9:47 pm

I'm not sad that the floppy is dying. It's an outdated piece of technology.
I'm sad because a huge chunk of my life and personal memories associated with them is gone never to return.
*sniff*
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Postby Iraira » Mon May 24, 2010 9:49 pm

Midwinter wrote:No doubt, compared with some of you relics, I'm positively virile :D For me, it was the Commodore-64 and the tape loader, followed by the 5-.25 inch floppys. LOL we lived in fear of bending the disc back then *gasps* the horror!


I'll see your Commodore-64, and raise you a Radio Shack TRS-80.:flame:
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Postby FG Lurker » Mon May 24, 2010 10:11 pm

Iraira wrote:I'll see your Commodore-64, and raise you a Radio Shack TRS-80.:flame:

I'll see your Trash-80 and raise you a TI-99/4A. :lol:
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Postby Tsuru » Mon May 24, 2010 10:34 pm

Good riddance. Unreliable pieces of shit.
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Postby (1VB)freels » Mon May 24, 2010 10:46 pm

You want to know something??? We still need them here on the most advanced warships in the world!!! Nothing like a POS Dell that has an OS from the '90's!!!!!!
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Postby Coligny » Mon May 24, 2010 11:08 pm

(1VB)freels wrote:You want to know something??? We still need them here on the most advanced warships in the world!!! Nothing like a POS Dell that has an OS from the '90's!!!!!!


Yeah... go tell that to CNC operators... good thing is now they developped floppy drive hardware emulator that accept USB memory sticks and present them as virtual floppy to the machine...

And don't get me startled (pun intended) with them goddamn parallel ports...

What frighten me the most is using garbage of the shelf computers with a life of 5-6 years max in equipment supposed to last around 30... For automotive on board system it's already a little short (10 years for a car... GPS system... not so much...) for Destroyers it's ridiculous...
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Postby Midwinter » Mon May 24, 2010 11:20 pm

Iraira wrote:I'll see your Commodore-64, and raise you a Radio Shack TRS-80.:flame:


Oh hell yes! Never had one of those personally, but some of the neighbors did. In retrospect, it's really amazing the things those machines did with such little memory.
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Postby American Oyaji » Mon May 24, 2010 11:28 pm

*sigh* I remember loading Photoshop onto the old Macs with 3.5in floppies.

I remember the 5 1/4. The tape drive. Never used the larger floppies, but I saw them.
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Postby Iraira » Tue May 25, 2010 12:11 am

FG Lurker wrote:I'll see your Trash-80 and raise you a TI-99/4A. :lol:


Ok, now I'm feeling old, but here's the history of the world....
http://oldcomputers.net/index.html
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Postby xenomorph42 » Tue May 25, 2010 1:43 am

American Oyaji wrote:*sigh* I remember loading Photoshop onto the old Macs with 3.5in floppies.

I remember the 5 1/4. The tape drive. Never used the larger floppies, but I saw them.


Stop will ya?! Yer bringin' tears to my eyes. Who could ever forget? Talk about bringing back some ol' Nostalgic memories! *Sigh* How I miss my sweet Apple II. :confused:

http://www.google.co.jp/imglanding?q=floppy%20disk&imgurl=http://technabob.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/floppy-raid-1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://technabob.com/blog/2009/05/22/35-inch-floppy-disk-raid/&usg=__1_WD8_HfMfmBAu20E7mLp7DpPtU=&h=390&w=520&sz=67&hl=ja&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=56H1ZP2bbyaBeM:&tbnh=98&tbnw=131&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfloppy%2Bdisk%26start%3D60%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dja%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den%26ndsp%3D20%26tbs%3Disch:1&start=65&um=1&client=safari&sa=N&rls=en&ndsp=20&tbs=isch:1#tbnid=56H1ZP2bbyaBeM&start=69

http://www.google.co.jp/imglanding?q=apple%20II&imgurl=http://www.vernier.com/caliper/fall06/images/apple_ii_large.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.vernier.com/caliper/fall06/history.html&usg=__zqRlywQf6MPoVgnqhDzGkjKCj5Y=&h=588&w=600&sz=108&hl=ja&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=20Unzh-ilVZ3fM:&tbnh=132&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dapple%2BII%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dja%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DG%26rls%3Den%26ndsp%3D20%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&client=safari&sa=G&rls=en&ndsp=20&tbs=isch:1&start=0#tbnid=20Unzh-ilVZ3fM&start=1
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Postby FG Lurker » Tue May 25, 2010 2:24 am

Yeah, some "natsukashii" stuff for sure.

I can remember when 10MB hard drives broke the US$1000 barrier. Who would ever need that much storage!? Much later I remember when hard drives broke the $1/MB price too -- only $400 for 420MB! Insanely cheap!

Also remember a 4MB SIMM costing $500... That was when hard drives were around $1/MB, back in 1994 or early 1995 I guess.

Bought a used JVC 2x SCSI CD-R drive at Sofmap in 1995 for 32,000yen. That was a helluva deal for the time. Had to go get a SCSI card for it and I soon had a large collection of coasters...

A bit more on topic, I remember having MS Office 4.3 on 31 3.5" floppies... That was a frickin nightmare. Also remember early Mac days of constant disk swapping for SuperPaint or any other app really. System on one disk, app on another... swap swap swap swap... swap some more....

What I look forward to is that in 15 years time we will think exactly the same things about the tech we are all buying now..... Personally I can't wait!
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Postby Coligny » Tue May 25, 2010 4:14 am

FG Lurker wrote:A bit more on topic, I remember having MS Office 4.3 on 31 3.5" floppies... That was a frickin nightmare. Also remember early Mac days of constant disk swapping for SuperPaint or any other app really. System on one disk, app on another... swap swap swap swap... swap some more....


Furst edishiun of win 95 (SRA something) can't remember the exact number of disk... let say arm lenght... Remember at work when we had to keep it specially on some notebook for compatibility reason with a sniffer software...

oh joy...
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Postby Yokohammer » Tue May 25, 2010 6:49 am

Wow, fun thread.

Who would have though that a thread about finicky, POS old computer hardware could be such an emotional trip down memory lane!

Wonder what people will be waxing nostalgic about in 100 years time.
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Postby xenomorph42 » Tue May 25, 2010 7:20 am

FG Lurker wrote:Yeah, some "natsukashii" stuff for sure.

I can remember when 10MB hard drives broke the US$1000 barrier. Who would ever need that much storage!? Much later I remember when hard drives broke the $1/MB price too -- only $400 for 420MB! Insanely cheap!

Also remember a 4MB SIMM costing $500... That was when hard drives were around $1/MB, back in 1994 or early 1995 I guess.

Bought a used JVC 2x SCSI CD-R drive at Sofmap in 1995 for 32,000yen. That was a helluva deal for the time. Had to go get a SCSI card for it and I soon had a large collection of coasters...

A bit more on topic, I remember having MS Office 4.3 on 31 3.5" floppies... That was a frickin nightmare. Also remember early Mac days of constant disk swapping for SuperPaint or any other app really. System on one disk, app on another... swap swap swap swap... swap some more....

What I look forward to is that in 15 years time we will think exactly the same things about the tech we are all buying now..... Personally I can't wait!


Brotha, you ain't lying! That was a serious nightmare back in the day Those were the days when only geeks or serious business people needed to use computers. Nothing like today where computers are fun and simple (well, at least Mac anyway :) ) and privately most people have at least one in their home. Everything's gotten so much easier.
Can't wait for the next phase. Probably no CD drive, just wireless download and backup on to your WIFI HD or Mozy virtual HD.
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Postby IkemenTommy » Tue May 25, 2010 9:55 am

I can think of some other PC technologies that need to die and fade away:
-RS232 port
-Printer port
-D-sub pin
-IDE
-Zip drive
-MO drive
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Postby Yokohammer » Tue May 25, 2010 10:56 am

IkemenTommy wrote:I can think of some other PC technologies that need to die and fade away:
-RS232 port
-Printer port
-D-sub pin
-IDE
-Zip drive
-MO drive

Can you even buy ZIP and MO disks anymore?
I thought they'd already joined the dodo bird in the land of extinction.

But it's funny to even think about now. The highest capacity MO drive was, what, 640 MB? Come to think of it they might have made it to a somewhat unreliable 1.2 gig at the end. Now you can have 16 gig on a USB memory dongle for less than 10K yen.
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Postby FG Lurker » Tue May 25, 2010 11:14 am

MO disks are actually incredibly reliable, far and away the most reliable removable & rewritable storage of their day. Unfortunately they were slow, quite expensive, and the capacities didn't keep up with hard disk growth. 3.5" MOs went as high as 1.3GB, 5.25" MO went up to 9.1GB I believe.

Zip on the other hand was an abomination from the start. Take an unreliable technology (floppy disks) and pack on ~65x the data. Combine with unreliable drives and high costs and you get...crap. :(

Anyone remember Jaz drives? They were pretty cool tech for their day.

Not all old tech is dead though. I still use a massive Epson VP-5200 impact printer just about every day. 25kg and the whole desk shakes when it prints. :lol: At least it has a network interface in it so it isn't connected by some super long parallel cable...
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Postby Yokohammer » Tue May 25, 2010 11:27 am

I had some 640MB MO disks go bad on me over time. Some of the data became unreadable. :smashpc:
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Postby IkemenTommy » Tue May 25, 2010 11:34 am

Yokohammer wrote:Can you even buy ZIP and MO disks anymore?

You bet!
http://kakaku.com/pc/mo-drive/
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Postby Yokohammer » Tue May 25, 2010 11:41 am

IkemenTommy wrote:You bet!
http://kakaku.com/pc/mo-drive/

Well I'll be ... you can still buy drives!
I guess some people still have data on MO disks.
I canned all mine ages ago.
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Postby Coligny » Tue May 25, 2010 11:42 am

Yokohammer wrote: Now you can have 16 gig on a USB memory dongle for less than 10K yen.



Diamond plated ? Even those damn compact flash cost 9000y for 32gb and they are some of the still quite expensive crap just going the way of the dodo (but ide bootable... so... sort of nice for the system partition on linux servers...)
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Postby Yokohammer » Tue May 25, 2010 11:48 am

Coligny,

Totally off topic, but is that Michel Polnareff on your avatar (or do you actually look like that)?
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Postby Midwinter » Tue May 25, 2010 11:52 am

Yokohammer wrote:Coligny,

Totally off topic, but is that Michel Polnareff on your avatar (or do you actually look like that)?


Well, he is French...

Seriously though, for some reason I always thought his avatar was Brüno.
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Postby FG Lurker » Tue May 25, 2010 11:56 am

Yokohammer wrote:I had some 640MB MO disks go bad on me over time. Some of the data became unreadable. :smashpc:

"most reliable removable & rewritable storage of their day" != perfect... They were far better than anything like Zip or CD-RW and generally speaking were pretty tough.
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Postby Yokohammer » Tue May 25, 2010 12:13 pm

FG Lurker wrote:"most reliable removable & rewritable storage of their day" != perfect... They were far better than anything like Zip or CD-RW and generally speaking were pretty tough.

Yes, understood. I'm not implying that you've got it wrong or anything, I just had a few bad experiences with the damn things.

But Zip drives ... they were truly a mess. For some reason they become really popular in the music production field for a short while. Until people started losing their hard work, that is. When their true level of reliability became apparent they disappeared almost overnight. They were relatively cheap (which I guess was the reason for their popularity), but you got what you paid for (i.e. crap).
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Postby Coligny » Tue May 25, 2010 4:49 pm

Yokohammer wrote:Coligny,

Totally off topic, but is that Michel Polnareff on your avatar (or do you actually look like that)?


Yeah... it's Michel Polnareff... I kinda like the guy (music and stances, anything that could piss of my Nazi grandmother was a godsend in my book... and he was pretty much top of the list in that respect...) One of the symbol of the Republic of Free Fuck that was France in the 60/70'... as soon as we finished telling De Gaulle where he could shove his uniform and military antics...


Definately NOT Bruno... AliG was Gold... Borat... was a letdown... Bruno is painfull to watch, like a Talladega Night gone horribly wrong...
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