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The Rise and Fall of 3M's Floppy Disk (2023)

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Re: The Rise and Fall of 3M's Floppy Disk (2023)

#11

Post by renegade-otter »

fdr wrote: post #5

> If you ask the average person what the company 3M does, odds are if they have a few gray hairs hanging out on their scalp, they might say that the company makes floppy disks. I think that's an interesting perception of the public. I think of 3M making all sorts of things, generally, I admire the company...in spite of some rather grotesque blunders and bad behavior. But the first thing that comes to mind is adhesive…

Totally. My house walls are plastered with M3 Velcro tape that holds everything from hooks to artwork. Really, a marvel of chemical engineering. Those hold quite a load and then you pull down the strip and the adhesive comes off the wall like nothing was ever there.

Re: The Rise and Fall of 3M's Floppy Disk (2023)

#12

Post by aidenn0 »

LarsDu88 wrote: post #3

I remember being super hyped for the successor of the floppy disk back as a kid in the 90s... Iomega Zip Drives. And then getting super hyped for the successor to the CD... the BluRay, and wondering what sort of holographic multi terabyte wizardry would be the nextgen of optical disks. Now we are in 2024 and what actually happened is no one owns their movie or music libraries anymore... they are all streamed from som…

Imation had their own super-floppy drive that I liked better than Zip drives; it never caught on though. They could also do neat tricks like writing up to 32MB to a standard 3.5" floppy.

Re: The Rise and Fall of 3M's Floppy Disk (2023)

#14

Post by Dalewyn »

sebastianavina wrote: post #7
LarsDu88 wrote: post #3

I remember being super hyped for the successor of the floppy disk back as a kid in the 90s... Iomega Zip Drives. And then getting super hyped for the successor to the CD... the BluRay, and wondering what sort of holographic multi terabyte wizardry would be the nextgen of optical disks. Now we are in 2024 and what actually happened is no one owns their movie or music libraries anymore... they are all streamed from som…

you can download any music you want on youtube as mp3s. store them on a usb drive and plug it on your car, or store it in your computer and store a huge music library... but why bother yourself doing that if you can stream directly on any platform...

>why bother

You don't need an internet connection and don't have to worry about data caps or terrible jetliner satellite internet right then and there?

Re: The Rise and Fall of 3M's Floppy Disk (2023)

#15

Post by defrost »

sebastianavina wrote: post #7
LarsDu88 wrote: post #3

I remember being super hyped for the successor of the floppy disk back as a kid in the 90s... Iomega Zip Drives. And then getting super hyped for the successor to the CD... the BluRay, and wondering what sort of holographic multi terabyte wizardry would be the nextgen of optical disks. Now we are in 2024 and what actually happened is no one owns their movie or music libraries anymore... they are all streamed from som…

you can download any music you want on youtube as mp3s. store them on a usb drive and plug it on your car, or store it in your computer and store a huge music library... but why bother yourself doing that if you can stream directly on any platform...

Your experience may vary, in my experience:

* things I've liked don't always stay on youtube or appear on spotify, and

* streaming|internet isn't always available (remote area FiFo, underground, etc.)

Re: The Rise and Fall of 3M's Floppy Disk (2023)

#16

Post by derwiki »

sebastianavina wrote: post #7
LarsDu88 wrote: post #3

I remember being super hyped for the successor of the floppy disk back as a kid in the 90s... Iomega Zip Drives. And then getting super hyped for the successor to the CD... the BluRay, and wondering what sort of holographic multi terabyte wizardry would be the nextgen of optical disks. Now we are in 2024 and what actually happened is no one owns their movie or music libraries anymore... they are all streamed from som…

you can download any music you want on youtube as mp3s. store them on a usb drive and plug it on your car, or store it in your computer and store a huge music library... but why bother yourself doing that if you can stream directly on any platform...

Because it might go away? My Youtube saved lists are littered with removed videos.

And I _do_ use a USB flash drive in my car of curated* music; it’s an always available radio station without and phone fiddling.

*curated= just Grateful Dead recordings

Re: The Rise and Fall of 3M's Floppy Disk (2023)

#17

Post by CharlesW »

charrondev wrote: post #4
CharlesW wrote: post #2

This article implies multiple times that 3M invented the floppy disk. They did not. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_floppy_disk https://web.archive.org/web/20161222064003/http://www-03.ibm...

Did you read the article? This is a few pages in: > Now, to be clear, 3M did not invent magnetic storage—that was done by Austro-German engineer Fritz Pfleumer, in 1928. He created audio tape, a recording medium that started as broad strips of paper coated with iron-powder granules, and eventually moved to less-fragile cellulose acetate with help from what would become another big name in floppy disks, BASF. At first…

My friend, I didn't say "magnetic storage".

The title says "3M's Floppy Disk", which implies that 3M created the floppy disk.

The subtitle calls 3M, "the high-profile creator of magnetic media", only later making it clear that this is also incorrect.

This also implies that 3M invented the floppy: "…3M started with the raw materials and the manufacturing processes, and combined those into computing’s greatest commodity item, the floppy disk."

Finally, the article notes that the only medium that 3M did have a hand in creating, the Floptical disk, flopped.

Assuming that the author even realizes that they're being ambiguous, I would've preferred that they didn't misrepresent 3M's role.

Re: The Rise and Fall of 3M's Floppy Disk (2023)

#19

Post by hackernewds »

renegade-otter wrote: post #11
fdr wrote: post #5

> If you ask the average person what the company 3M does, odds are if they have a few gray hairs hanging out on their scalp, they might say that the company makes floppy disks. I think that's an interesting perception of the public. I think of 3M making all sorts of things, generally, I admire the company...in spite of some rather grotesque blunders and bad behavior. But the first thing that comes to mind is adhesive…

Totally. My house walls are plastered with M3 Velcro tape that holds everything from hooks to artwork. Really, a marvel of chemical engineering. Those hold quite a load and then you pull down the strip and the adhesive comes off the wall like nothing was ever there.

That has almost never been true for me. Every time I take something off paint chips

Re: The Rise and Fall of 3M's Floppy Disk (2023)

#20

Post by hackernewds »

LarsDu88 wrote: post #3

I remember being super hyped for the successor of the floppy disk back as a kid in the 90s... Iomega Zip Drives. And then getting super hyped for the successor to the CD... the BluRay, and wondering what sort of holographic multi terabyte wizardry would be the nextgen of optical disks. Now we are in 2024 and what actually happened is no one owns their movie or music libraries anymore... they are all streamed from som…

> and most content creators get paid a pittance compared to what they did in the old world.

fairly per the effort I'd say. previously content required a camera crew and helicopters. now a smartphone among the limitless content creators

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