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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)

#151

Post by anthk »

francescovv wrote: post #65
ssl-3 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to miss being able to hand a floppy disk to someone to give them some data, but then I got used to using email instead (once disk quotas, transfer rates, and attachment sizes caught up). The disks were cheap enough (eventually) to not care much about. And for a while, I enjoyed handing people CD-Rs or DVD-Rs full of data, and the disks were also cheap enough (eventually) to not care much about. (And disk quota…

> What (...) happened to easily sending data, over the Internet And for mobile phones - without internet is similar, unnecessarily hard. The other day I was hiking with friends, and wanted to share a .gpx file with the route, at some spot with no cell coverage. I thought: "I 'member, bluetooth can send files". Well, we spent good 15 minutes trying and miserably failed, that's no longer possible in the name of "securi…

Briar can send files over Bluetooth.

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

#152

Post by dylan604 »

francescovv wrote: post #65
ssl-3 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to miss being able to hand a floppy disk to someone to give them some data, but then I got used to using email instead (once disk quotas, transfer rates, and attachment sizes caught up). The disks were cheap enough (eventually) to not care much about. And for a while, I enjoyed handing people CD-Rs or DVD-Rs full of data, and the disks were also cheap enough (eventually) to not care much about. (And disk quota…

> What (...) happened to easily sending data, over the Internet And for mobile phones - without internet is similar, unnecessarily hard. The other day I was hiking with friends, and wanted to share a .gpx file with the route, at some spot with no cell coverage. I thought: "I 'member, bluetooth can send files". Well, we spent good 15 minutes trying and miserably failed, that's no longer possible in the name of "securi…

To me, this seems like a feature the app you're using with the GPX should add to its social settings with a Share With Friend(s) button. Specifically knowing that being in an environment where cell coverage might not be available, it can form adhoc wifi, and push across. Of course, they will want you to allow access to Contacts to know who your friends are. But you've probably already been requested for any of the permissions needed for this feature, because $REASONS

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

#153

Post by philbin »

francescovv wrote: post #65
ssl-3 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to miss being able to hand a floppy disk to someone to give them some data, but then I got used to using email instead (once disk quotas, transfer rates, and attachment sizes caught up). The disks were cheap enough (eventually) to not care much about. And for a while, I enjoyed handing people CD-Rs or DVD-Rs full of data, and the disks were also cheap enough (eventually) to not care much about. (And disk quota…

> What (...) happened to easily sending data, over the Internet And for mobile phones - without internet is similar, unnecessarily hard. The other day I was hiking with friends, and wanted to share a .gpx file with the route, at some spot with no cell coverage. I thought: "I 'member, bluetooth can send files". Well, we spent good 15 minutes trying and miserably failed, that's no longer possible in the name of "securi…

[dead]

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

#154

Post by whycome »

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…

> At least we still have thumbsticks...

Except for the drift issues!!

/s

But even gaming has gone to the model you describe. There’s no more “holding” of something.

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

#155

Post by monocasa »

mrguyorama wrote: post #130
flyinghamster wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised nobody has made SD cards with mask-programmed ROM or even traditional write-once PROM.

It's called a Nintendo DS game card. I don't know if the Switch game cards are flash or mask-ROM.

Mask ROM.

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

#156

Post by gedy »

Rinzler89 wrote: post #142
GuB-42 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many ways of sending files between phones, none of them good. Bluetooth can work, but it is slow as hell, and Apple doesn't support it. Cloud services are convenient, but you not only you need some signal, but you also uses up your data plan. If you have USB OTG support, you can simply use a thumb drive, like with your PC, but it is cumbersome and you need the hardware. There are some somewhat proprietary s…

>Bluetooth can work, but it is slow as hell, and Apple doesn't support it. Wait, seriously? iPhones still don't support Bluetooth file transfers? I knew this was the case with the first iPhone but I just accepted that's a limitation from the OS being still an early release of a brand new product with limited functionality, I wouldn't have expect this to be the case after 15 years. Anyway, I'm still baffled we never g…

Airdrop? I'm pretty sure it's works without wifi or cellular.

(If you're talking iphone to Android, nvm)

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

#157

Post by mrWiz »

nradov wrote: post #135
mrWiz wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way it generally works IME is that if I want someone's data I better have my own thumb drive to get it, and if somebody wants mine they better have their own.

You've got to be kidding. There's no way I'm going to plug someone else's thumb drive into my computer. Who knows what kind of malware it could be carrying, like having unprotected sex with a random stranger.

The USB drive I keep on my keychain is named STUXNET, so...

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

#158

Post by Rinzler89 »

gedy wrote: post #156
Rinzler89 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Bluetooth can work, but it is slow as hell, and Apple doesn't support it. Wait, seriously? iPhones still don't support Bluetooth file transfers? I knew this was the case with the first iPhone but I just accepted that's a limitation from the OS being still an early release of a brand new product with limited functionality, I wouldn't have expect this to be the case after 15 years. Anyway, I'm still baffled we never g…

Airdrop? I'm pretty sure it's works without wifi or cellular. (If you're talking iphone to Android, nvm)

Yeah, I meant cross platform file sharing, since that's what Bluetooth enabled originally, you could send files between whatever brand of phone and whatever brand of PC.

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

#159

Post by camtarn »

bombcar wrote: post #115
camtarn wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have a limited lifetime. It's a fairly long limited lifetime, sure, but unless you're reading and rewriting the data on the cards regularly, you can't rely on them to all still be intact a decade down the line. Which is a shame, because I kinda love the idea of my music collection being stored in a little cube that unfolds to reveal a hundred or so micro SD cards.

Maybe not SD cards but something similar - Nintendo Switch cartridges are a few GB and seem quite durable.

Huh, those are neat! The largest ones seem to use Macronix HybridFlash technology, and:

"HybridFlash provides a very stable medium to contents and OS, enabling storage as long as 20 years at 85 degrees centigrade and it also works normally from 40 degrees below zero to 85 degrees centigrade."

So, not forever, but definitely longer than regular flash memory. Cool.

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

#160

Post by tristor »

0x0000000 wrote: post #32

> 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. That's crazy, I wouldn't think anyone would first and foremost associate 3M with floppies instead of adhesives, even those with a few grays like myself. They make post-its for chrissake, and we're gonna pretend they're most known for floppies?

I mostly associate 3M with film products, because that's what they're most known for in the car world. If you want high-quality paint protection film or tint film at a commercial scale, it's usually from 3M (although they have some competitors like Xpel). When I think about adhesives, I think about Permatex, but I didn't realize Scotch and Duck tape were 3M products, so I have probably used way more 3M adhesives than I realized.

When I think about floppy disks, especially 3.5" floppy disks, I mostly think of Sony and Toshiba. Both made floppy disks, but Sony invented them, Toshiba was the first to put a 3.5" floppy disk drive in a laptop, and Sony made one of the first consumer digital cameras which stored photos on a floppy disk (Sony Mavica). I don't even remotely think of 3M. I would associate the brand name "Fellows" more with floppies than 3M, because they were the company that made the 50 and 100 floppy storage trays you could buy at any office store. When I moved in 2022, I threw out nearly 600 floppy disks I still had in a closet for some reason, including a copy of the Windows 3.11 installer set.

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