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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)

#161

Post by sema4hacker »

yxwvut wrote: post #134
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…

I think it's worth distinguishing that 'most creators get paid a pittance' is only true on a per-view basis. The total outflows to creators is higher, but the total viewership is massively increased due to the leftward shift in where we live on the demand curve. There's no 'money for nothing' solution where everyone just accepts higher prices and continues consuming at the current rate.

I recently caught part of a radio interview where a musician bemoaned the fact that he used to be able to sell 10,000 copies of a CD and make a living, whereas now he can have millions of listeners online but still not cover the production costs.

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

#162

Post by aidenn0 »

mark_undoio wrote: post #101
aidenn0 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I was excited about the LS-120 but I never quite convinced myself to stump up the money to pay for it. My recollection was that it was: - Slightly larger than the contemporary Zip disks. - Cheaper than a Zip drive. - Could just replace your existing floppy drive, since it was backwards-compatible. I don't know if it was as fast or robust as a Zip disk - it definitely didn't have the same mind share, though.

Robustness was "fine"; anything was more robust than a lot of the cheap floppies that were around in the mid-to-late 90s (though Zip drives manufactured around 2000 had a reputation for failing more often).

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

#163

Post by xbar »

xyst wrote: post #26

3M is a company that does not deserve any praise. The handling of contaminated water supplies with PFAS has forever ruined many lives.

I am sorry to see you being downvoted.

I feel completely betrayed by 3M. All of the fondness I had for the brand from floppy disks to early post-it notes, painter's tape, and scotch taping gifts with my mom.... all of them are tained with the horror of 3M's complete disregard for everything and everyone for all time.

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

#165

Post by afavour »

yxwvut wrote: post #134
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…

I think it's worth distinguishing that 'most creators get paid a pittance' is only true on a per-view basis. The total outflows to creators is higher, but the total viewership is massively increased due to the leftward shift in where we live on the demand curve. There's no 'money for nothing' solution where everyone just accepts higher prices and continues consuming at the current rate.

> The total outflows to creators is higher

Is that actually true, though? I've lost count of the number of times I've heard that bands only really make money from touring these days and that streaming money is basically a rounding error.

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

#166

Post by gloosx »

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…

Dunno, "no one" is a bit exaggerated, vinyl records market is growing every year. Of course, due to really cheap and bulky storage devices available today people all around are collecting movies and music , maintaining their collections in meticulous order. I mean, it is obvious not everyone will accept not owning their movies or music, loosing all access to it the moment they stop to pay in exchange for questionable amount of convenience, so the streaming services are of no interest to them. In fact, some people even see that as caring and giving attention to what they watch or listen.

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

#167

Post by [deleted] »

dylan604 wrote: post #152
francescovv wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 pe…

[deleted]

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

#168

Post by gosub100 »

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…

Creators hardly got paid anything back in the CD era either! Especially new bands that had no experience with the sharks at the record company.

I remember back in the 90s one of the radio countdown shows did a bit on Madonna. They said because she was her own producer, director, manager, etc she cut out all the middlemen and thus earned a much larger share of each album sale.

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

#169

Post by yxwvut »

afavour wrote: post #165
yxwvut wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's worth distinguishing that 'most creators get paid a pittance' is only true on a per-view basis. The total outflows to creators is higher, but the total viewership is massively increased due to the leftward shift in where we live on the demand curve. There's no 'money for nothing' solution where everyone just accepts higher prices and continues consuming at the current rate.

> The total outflows to creators is higher Is that actually true, though? I've lost count of the number of times I've heard that bands only really make money from touring these days and that streaming money is basically a rounding error.

The total pie has absolutely grown. There were a little under 1 billion US album sales in 2000 (the peak of CDs). Spotify alone paid around $3.5B in royalties in the US last year (with similar #s for apple music and a bit less for YT music).

I suspect the disconnect comes from a) a big increase in the # of artists b) artists trying to compare apples to oranges #s as though every stream would've been an album/MP3 sale c) the timeline of revenues: an album sale is a big cash flow shortly after the album release, but streaming revenue is a slow trickle as users gradually discover the album, listen, re-listen, etc

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

#170

Post by akaij »

bombcar wrote: post #116
froddd wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you own a USB-C thumb drive? … Me neither :-/

I have a thumb drive with usb a on one side and c on the other. Insanely surprising how useful it is even at places with more networking than the NSA.

I bought a Transcend ESD310C specifically because of this. Really performant, too!
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