Thursday, March 16, 2023

Why The Floppy Disk Is Still Relevant Today

The newer generation would probably not recognize this piece of technology. Or maybe they would recognize it as "the save icon."
Despite its antiquity, the floppy disk is still essential to some. These are people with small businesses that found upgrading their equipment too expensive.
Mark Necaise from Mississippi is one such case. He creates custom embroidery on jackets and vests using a second-hand Japanese machine. Sadly, he has to get his hands on floppy disks as it is the only way to transfer designs from his computer to the machine. When he went down to his last four floppy disks, Necaise began to worry. Thankfully, he decided to buy a floppy-to-USB emulator. Never again would he worry about floppy disk shortage.
Small embroidery businesses are not the only ones using floppy disks. Cargo airlines, such as one in Tbilisi, Georgia, still use floppy disks to update systems of old airplanes.
It would seem that, even after floppy disk production was discontinued, this "antique" technology still remains relevant today. Lori Emerson, the founder of Media Archaeology Lab and a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, believes that the floppy disk will never die when "there are people in the world who are still busy finding and fixing up and maintaining phonograph players from 1910."

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