Floppy Disk Becoming Relic of the Past

Vertigo1 · Post by **Vertigo1** » 2004-09-08 06:27pm

phongn wrote:I remember when 3.5" disks were reliable (this being the early to mid 1990s). No longer is that true -- those things will corrupt data if you so much as look at them.

But yeah, they're going the way of the dodo. Most of the CS profs here will accept a burned CD now since fewer and fewer students have disks.

Yeah, I'm already shopping around for a USB thumbdrive. With as much data as I move around, they'd come in real handy. Not to mention they're a HELL of alot more convenient, and aren't as fragile to magnetic fields.

Terr Fangbite · Post by **Terr Fangbite** » 2004-09-08 06:31pm

I noticed something in that article which no one seems to have touched on yet. Bill gates predicted that dvds would be out within a decade, but my question is to what. Holographic storage (crystals) is the next best thing, but thats a decade from even matching today's cd. I was wondering if someone else had some idea why Bill Gates made this claim, or is he just flinging crap from his butt again.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-09-08 06:35pm

Terr Fangbite wrote:I noticed something in that article which no one seems to have touched on yet. Bill gates predicted that dvds would be out within a decade, but my question is to what. Holographic storage (crystals) is the next best thing, but thats a decade from even matching today's cd. I was wondering if someone else had some idea why Bill Gates made this claim, or is he just flinging crap from his butt again.

blue ray dvds seem to be the present next best thing. they hold far more than conventional dvds, and allow for greater data optimization thanks to a blue light that's used to write and read them. being on a narrower frequency than red light, blue light naturally takes up less space.

so until holographic storage is feasible blue ray seems to be the next big thing.

Stofsk · Post by **Stofsk** » 2004-09-08 08:20pm

Sharp-kun wrote:
Stofsk wrote:
Durandal wrote:Dumb-shit English and CompSci teachers still mandate floppy disks for submitting assignments,
English teachers? What sort of English assignment requires the student to submit a floppy disk? Unless you're referring to something else...
I would assume its because they want the actual file. Makes checking for things like plagerisim far easier if you can do things like copy paste.

I'm still not convinced. I'm supposed to sign a form that says I didn't plagiarise anybody in my essay/assignment, and that works for me. And I suppose it works for the faculty as well. Furthermore the assessor is supposed to be familiar with a lot of the source material ANYWAY, which makes the 'cutting and pasting' thing bizarre.

GoldenFalcon · Post by **GoldenFalcon** » 2004-09-08 08:45pm

No more boot disks?

It will be missed...but that thing better not go away. Like the serial port, it's an essential on servers.

Vertigo1 · Post by **Vertigo1** » 2004-09-08 09:49pm

GoldenFalcon wrote:No more boot disks?

It will be missed...but that thing better not go away. Like the serial port, it's an essential on servers.

Psst! You can make bootable CDs ya know. Some systems even allow you to boot off of USB and/or firewire.

Post by **fgalkin** » 2004-09-08 09:54pm

Nooo! What shall I do without my floppies?!

Have a very nice day
-fgalkin

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2004-09-08 10:13pm

Stofsk wrote:I'm still not convinced. I'm supposed to sign a form that says I didn't plagiarise anybody in my essay/assignment, and that works for me. And I suppose it works for the faculty as well. Furthermore the assessor is supposed to be familiar with a lot of the source material ANYWAY, which makes the 'cutting and pasting' thing bizarre.

The English department at my school will electronically compare your paper to an online database to check to see if you've copied a paper or whatnot. In addition, they store hard copies of all your papers written for a departmental course to correlate writing styles if neccessary.

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi · Post by **Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi** » 2004-09-09 09:02pm

The only problems I've had with file corruption on floppy disks was when I was in 4th grade and the only computers the school had were Apple IIs from before I was born. There were a lot of unlabeled 5 1/4" floppy disks with games on them. Only about half of them worked, and only a quarter had anything of interest on them.

I think that the problem with floppies is that they don't have memory adequate for much beyond than storing Word documents and the like. Games nowadays are far too big to fit on one, so they're nowhere near as practical.