{"id":4917,"date":"2020-08-19T11:10:27","date_gmt":"2020-08-18T23:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kinetics.co.nz\/?p=4917"},"modified":"2020-08-19T11:10:27","modified_gmt":"2020-08-18T23:10:27","slug":"nostalgia-floppy-disks-flying-high-in-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.kinetics.co.nz\/?p=4917","title":{"rendered":"Nostalgia – Floppy Disks flying high in 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"\"<\/a>

Radio Shack TRS-80<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The old TRS-80 just turned 43 years old.\u00a0 It brings back memories of storing programmes on cassette tape.\u00a0 I still have copies of games I wrote and published on cassette many years ago.<\/p>\n

That got us thinking about whether their successor, floppy disks, were still in use.\u00a0 It seems that they still are, albeit rapidly disappearing as you would expect.<\/p>\n

The most surprising use was in aircraft!\u00a0 Specifically 747s.<\/p>\n

In the cloud with floppy disks<\/h2>\n

When you are in the clouds, actually flying through them, its probably a cause of comfort that the aircraft isn\u2019t updating its onboard software from the cloud!<\/p>\n

747’s were recently found to use floppy disks in their navigation systems and for software updates! Reference : https:\/\/www.gizmodo.com.au\/2020\/08\/boeing-747s-still-use-floppy-disks-to-get-critical-software-updates\/<\/a><\/p>\n

We all know that almost every software update works flawlessly these days, but just occasionally one fails, and its nice to know that it won\u2019t be while you are flying.\u00a0 Seriously, with Qantas recently retiring its last 747, there aren\u2019t many left in our corner of the world \u2013 bit of a shame but that\u2019s progress \u2013 and with it goes the one of the last uses of old floppy disks!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Boeing\u2019s 747 floppy disk drive. Aerospace Village<\/p><\/div>\n

Surprising other places that still use floppy disks :<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The International Space Station – https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2018\/11\/22\/18107919\/international-space-station-floppy-disks-discovery-iss<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. US Defense Department SACCS (the nuclear force) just retired the use of old 8\u201d floppy disks (think 1970\u2019s tech) – https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2019\/10\/25\/20931800\/usa-nuclear-8-inch-floppy-disk-solid-state-transition<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. New South Wales Transport (Roads and Maritime Services) \u2013 was reported to be using floppy disks – admittedly only for backups, based on some current documentation, although in fairness we note that they disputed this https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/transport-for-nsw-backup-procedures-still-include-floppy-disks-in-2020\/<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Machines \u2013 e.g. embroidery machines and some ATMs<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    There is even a resurgence in the Indie music world\u00a0 \u2013 check out this album released in the last few weeks (12 August 2020), published on limited edition 3.5\u201d Floppy Disk https:\/\/www.discogs.com\/Glass-Animals-Dreamland\/release\/15767815<\/a><\/p>\n

    While researching this article, I stumbled on a link to a mechanic still using a Commodore 64 at least in 2016, every day! http:\/\/m.trojmiasto.pl\/wiadomosci\/Warszatat-samochodowy-zaslynal-dzieki-26-letniemu-komputerowi-Commodore-n106004.html<\/a><\/p>\n

    Of course, not everything changes.\u00a0 \u00a0 Power cords still look the same!<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The old TRS-80 just turned 43 years old.\u00a0 It brings back memories of storing programmes on cassette tape.\u00a0 I still have copies of games I wrote and published on cassette many years ago. That got us thinking about whether their successor, floppy disks, were still in use.\u00a0 It seems that they still are, albeit rapidly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4919,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"[caption id=\"attachment_4976\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"277\"]\"\"<\/a> Radio Shack TRS-80[\/caption]\n\n\"\"<\/a>The old TRS-80 just turned 43 years old.\u00a0 It brings back memories of storing programmes on cassette tape.\u00a0 I still have copies of games I wrote and published on cassette many years ago.\n\nThat got us thinking about whether their successor, floppy disks, were still in use.\u00a0 It seems that they still are, albeit rapidly disappearing as you would expect.\n\nThe most surprising use was in aircraft!\u00a0 Specifically 747s.\n\n[header2 text=\"In the cloud with floppy disks\" align=\"left\" color=\"#3ec940\" margintop=\"\"]\n\nWhen you are in the clouds, actually flying through them, its probably a cause of comfort that the aircraft isn\u2019t updating its onboard software from the cloud!\n\n747's were recently found to use floppy disks in their navigation systems and for software updates! Reference : https:\/\/www.gizmodo.com.au\/2020\/08\/boeing-747s-still-use-floppy-disks-to-get-critical-software-updates\/<\/a>\n\nWe all know that almost every software update works flawlessly these days, but just occasionally one fails, and its nice to know that it won\u2019t be while you are flying.\u00a0 Seriously, with Qantas recently retiring its last 747, there aren\u2019t many left in our corner of the world \u2013 bit of a shame but that\u2019s progress \u2013 and with it goes the one of the last uses of old floppy disks!\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_4920\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\"]\"\"<\/a> Boeing\u2019s 747 floppy disk drive. Aerospace Village[\/caption]\n\nSurprising other places that still use floppy disks :\n

      \n \t
    1. The International Space Station - https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2018\/11\/22\/18107919\/international-space-station-floppy-disks-discovery-iss<\/a><\/li>\n \t
    2. US Defense Department SACCS (the nuclear force) just retired the use of old 8\u201d floppy disks (think 1970\u2019s tech) - https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2019\/10\/25\/20931800\/usa-nuclear-8-inch-floppy-disk-solid-state-transition<\/a><\/li>\n \t
    3. New South Wales Transport (Roads and Maritime Services) \u2013 was reported to be using floppy disks - admittedly only for backups, based on some current documentation, although in fairness we note that they disputed this https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/transport-for-nsw-backup-procedures-still-include-floppy-disks-in-2020\/<\/a><\/li>\n \t
    4. Machines \u2013 e.g. embroidery machines and some ATMs<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n \n\nThere is even a resurgence in the Indie music world\u00a0 \u2013 check out this album released in the last few weeks (12 August 2020), published on limited edition 3.5\u201d Floppy Disk https:\/\/www.discogs.com\/Glass-Animals-Dreamland\/release\/15767815<\/a>\n\nWhile researching this article, I stumbled on a link to a mechanic still using a Commodore 64 at least in 2016, every day! http:\/\/m.trojmiasto.pl\/wiadomosci\/Warszatat-samochodowy-zaslynal-dzieki-26-letniemu-komputerowi-Commodore-n106004.html<\/a>\n\nOf course, not everything changes.\u00a0 \u00a0 Power cords still look the same!\n\n\"\"<\/a>","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.kinetics.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.kinetics.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.kinetics.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.kinetics.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.kinetics.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.kinetics.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.kinetics.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.kinetics.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.kinetics.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.kinetics.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}