The floppy disk refused to die in Japan - laws that forced the continued use of floppies have finally hit the chopping block
The floppy disk refused to die in Japan - laws that forced the continued use of floppies have finally hit the chopping block
This sort of thing is why I dislike legislation that mandates the use of something very specific. Things change and it is better to create laws that don’t become outdated as fast as tech tends to.
That's a Japan thing and a legislative failure.
What normally happens in most countries is the law would say something vague like "digital means or devices such as floppy disks or equivalent".
Then the Executive makes and maintains the rules of application of that law according to the Hierarchy of Norms (things probably are organized differently in Common Law countries so I don't know the English term but the principle is the same), which dictates in more detail how the law is to be applied ("please use a web form, or a USB keys for legacy processes").
Sometimes the executive lags behind a bit but typically it's just a ministry making decisions within the margin of the law, so it's not too bad.
Without it we get a different iPhone charger every year that no other device is allowing to use
It’s just a brick with a USB socket. I still have 5W usb chargers from iPhones a decade ago that work with anything USB.
They didn’t change connectors on the cables frequently either. The old big one, lightning, and USB C are the only connectors iPhone used.
The law doesn't even force USBC it just forces whatever the international standards working group recommends, if they change the recommendation it will change the port.
So we're actually having our cake and eating it.
Also stuff like USB 5.0 specifications are designed to work on USBC port so again no actual upgrade will be required.
Guess what the EU just did with USB-C?
The EU regulation doesn't say "USB-C", but "industry standard charging port" or something. What's industry standard is an executive decision of the EU commission, unless the USB-IF does something tremendously stupid the commission is just going to rubber-stamp any new standard they come up with.
The EU didn't event want to legislate in the first place and would've preferred for manufacturers to get together and just be sensible, but, well, Apple. The only hold-out.
When needed, they can change it faster than Japan did.
you're incorrect. It doesn't restrict itself to the USB-C
Luckily usb-c is probably gonna stick around for a while and it's just a form factor. The standard itself has room to grow, and the EU left the rules open to change.
But I understand the concern, legislating tech sucks. On the other hand, when companies care almost exclusively about profit, not customers or the future of our planet, and won't improve things themselves... not a lot of other options.
Ah man the translucent colourful floppies.. that takes me back
It was a happier time, I miss my atomic purple floppies.
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I rewrote that several times because I have the mind of a child, but atomic purple 3.5” was even worse so I give up and you get to enjoy both.
I miss 8" floppies, where you could double their capacity with a pair of scissors.
I still have some somewhere. One even says "DOOM" on it, of course.
Lol. I think I still have a bunch of the old Slackware floppies somewhere.
Yes, but can I still submit using a fax machine?
No, only on paper with hanko stamp that you left at home.
What year is this, 2015?
What in the hell are they using them for? They hold so little data I don’t see how they can even be practical at this point.
where I live (not Japan), trams are updated with a suitcase worth of floppy disks (and these are the more modern trams here)
One thing came to mind, Irreplaceable infrastructure computer systems from decades ago.
There are powerplants and oil rigs that use computer from decades ago which is irreplaceable (either due to technical or cost effective).
10 to one they weren't, look how oddly this article is phrased. I'd guess there was a rule government offices had to accept floppy discs, have the equipment to read them, but the clients weren't actually submitting that way anymore.
Like, the first paragraph explains.
Until last week there were about 1,900 official governmental application procedures that stipulated businesses must submit floppies or CD-ROMs (specifically) containing supplementary data.
Not "the government had to accept them", but "businesses were required to submit them".
It's not a hypothetical problem, there was even news a few years ago about how businesses were complaining they had to send in a dozen+ disks at a time because of file formats.
The laws were written at the dawn of the digital age, in the 70s and 80s, stipulating specific storage media, and just never got updated because the government didn't view it as a problem.
Upvoted because proper'ish use of 10 and one. :)
Their government agencies still used a lot of them.
How do you force someone to use them?
FTA:
Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has abolished any requirement for applicants to use this ancient clicking and buzzing magnetic media when filing official documents. Until last week there were about 1,900 official governmental application procedures that stipulated businesses must submit floppies or CD-ROMs (specifically) containing supplementary data.
Oh, just government.
Open and close the metal shutter on the disk in their general direction to assert dominance
You tie them to the desk and withhold food and water until they reformat an entire box of Mac floppies for use in Windows.
Fuckin' dumbfuck 3rd grade teacher having us all do class assignments in a lab full of Macs, saving our work on Mac formatted disks, and then expecting us to also work on it at home on our parent's Compaqs/IBMs.
Sorry, just had a core memory unlocked.
Wait.. I could use Mac floppies in windows since, 95, I think? Maybe even back in Win3.1 days, IIRC (I seem to recall seeing the ". Resource Fork" folder back then). But my memory is fuzzy.
I think you had to reformat to make them Bootable though?
Japan has been living in the year 2000 for 40 years
they probably meant 720KB there
I hear data in Japan is smaller and efficiently organized.
Are you snubbing 8" floppies just because they don't fit in your pocket?
Is that a floppie in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?