floppy disk

Floppytable makes floppies relevant again

Here's a generational test. Look at this table. What do you see? If you see a weird-looking coffee table, then you're young enough to have no idea what a VHS tape or landline telephone is. If you see a floppy disk, then you should probably spend the $930 it takes to get a Floppytable for your living room.

The Floppytable is anything but floppy. It's made from hot-rolled steel and stainless steel, making it much stronger than the plastic originals. The table is nearly 28 inches wide, 18 inches deep, and 26 inches tall, so you won't be able to cram it into the floppy slot on your ancient PC.… Read more

The 404 889: Where we feel an urge to back you up (podcast)

Our guest on the show today is Jason Scott, computer historian and adjunct archivist at the Internet Archives, a nonprofit founded in 1996 to save a copy of every Web page ever posted. He's also responsible for the Netscape GIF graveyard you see above. Also related: "under construction" GIFs!

We want to hear all about the 500,000 books scanned so far in the Archive warehouse, but we'll also talk to him about the Wayback Machine, a tool that lets you click through snapshots of Web sites along a timeline--check out CNET back in October 1996!

The Archive's book-scanning division is the company's foremost project with donated texts making up a big portion of the collection, but the Web site also preserves live music footage, original audio recordings, and various moving images clipped from history, like this compendium of news footage documenting various news organizations' coverage of the September 11 attacks over the course of seven days.

We have a lot of topics to discuss with Jason, including his personal project to rescue data saved on floppy discs (we'll explain what those are in the show, kids) and his personal vendetta against Wikipedia. But we only have 20 minutes for the interview, so expect to see him back on the show in the future.

The 404 Digest for Episode 889

Is this the end for books? Internet archivist seeks 1 of every book written. Rescuing floppy disks, by Jason Scott. The great failure of Wikipedia, by Jason Scott. Ticketmaster tells you where your Facebook Friends sit. CorporateTwits--Trolling goes corporate How a Tweet Led to a full steak dinner delivered to the airport. Netscape GIF Graveyard Under construction GIF Graveyard

Episode 889 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1214: Floppy disks and boobquakes (podcast)

Natali Del Conte joins us in the studio to discuss really important issues such as boobquake day, cartoons, and violent video games. Oh, come on, we also discuss Google's failed attempts to reinvent the mobile phone sales paradigm, unfounded causal links between violent video games and sociopathic behavior, and the dangers of colonization. Good show, guys.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 1214

Google Nexus One Gone From Verizon Lineup http://jkontherun.com/2010/04/26/no-nexus-one-on-verizo/ http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/2010-04-26/verizon-says-it-has-no-current-plans-to-distribute-google-nexus-one-phone.html http://www.cnet.com/8301-19736_1-20003397-251.html… Read more

The 404 567: Where we get caught playing with our toys (podcast)

Today's episode of The 404 Podcast resurrects our love for action figures and other toys from the late 1980s and early 1990s. Jeff's a little older than Wilson and me, but we can still bond over our mutual love for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures and our mutual hatred for picking up all those foam Nerd darts.

There's also a lot to learn about each other based on our toys. For example, Wilson's mom used to yell at him for unscrewing and tinkering with all his figures, which explains why he eventually grew up building his own computers.

Unfortunately, we're too old to play with children's toys now so we've all graduated to big-boy toys, and it's with great sadness that we have to announce the death of the floppy disk. After three decades of production, Sony announced Friday that it would end all floppy-disk sales before the end of March 2011.

Many are unaware that Sony actually pioneered the first 3.5-inch floppy disk in 1981, although the 1.44MB disks were quickly rendered obsolete by other types of removable media like Zip disks, USB flash drives, and of course rewriteable CDs and DVDs. Stay tuned as we deliver a heartfelt "eugoogly" to the floppy disk--a close friend that saved kilobytes of data and served as the basis for way too many nerdy pickup lines.

It's no surprise that Internet privacy is a thing of the past, but a few Blippy users are still finding that out the hard way. If you've never heard of the site before, Blippy is a new company that lets you share your online purchases with everyone on a social network. The service gleans financial data, including what you bought and where you got it, and lets you compare your purchases with others at a granular level, all with the hopes of saving you a few bucks on future purchases.

Unfortunately, five Blippy users found their credit card information published in Google's search engine cache over the weekend. A rep from the company claims that a breach in two banks' security systems caused the problem and they've asked Google to reindex the entire site to fix it, but none of us really understand the appeal of Blippy- feel free to chime in if you're a user and let us know if you've stopped using the service after hearing about this breach in security.

EPISODE 567 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Sony delivers floppy disk's last rites

The days of the 3.5-inch floppy disk are now officially numbered.

Sony, which boasts 70 percent of the anemic market, announced Friday that it would end Japanese sales of the ancient storage medium in March 2011, according to a report in the Mainichi Daily newspaper.

The 3.5-inch floppy was a ubiquitous and necessary component for storing and transferring files between personal computers for nearly three decades. Sony pioneered the 3.5-inch floppy disk in 1981, eventually replacing the 5.25-inch floppy disk that had previously been the popular storage format.

However, as the size of files and programs … Read more

Unintuitive file management

FreeCommander is a file management program that lets users view their file hierarchies in two separate panes, making it easy to navigate between them. Although the program's interface leaves something to be desired, it contains many features that users may find useful when managing their files.

Our first impression of FreeCommander's interface was not favorable. The contents of our computer were displayed in both of the two viewing panes, and across the top of the interface were a slew of tiny, unlabeled buttons. Although the program's basic features were clear--it was easy, for example, to drag and … Read more

Dumpster diving to create fashion

Some design trends should be left alone--especially in fashion accessories. Just as Crave dismissed an unfortunate floppy disk purse from Fractal some months ago, we are similarly unimpressed with what appears to be a floppy disk messenger bag of the DIY variety. (Who can tell?)

It actually could have been worse. As Gearfuse says, the bag's creator had originally planned to make plate mail armor out of the dumpster-disgarded floppies.

We hope that for his sake--and ours--that this amateur Gucci doesn't try to sell his homemade wares. As fellow Craver Erica Ogg noted in her earlier item on … Read more