On floppy disks, there was a recent news item in Japan that government bureaucrats have been using 3.5-in floppy disks for transmitting employee payment data to banks. Apparently, the banks wished to phase out of this technology for years, and only this year did the Japanese government agree to *begin* a phase-out plan scheduled for the next five years. https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Technology/Tokyo-says-long-goodbye-to-belov... Hyungsub Choi ----------------------------------------------------- Hyungsub Choi, Ph.D. (For AY2021-22) Visiting Scholar, Needham Research Institute 8 Sylvester Road, Cambridge CB3 9AF, England (Permanent) Associate Professor, School of Liberal Arts Seoul National University of Science and Technology 232 Gongneung-ro, Nowon-gu, Seoul, Korea 01811 +82-2-970-6259 hchoi@seoultech.ac.kr On Fri, Nov 5, 2021 at 10:58 AM Schmitt, Martin < martin.schmitt@tu-darmstadt.de> wrote:
Dear SIGCIS,
today, I got a request by a German journalist asking about current uses of floppy disks. Are they still is use somewhere? Are there still users, for example power plants, airlines, banks or so who are using floppy disks? If so, why do they do that? I am sure that you can address this question, that was forwarded to me by Daniela Zetti, way better than I could. My first thought were computer hobbyists who are working with old computers and presenting them at Vintage Computing Festivals – cool stuff, but I do not think that is what the journalist wants to hear.
Best Martin
Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter | Post-Doc | digital enthusiast
Technische Universität Darmstadt Institut für Geschichte Fachgebiet Technikgeschichte
Mail: martin.schmitt@tu-darmstadt.de Tel: +49 6151-16-57327 http://www.computerisierung.com
&
Assoziierter Wissenschaftler LEIBNIZ-ZENTRUM FÜR ZEITHISTORISCHE FORSCHUNG | POTSDAM
Vice Chair IFIP WG 9.7 „History of computing"
Zuletzt erschienen: Leslie, Christopher und Martin Schmitt (eds.): Histories of Computing in Eastern Europe, Cham: Springer International Publishing 2019 (IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology 549), https://www.springer.com/978-3-030-29159-4
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