“ Japan's newly appointed Minister of Digital Affairs, Taro Kono, has declared war on the floppy disk and other forms of obsolete media, which the government still requires as a submission medium for around 1,900 types of business applications and other forms. The goal is to modernize the procedures by moving the information submission process online.

Kono announced the initiative during a press conference in Japan on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg. Legal issues have prevented the modernization to cloud data storage in the past, and Japanese government offices often use CDs, MiniDiscs, or floppy disks to accept submissions from the public and businesses. For example, Japan's Mainichi newspaper reported in Dec. 2021 that Tokyo police lost two floppy disks containing information on 38 public housing applicants. A digital task force group led by Kono will announce how to fix those issues by the end of the year. “


[arstechnica.com]

A decade or so ago, a friend of mine did a study of US Air Force data transfer media for carrying mission data to the various aircraft types. He found that most of them were (wait for it) proprietary and/or unique to the particular avionics of the given aircraft, and almost all of them were going to be hard to support in the future due to parts obsolescence.

The most sustainable, by his analysis? The B-1, which used regular old 3.5" floppy discs. (No idea whether this is still the case BTW.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/2022 12:55PM by Will Collier.

There was a time, not so long ago, that the USAF was scrounging for every old floppy drive they could get, and every stock of disks they could find, to keep enough spares for (this part I'm not sure of) loading target packages on nuclear missiles...
Since it's a VERY mission critical operation, they hadn't changed, because the amount of testing and certifications for any new method would be prohibitive (like, in the billions to certify every possible failure of a new system...).

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Paul F.
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A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca c. 5 BC - 65 AD
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Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence.
Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision.
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Eureka, CA

There are still companies that process old floppy discs for reuse. Some will pay for the shipping to them, though they are usually looking for a minimum of 100 at a time. Drives are a different matter, don't know if anyone is still manufacturing them. There are recyclers and refurbishes, but there are limits to how much can be repaired with some designs.

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JoeH
There are still companies that process old floppy discs for reuse. Some will pay for the shipping to them, though they are usually looking for a minimum of 100 at a time. Drives are a different matter, don't know if anyone is still manufacturing them. There are recyclers and refurbishes, but there are limits to how much can be repaired with some designs.

I did a last-time-buy on USB PCMCIA readers for... well, let's just say a very well-known DOD system, dozen or so years ago. I ought to call those guys and see if they still have spares left from that stash...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/2022 02:34PM by Will Collier.

I remember reading an article - probably in the last ten years - probably got the link here - talking about processes that STILL required stacks of punch cards. Sorry - I remember nothing more about it... but I'm sure that when I read it, floppies were already long forgotten history.

Next on the list should be pin-feed paper and impact/dot matrix printers. Multi-part "carbon paper" forms being the reason.

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hal
I remember reading an article - probably in the last ten years - probably got the link here - talking about processes that STILL required stacks of punch cards.

Guided missiles and voting machines.

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GGD
Next on the list should be pin-feed paper and impact/dot matrix printers. Multi-part "carbon paper" forms being the reason.

Would have long-since gone the way of the tape drive if not for rental car companies...