The floppy disk turns into a stiff



It is with a tinge of regret that I note the demise of yet another essential piece of technology history. Sony's announcement that it is to cease production of the 3.5-inch floppy disk next year signals the final exit of the most tangible surviving link between modern computers and the earliest desktops of the 1970s. Chances are you thought it was already extinct. A floppy drive has not been standard on computers for years - Apple omitted it from the first iMac in 1998 and it quickly vanished from most Windows PCs over the following years.

You can, however, buy an external drive that plugs into the USB socket, and the disks themselves are theoretically still available. From 47 million in 2002, Sony reports that it sold 12 million in Japan last year, though that may not reflect actual demand since they usually come in boxes of 10; my guess is that translates into 1.2 million transactions. Personally, I have not bought any for maybe 15 years. I'm fairly sure there's an unopened box somewhere among my things in London. They had their points though: easy to use and reuse, sturdy, reliable, eminently portable. All that is true of memory sticks, of course, but not of CDs.

The tiny 1.44Mb capacity was always the problem. Even before the arrival of image and sound files bigger than a single floppy could hold, software packages often had to be delivered on multiple disks, added to which was the disproportionate bulk of the drive. The term "floppy", incidentally, goes back to the earliest disks, which were an unwieldy eight inches in diameter, housed in a protective but flimsy sleeve, and were flexible to some extent, as was the 5.25-inch successor I remember from the early 1980s. Although the 3.5-inch disk (or "diskette", yuk) was housed in a rigid plastic jacket, the term stuck, I guess to distinguish it from the "hard" or fixed drives already coming in as optional extras.

That brings me to an obscure piece of geek lore. The floppy drive was known as A: on Windows and earlier MS-DOS machines, the hard drive as C: and the optical drive D:, but what was B:? When I saw this question in a computer magazine a few years ago I was surprised that the resident guru had no idea of the answer. I also suddenly felt old. B: was simply a second floppy drive. You used A: for the program disk and B: for documents. Once C: became standard kit, there was no further need for B:.

Talking of computer magazines, here's an anecdote to assuage your natural melancholy in the face of merciless progress. For years these magazines have come with cover disks containing interesting content (games, sample programs, viruses etc). First it was floppies, later CD-ROMs, with a spell of overlap. Of course, the disks just came as part of the magazines, but for some reason the publishers thought it necessary to trumpet that they were "FREE!" - an idea that came unstuck when I saw a leading magazine offering a choice: one version with a free floppy and the other, identical apart from the "free" CD-ROM ? and the price, which was about a pound more.

Joker: Folie a Deux

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson

Director: Todd Phillips 

Rating: 2/5

India squad for fourth and fifth Tests

Kohli (c), Dhawan, Rahul, Shaw, Pujara, Rahane (vc), Karun, Karthik (wk), Pant (wk), Ashwin, Jadeja, Pandya, Ishant, Shami, Umesh, Bumrah, Thakur, Vihari

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
MO
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Our legal consultants

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

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MATCH INFO

Sheffield United 0 Wolves 2 (Jimenez 3', Saiss 6)

Man of the Match Romain Saiss (Wolves)

The specs: 2018 Mazda CX-5

Price, base / as tested: Dh89,000 / Dh130,000
Engine: 2.5-litre four-cylinder
Power: 188hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque: 251Nm @ 4,000rpm
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
​​​​​​​Fuel consumption, combined: 7.1L / 100km

The Baghdad Clock

Shahad Al Rawi, Oneworld

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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
 
Started: 2020
 
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
 
Based: Dubai, UAE
 
Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners

'Unrivaled: Why America Will Remain the World’s Sole Superpower'
Michael Beckley, Cornell Press

Thank You for Banking with Us

Director: Laila Abbas

Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum

Rating: 4/5

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The burning issue

The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE. 

Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on

Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins

Read part two: how climate change drove the race for an alternative 

THE SIXTH SENSE

Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Rating: 5/5

The specs

  Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now

RESULT

Bayern Munich 5 Eintrracht Frankfurt 2
Bayern:
 Goretzka (17'), Müller (41'), Lewandowski (46'), Davies (61'), Hinteregger (74' og)    
Frankfurt: Hinteregger (52', 55')

APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)

Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits

Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine

Storage: 128/256/512GB

Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4

Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps

Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID

Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight

In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter

Price: From Dh2,099

Moon Music

Artist: Coldplay

Label: Parlophone/Atlantic

Number of tracks: 10

Rating: 3/5

DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin

Director: Shawn Levy

Rating: 3/5

COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Results:

2.15pm: Handicap (PA) Dh60,000 1,200m.

Winner: AZ Dhabyan, Adam McLean (jockey), Saleha Al Ghurair (trainer).

2.45pm: Maiden (PA) Dh60,000 1,200m.

Winner: Ashton Tourettes, Sam Hitchcott, Ibrahim Aseel.

3.15pm: Conditions (PA) Dh60,000 2,000m.

Winner: Hareer Al Reef, Gerald Avranche, Abdallah Al Hammadi.

3.45pm: Maiden (PA) Dh60,000 1,700m.

Winner: Kenz Al Reef, Gerald Avranche, Abdallah Al Hammadi.

4.15pm: Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Cup (TB) Dh 200,000 1,700m.

Winner: Mystique Moon, Sam Hitchcott, Doug Watson.

4.45pm: The Crown Prince Of Sharjah Cup Prestige (PA) Dh200,000 1,200m.

Winner: ES Ajeeb, Sam Hitchcott, Ibrahim Aseel.

The Penguin

Starring: Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz

Creator: Lauren LeFranc

Rating: 4/5

The biog

Profession: Senior sports presenter and producer

Marital status: Single

Favourite book: Al Nabi by Jibran Khalil Jibran

Favourite food: Italian and Lebanese food

Favourite football player: Cristiano Ronaldo

Languages: Arabic, French, English, Portuguese and some Spanish

Website: www.liliane-tannoury.com

Company profile

Company: Eighty6 

Date started: October 2021 

Founders: Abdul Kader Saadi and Anwar Nusseibeh 

Based: Dubai, UAE 

Sector: Hospitality 

Size: 25 employees 

Funding stage: Pre-series A 

Investment: $1 million 

Investors: Seed funding, angel investors  

T20 WORLD CUP QUALIFIER

Results

UAE beat Nigeria by five wickets

Hong Kong beat Canada by 32 runs

Friday fixtures

10am, Tolerance Oval, Abu Dhabi – Ireland v Jersey

7.30pm, Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi – Canada v Oman