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We’re only 5 years on from the US defense system relying on 8 inch floppy disks (out of production since the 80s), and Sony only stopped producing Betamax in 2015.
Formats have long hidden lives when enough money gets spent on their implementation.
Many Japan businesses still require official documents to be endorsed using carved personal stamps called hanko, despite the government’s efforts to phase them out.
Please submit your résumé in cuneiform.
Perhaps because they still work?
And, unlike flash storage, magnetic media can retain data indefinitely when stored without power.
magnetic media can retain data indefinitely when stored without power.
That is not true. Old floppy disks often do not work anymore (old as in 15-20 years unused).
It is true. I said can retain data indefinitely, not will retain data forever.
(And in any case, being pedantic here misses the point.)
All indefinitely means is “not certain”. So it could mean a week… Or a century.
These disks are pretty well understood. You should be good for a decade. At about 12-13 years it’s risky and anything after 15… If it’s still working, count yourself lucky.
In Canada I think fax machines are still prevalent. Let’s get rid of those insecure devices too.
It’s privacy regs. Fax machines are as insecure as ever, and that’s the point: it doesn’t get worse while ciphers retire constantly. So while this years it’s SHAx that dies, fucking fax machines’ threat is statically bad.
Reliably bad is reliable, I guess.
I say this while having been one of those people who got a raft of fax spam from a clinic who flubbed the numbers.
Threats understood are more easily mitigated.
Also sometimes things like fax are used because of the laws protecting those wires
Most government shit regardless of country is using outdated as fuck tech. Budgets don’t work like the open market. There is no such thing as ROI for a government.
Tbh I’ve only praise for any interactions I’ve had with British govt websites through government gateway.
Don’t a lot of offices / businesses in Japan still use fax machines and such on the daily? (Or am I dumb?), I don’t really find this suprising, despite the fact we associate Japan with high tech, most places take an “if its not broken don’t fix it” attitude to tech and tend to use a lot tech of what is considered obsolete because it still works for their needs.
I mean half the global banking sits a top a layer of COBOL because no one dares feck with it, it works and it would probably cost way to much to update to a more modern language, they just apply the occasional sacred oils and incantations to the machine god and prey that it does not explode.
Or maybe they just really liked that thunky noise when poping one in, it is pretty satisfing /s
Presumably there was a crazy second hand market if they went out of production in 2011?
Or they just stocked up beforehand knowing it was coming to an end.
Lul, there was this too, for San Francisco’s BART.
The IRS still uses Assembly and COBOL.
