OSNews > Thread > "Bring Back the Shielding" by Nathan O.

Sony Ceases Production, Sales of Floppies

Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 26th Apr 2010 18:38 UTC

Invented by IBM, the death knell sounded by Apple. Sony has announced it is going to cease selling diskettes altogether, with the last bastion being Japan. Sales will be ceased there too, even though Sony still managed to sell 12 million of them there last year. While Memorex and Imation still produce and sell diskettes, this move by Sony surely means it won't take long for the rest of the market to vanish, too.

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Bring Back the Shielding

by Nathan O. on Mon 26th Apr 2010 20:02 UTC

Member since:
2005-08-11

When CDs became a big deal, I wondered how they could make them so sturdy that they didn't need a shield like a floppy disk (obvious differences in materials aside). It wasn't long before I figured out that CDs only live long if you handle them like they are precious.

Wouldn't CDs be better if they were encased in a plastic shield?

Reply Permalink Score: 3

RE: Bring Back the Shielding

by Bill Shooter of Bul on Mon 26th Apr 2010 20:50 in reply to "Bring Back the Shielding"

Member since:
2006-07-14

And that's why I thought MiniDisc's were awesome and going to take over the world. The awesomeness of a cd combined with the protection of a diskette. If the price had dripped to $100 before they were obsolete I would have bought in.

Reply Parent Score: 5

RE: Bring Back the Shielding

by Zbigniew on Mon 26th Apr 2010 23:56 in reply to "Bring Back the Shielding"

Member since:
2008-08-28

Wouldn't CDs be better if they were encased in a plastic shield?

Remember s.c. "caddy" for CD? Always been wondering, why actually it didn't become a standard.

Reply Parent Score: 1

RE[2]: Bring Back the Shielding

by nt_jerkface on Tue 27th Apr 2010 00:52 in reply to "RE: Bring Back the Shielding"

Member since:
2009-08-26

Yea my cousin had one of those. I think I remember hearing that it was dumped because it increased manufacturing costs.

Blu-ray was actually supposed to use a caddy but they went with a polymer coating instead.

Reply Parent Score: 2

RE[2]: Bring Back the Shielding

by abraxas on Fri 30th Apr 2010 21:41 in reply to "RE: Bring Back the Shielding"

Member since:
2005-07-07

"Wouldn't CDs be better if they were encased in a plastic shield?

Remember s.c. "caddy" for CD? Always been wondering, why actually it didn't become a standard. "

We had those at my high school when I was younger. The only discs I remember was the encylopedia britannica set. When I bought a MD player later I thought of those discs and wondered the same thing. Why did they ditch the caddy for CDs?

Reply Parent Score: 2

RE: Bring Back the Shielding

by Doc Pain on Tue 27th Apr 2010 05:47 in reply to "Bring Back the Shielding"

Member since:
2006-10-08

Wouldn't CDs be better if they were encased in a plastic shield?

One word: MiniDisc.

The disc is inside a kind of caddy, and it's almost the (handy) size of a 3.5" floppy disk (in fact, it's a bit smaller, a size between the mentioned disk and a CF card). So both data carrier protection and form factor are quite intelligent.

With today's DVD drives, you really wonder why you need a drive the size of a whole computer (like a Mac Mini) to read a medium the size of a 5.25" floppy that hard unreadable when the surface (on the downside) is minimally scratched... or when it chemically or biologically dissolves into funny colours and patterns. :-)

Reply Parent Score: 2

RE[2]: Bring Back the Shielding

by Nathan O. on Tue 27th Apr 2010 16:38 in reply to "RE: Bring Back the Shielding"

Member since:
2005-08-11

But isn't MiniDisc proprietary? Hi-MD, the new variety of the format, seems to be.

Reply Parent Score: 2