This sort of thing is why I dislike legislation that mandates the use of something very specific. Things change and it is better to create laws that don’t become outdated as fast as tech tends to.
this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2024
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That's a Japan thing and a legislative failure.
What normally happens in most countries is the law would say something vague like "digital means or devices such as floppy disks or equivalent".
Then the Executive makes and maintains the rules of application of that law according to the Hierarchy of Norms (things probably are organized differently in Common Law countries so I don't know the English term but the principle is the same), which dictates in more detail how the law is to be applied ("please use a web form, or a USB keys for legacy processes").
Sometimes the executive lags behind a bit but typically it's just a ministry making decisions within the margin of the law, so it's not too bad.
Without it we get a different iPhone charger every year that no other device is allowing to use
It’s just a brick with a USB socket. I still have 5W usb chargers from iPhones a decade ago that work with anything USB.
They didn’t change connectors on the cables frequently either. The old big one, lightning, and USB C are the only connectors iPhone used.
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It's an argument of centralization vs. decentralization and there are pros and cons to each approach.
Hey, hey - you’re going to have to hotten up that take there, Bubba.
Guess what the EU just did with USB-C?
The EU regulation doesn't say "USB-C", but "industry standard charging port" or something. What's industry standard is an executive decision of the EU commission, unless the USB-IF does something tremendously stupid the commission is just going to rubber-stamp any new standard they come up with.
The EU didn't event want to legislate in the first place and would've preferred for manufacturers to get together and just be sensible, but, well, Apple. The only hold-out.
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When needed, they can change it faster than Japan did.
you're incorrect. It doesn't restrict itself to the USB-C
Luckily usb-c is probably gonna stick around for a while and it's just a form factor. The standard itself has room to grow, and the EU left the rules open to change.
But I understand the concern, legislating tech sucks. On the other hand, when companies care almost exclusively about profit, not customers or the future of our planet, and won't improve things themselves... not a lot of other options.
If the 1.44MB DS/HD floppies are too modern for your gear, 720MB DS/DD media is also available (for a premium).
they probably meant 720KB there
I hear data in Japan is smaller and efficiently organized.
Are you snubbing 8" floppies just because they don't fit in your pocket?
Is that a floppie in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
What in the hell are they using them for? They hold so little data I don’t see how they can even be practical at this point.
where I live (not Japan), trams are updated with a suitcase worth of floppy disks (and these are the more modern trams here)
Older Boeing's use floppies to update their flight computer data even today
One thing came to mind, Irreplaceable infrastructure computer systems from decades ago.
There are powerplants and oil rigs that use computer from decades ago which is irreplaceable (either due to technical or cost effective).
either due to technical or cost effective
Mainly due to proprietary hardware+software solutions which cannot be ported now and remaking them with new hardware will require redoing the same processes as before (probably with additional stuff added by later laws) all over again.
If you try to replace just the hardware, you get fun solutions like a modern computer with a VM running Dosbox on critical infrastructure. Hey, if it works and your boss is willing to sign off on it...
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10 to one they weren't, look how oddly this article is phrased. I'd guess there was a rule government offices had to accept floppy discs, have the equipment to read them, but the clients weren't actually submitting that way anymore.
Like, the first paragraph explains.
Until last week there were about 1,900 official governmental application procedures that stipulated businesses must submit floppies or CD-ROMs (specifically) containing supplementary data.
Not "the government had to accept them", but "businesses were required to submit them".
It's not a hypothetical problem, there was even news a few years ago about how businesses were complaining they had to send in a dozen+ disks at a time because of file formats.
The laws were written at the dawn of the digital age, in the 70s and 80s, stipulating specific storage media, and just never got updated because the government didn't view it as a problem.
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Their government agencies still used a lot of them.
Ah man the translucent colourful floppies.. that takes me back
It was a happier time, I miss my atomic purple floppies.
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I rewrote that several times because I have the mind of a child, but atomic purple 3.5” was even worse so I give up and you get to enjoy both.
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Yes, but can I still submit using a fax machine?
Sure, that's never going. Why would we want to lose our technological connection to Abraham Lincoln and samurai?
Healthcare worker, chiming in:
Yes please.
Ah yes, just how sensitive information should be sent. In clear text over the internet.
You can encrypt emails, we’ve been doing it for decades. It’s easier to compromise faxes than encrypted emails
The message I was responding to uses fax.
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Japan has been living in the year 2000 for 40 years
I wonder if this will affect the vintage computer enthusiasts?
They're not banning floppies lol, they're just not required for submitting things to the government anymore.
I imagine such a huge drop in demand would probably lead to any still standing manufacturers to cease production though.
The last manufacturers stopped making them 10 years ago. There's basically just one guy "making" floppies these days, and he doesn't actually manufacture them, he just buys used ones for pennies on the dollar, formats and tests them, and sells them on. Not one company has made new floppies in a decade. A shocking number of industries are dependant on just like, this one random dude.
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