Bugger. Now I feel old!

Years ago I was subjected to watching a home video belonging to my wife. It's a bit tiresome really. It always is.

But the highlight was what happened afterwards. It was recorded over an episode of Stars In Their Eyes! My sister-in-law at the time was about 15 and had no idea what was going on. People going on the TV and pretending to sing as someone else. Then the method of voting, having people in the crowd press a button on a box! What sorcery is this?! "Why didn't they use phones?" - well they did for the Grand Final and that was the only time you would ever call in to vote. It's mad saying that now, I suppose it's mad hearing it too, but to do such a thing back then was difficult and expensive.

Then what happens? It finishes. What's on next? "Beaches". But what's that 888 at the top of the screen? Then having to explain to the 15 year old what Teletext was and what deaf people had to do to get subtitles. If they worked.

I felt old then, I feel older now. I miss Stars In Their Eyes.

As a hearing person who frequently used 888 for subs to understand what was being said in amongst the mumbling and background noise (something that is so much worse these days), the few times I actually make subs for my YouTube videos, I denote their presence with a little "888" on the upper corner of the screen for a few seconds.

I miss teletext. Still exists in some countries, though just not in the UK.

Kono declaring victory over the retro squares comes as rumors swirl that he fancies himself the next president, -- shirley you mean Prime Minister?

Perhaps he's angling for promotion to Emperor?

Minister of tech - so he can build the new Imperial Battle Station (that's no moon!). If he can also fire lighting out of his fingers - then the job's his!

How about [1]the UK parliament not writing all laws on vellum . OK: they need an open specification file format, simple PDF or simple HTML would be OK. Files in these formats can be simply copied to what ever is the data storage medium du jour.

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35569281

"Files in these formats can be simply copied to what ever is the data storage medium du jour."

That seems like an awful faff. Vellum doesn't need to be copied and has proven itself to be a very long lasting medium. OTOH the mylar drafting film we used to draw pollen diagrams on is probably equally long lasting and maybe more durable still. Cut into A4 and whatever's needed could be printed on it. The only worrying thing would the how long the ink would stick.

Seriously, long term digital storage is an unproven matter. Not only does the medium have to survive and remain current,* so does the file format. It's possible to visualise someone copying hundreds of files every 10 years or so for 300 years and then it being discovered that the format has been out of use for so long that there's no software to make sense of it. "Yes, we still have the PDF documentation available but it's a PDF document..."

* Domesday book from 1086 is still extant** - the Beeb's Domesday videodisc project of 1986 not so much.

** It still has a format problem in that C11th script isn't that easy to read.

** It still has a format problem in that C11th script isn't that easy to read.

And the spelling correction was, um, irregular.

In a few years, all file formats will be proprietary. To use them you have to be renting the software that connects to the vendor's cloud. Reverse engineering the format will be illegal. When the vendor goes bust, all that data will be lost. Like tears ... in the rain.

alain williams,

The UK Parliament no longer does print onto vellum. We stopped a few years ago.

I remember seeing a bit of a BBC documentary on the HoC - and the Serjeant at Arms at the time didn't like killing animals in order to write laws. I think he also sold it on the grounds that it would save money. Sarjeant at Arms is in charge of security, but also other things - as well as wandering round with the mace during state openings.

I think somebody developed a super long-lasting paper for nuclear waste storage sites - which is supposed to last for thousands of years, and so Parliament were able to switch over to that.

I'm not sure that redeployment of the last handful of floppy disk craftsmen will solve the labour shortage... surely they must be way past retirement age

They are going to run those "crafting experience" courses, where they go into community centres to let everyone have a taste of old, forgotten practices.[1]

These sorts of things are apparently also popular with hen parties and company days out (got to be better than paintball, at least nobody is likely to all gang up on That Prat by viciously saving files at him, slowly).

[1] In a couple of years time they will be offering the chance to "make your own hard drive" by putting PrittStick onto a plate and shaking iron filings on top...

I attended a "sales" meeting two weeks ago. At which we were presented with a pebble each, and some paints. And told to create a pebble for a community garden.

Now if there'd been paintball afterwards, we could have wreaked terrible vengeance on the person whose idea it was.

That's nature's way of telling you it's time to find a better company.

It's.....the symbol for "save my file"?

And the symbol for filter data is a pair of underpants.

"ooh, look, someone's 3-d printed the save icon!"

We now need, have needed for some time, a new icon for save. Now that the floppy has gone the way of reel to reel and cassette tapes.

We do not, and should not, need a new icon for save. For thirty years that icon has sufficed - why change it? The fact that its function is represented by a slice of history is immaterial...

(Though given the latest 'who needs save? It's all in the cloud automatically' mentality perhaps we don't need a save icon at all... I spent some time looking for the save icon in a file opened in office365 yesterday and I'm still not convinced it's a good idea.)

Has he removed just as a requirement or gone all out and removed it as an option? If not it might hang on a good while longer.

Many years ago we ran a service which required data with floppy as one of the options - I can't remember exactly but it might have been the only option. It kept everyone on the team who needed them well supplied with floppies. Somehow, back then we weren't unduly worried about the personal information on them although, in practice, as it was a matter of public appointment s it wasn't really confidential anyway

" Japan still has a penchant for old tech, and not just floppy disks. Items like cash payments and fax machines ... "

Cash is not "old tech" (with its pejorative implication) -- it's still an essential basis for transactions for many people, not least because it doesn't require gadgets to be used and it protects privacy.

They are still around in industry. Some of our older tools which customers still run in daily production have floppy drives, but being able to source actual discs for them is becoming quite a challenge.

Hence I've got quite a large plastic crate full of them in the bottom of my cupboard at work that I've scavenged over the years during office moves and from less foresighted people who've "had a clear-out". These I share with colleagues supporting those tools when needed and if their own stocks are exhausted.

It's amazing how many pints of beer you can earn in exchange for a simple box of discs, or in some cases even from single discs.