In San Francisco, public transportation still uses 5.25-inch floppy disks

THE Floppy 5-inch laptops, a modern technological relic also known as “floppy disks”, are still in use. In some well-known cases such as Japan, which uses 3 and a quarter for the electoral system, this calls attention to the archaic. And now it has become known that the transit agency of San Francisco floppy disks still use this technology.

With little 1.2MB memory per unit, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Chief Jeffrey Tumlin mentioned in an interview that the train control system on the Market Street subway is still loaded from 5.25-inch floppy drives.

This floppy drive format was first introduced around 1976 47 years oldand was largely replaced in the late 1980s by smaller floppy drives from 3.5 inches.

Floppy disk drives are no longer used by end consumers, largely due not only to their low storage capacity, but also because computers are required to use them. 30 and 40 years old.

The technology can be difficult to replace in many business settings, which is why server-oriented or integrated versions of Windows are supported for much longer. For this reason, many ATMs, for example, run under Windows XP.

old and dangerous technology

This is, in fact, quite dangerous for the health of the systems: since the computers used by these mobile units were not designed with computer security in mind (they were also computers used by all connected users, without passwords), They are susceptible to cyber attacks.

In fact, outdated technology was one of the culprits for the massive collapse it has suffered Southwest Airlines by the end of 2022. The longer it stays close to obsolete equipment, the more likely it is to experience malfunctions or cyberattacks in the future.

Another example is the New York City subway, partially powered by servers running OS/2, far away in 2019.

The case of Japan

Last year, Taro Kono, Japan’s minister of digital affairs, declared “war” on such anachronistic technology, which is still run by floppy disks for elections.

According to Kono, as of mid-2022, there are still neighbors in Japan 1,900 government procedures that require the manipulation of media that are difficult to see in other contexts, such as floppy disks, CDs or minidiscs.

“We will review these practices soon,” Kono assured. Responsibility, says Bloomberg, will fall on a working group that will have to develop proposals to bring the administration closer to the 21st century.

The same minister had explained that the road went through “the revision of the regulation so that the cumbersome procedures that now require the use of CDs or disks can be shipped online”.

This information is paradoxical as Japan is a pioneer country in high technology, at the forefront of innovative and original devices. However, this has not been applied to their office culture, as companies use outdated technologies in their routine activities.

meanwhile a San FranciscoAny ride on the Metro will, at least for now, have a 5-inch drive behind it.