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Cool idea! Is the terminology correct though? Looking at the showcased disks, in my youth we called these “stiffy disks” - owing to their stiff plastic casing
by herodoturtle 9mo ago
Cool idea!
Is the terminology correct though?
Looking at the showcased disks, in my youth we called these “stiffy disks” - owing to their stiff plastic casing.
We also had “floppy disks” - but these were larger (in size, albeit with less storage capacity) and floppier (the plastic case would bend easily).
I treasured my burgundy Dysan stiffy disk boxes!
- bryceacc 9mo agoas a 31 year old, I only just last year learned that what I have thought were floppy disks and everyone calls a floppy disk are indeed a stiffy...
- herodoturtle 9mo agoi feel like you're onto something here... a marketing campaign for middle-aged men perhaps
- lobf 9mo agoAt least in the US, the "floppy" terminology carried over when the disks went from the actual floppy 5.5" disks to the hard-case 3.5" disks.
- herodoturtle 9mo agothanks, that's an insightful comment. so defs not a globally consistent usage of the term then? judging by the article's authorship, i'm guessing denmark and US the same so perhaps US and EU but not elsewhere?
- lobf 9mo agoI only became aware of the use of a different term than "floppy" for the hard 3.5" disks when I opened this thread- you'd have to ask the person I was replying to where they're from.
- krupan 9mo agoI have never heard that term (for disks). Are you possibly from the UK or Australia?
- herodoturtle 9mo ago> I have never heard that term Are you also from the US like the other commenter on this sub-thread?
- mrighele 9mo agoItalian here, and I never heard of the term either. Everybody always used the term floppy also for the 3.5 disks I guess that since it was a foreign word the physical connotation of the term was simply lost, and "a floppy" was just the disk that your computer used.
- tfvlrue 9mo agoI was under the impression that a floppy disk is referring to the substrate that holds the data, not the cartridge that contains it. So a 3.5" floppy disk would be "floppy" in contrast to a 3.5" hard disk drive that has rigid metal or glass platters. This nomenclature could be a regional thing though (I'm from the US).