As editor of Remember the old days, when computers had floppy disk drives?
Well, if your PC or Mac still has one, it might be time for an upgrade, because floppies are getting ready to join 8-track tapes and Betamax movies in the dustbin of relatively recent technology.
According to this story on the BBC News Web site, computing superstore chain PC World has announced that once its current stock of floppies runs out, it will no longer sell the three-and-a-half inch disks.
Floppies were introduced in 1971 by IBM Corp, according to the story, replacing punch cards. They shrunk to their current size in 1981. At their peak, in 1998, an estimated 2 billion were sold. Last year that dropped to 700 million. That number will definitely continue to shrink, since many computers today no longer have floppy drives. They've been replaced by email, the Internet and USB memory sticks.
I'm guessing that old floppies aren't going to be worth much in the future. So I'm not going to keep any in my attic for my yet-to-be-born grandchildren.