We Spoke With the Last Person Standing in the Floppy Disk Business
by Niek Hilkmann & Thomas Walskaar, September 12th 2022
- https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/we-spoke-with-the-last-person-standing-in-the-floppy-disk-business/

"Tom Persky is the self-proclaimed "last man standing in the floppy
disk business." He is the time-honored founder of floppydisk.com, a
US-based company dedicated to the selling and recycling of floppy
disks. Other services include disk transfers, a recycling program,
and selling used and/or broken floppy disks to artists around the
world. All of this makes floppydisk.com a key player in the small
yet profitable contemporary floppy scene.
While putting together the manuscript for our new book, Floppy Disk
Fever: The Curious Afterlives of a Flexible Medium, we met with Tom
to discuss the current state of the floppy disk industry and the
perks and challenges of running a business like his in the 2020s.
What has changed in this era, and what remains the same? " ...

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On 9/19/22 7:11 PM, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
> We Spoke With the Last Person Standing in the Floppy Disk Business
> by Niek Hilkmann & Thomas Walskaar, September 12th 2022
> - https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/we-spoke-with-the-last-person-standing-in-the-floppy-disk-business/
>
> "Tom Persky is the self-proclaimed "last man standing in the floppy
> disk business." He is the time-honored founder of floppydisk.com, a
> US-based company dedicated to the selling and recycling of floppy
> disks. Other services include disk transfers, a recycling program,
> and selling used and/or broken floppy disks to artists around the
> world. All of this makes floppydisk.com a key player in the small
> yet profitable contemporary floppy scene.
>
> While putting together the manuscript for our new book, Floppy Disk
> Fever: The Curious Afterlives of a Flexible Medium, we met with Tom
> to discuss the current state of the floppy disk industry and the
> perks and challenges of running a business like his in the 2020s.
> What has changed in this era, and what remains the same? " ...
>
I think that for as long as retro computer enthusiasts and content
creators live, Mr. Persky should have plentiful business. We need more
people like him to help keep the art of software archival alive.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Zachary Fetters

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— hi@zachfette.rs

— +1 (859) 619 - 8587

— @zachary_fetters on Twitter

Am 20. September 2022, um 09:11:16 Uhr schrieb Computer Nerd Kev:

> "Tom Persky is the self-proclaimed "last man standing in the floppy
> disk business." He is the time-honored founder of floppydisk.com, a
> US-based company dedicated to the selling and recycling of floppy
> disks. Other services include disk transfers, a recycling program,
> and selling used and/or broken floppy disks to artists around the
> world. All of this makes floppydisk.com a key player in the small
> yet profitable contemporary floppy scene.

There are countries like Japan that still use floppies in their
government, so small market is still there.

On Tue, 20 Sep 2022 09:53:18 +0200
Marco Moock <mo01@posteo.de> wrote:
> Am 20. September 2022, um 09:11:16 Uhr schrieb Computer Nerd Kev:

For reference , interview link is
https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/we-spoke-with-the-last-person-standing-in-the-floppy-disk-business/

> > "Tom Persky is the self-proclaimed "last man standing in the floppy
> > disk business." He is the time-honored founder of floppydisk.com, a
> > US-based company dedicated to the selling and recycling of floppy
> > disks. Other services include disk transfers, a recycling program,
> > and selling used and/or broken floppy disks to artists around the
> > world. All of this makes floppydisk.com a key player in the small
> > yet profitable contemporary floppy scene.
>
> There are countries like Japan that still use floppies in their
> government, so small market is still there.

And amazon sells them so there must be still manufacturers although the
interview doesn't say. Persky says he uses stock he bought years ago to
supply floppies.

Marco Moock <mo01@posteo.de> wrote:
> There are countries like Japan that still use floppies in their
> government, so small market is still there.

It's funny that you should mention Japan and floppies, as this got posted
just a week ago:

https://hackaday.com/2022/09/13/floppy-disk-sings-im-big-in-japan/

--
_/_
/ v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
(IIGS( https://alfter.us/ Top-posting!
\_^_/ >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?

At least a decade ago a friend told us to buy every USR 1200baud modem
we found at yard sales. They go for a big premium on ebay because some
older home alarm systems require them to communicate with the security
company. Never did find any, but we gave him our old ones.

I wonder if that's still true.

--
Cheers, Bev
Schrodinger's Cake: You can have it AND eat it.
--Roland Curtis

Am Dienstag, 20. September 2022, um 11:18:11 Uhr schrieb The Real Bev:

> I wonder if that's still true.

There are still devices that use analog phone lines to communicate. I
am not familiar with alarm systems, but in Germany there are still
systems in use that require an analog phone line (VoIP is too buggy).

not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) writes:

> We Spoke With the Last Person Standing in the Floppy Disk Business
> by Niek Hilkmann & Thomas Walskaar, September 12th 2022
> - https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/we-spoke-with-the-last-person-standing-in-the-floppy-disk-business/
>
> "Tom Persky is the self-proclaimed "last man standing in the floppy
> disk business.
> [snip]

Digressing substantially here, you may have missed that there's a
similar situation in the match business. All the match companies in
North America -- the brands that you grew up with -- have either closed
or sold out to the one remaing match manufacturer, D. D. Bean [1] in the
little town of Jaffrey, NH.

First butane lighters and then precipitous decline in smoking didto
matches what solid state media and the internet have done to floppies.

[1] NOT L. L. Bean

--
Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada