Last week, Sony, the last manufacturer of floppy disks, announced that it would cease production of little plastic pieces of nostalgia.

Arguably one of the most recognizable icons of computer technology, the floppy disk has been a part of history since the 8" floppy was introduced in 1972. Although, soon after replaced by the 5.25" model, the adorable disks got their nicknames due to their pliable outer shell which, when shaken, created a "floppy" motion.

But, it's the 3.5", harder plastic version which will remain the quintessential old school storage device. These floppy disks could be cool. They had cool cases, cool colors, and they held an amazing amount of data - a whopping 1.44 MB! And they were pretty durable, able to withstand dropping, over-stuffed book bags, and even washing machines (I accidentally washed on once and it still worked!)

The advent of the short-lived Zip drive and the SuperDisk, and eventually the recordable CD-ROM, floppies began to decline in numbers, and officially died off with the mainstream adoption of USB storage drives. But every computer around the world maintains a silent, yet notable, reminder of the late floppy disk: the "save" button in nearly every piece of software ever created.

Floppy drives will forever remain apart of our history, with the same retro-style admiration as the vinyl record and rotary telephone.

In honor of the death of the floppy, I have put together some of my favorite floppy memories, as well as a few I found along the way in my research:

Sixteen Candles

Ted (Anthony Michael Hall) has bet his friends that he'd make it with Sam (Molly Ringwald), and had to bring back her panties as proof. The prize for the winner: floppy disks. Ted implored Sam to humor him for just a few minutes by donating her unmentionables because, after all, floppies were very expensive then. Sadly, I couldn't find any video of this great scene, but it's well worth watching the movie!

FoxTrot's Terrifying Halloween

Bill Amend, the creator of the syndicated cartoon series FoxTrot, is well known for his inclusion of technology, especially Apple products. I'll never forget this particular strip which was published nearly a decade go, right after Apple debuted it's super-cute colored iMac computers.

(Thanks to GoComics and Bill Amend for the graphic!)

Floppy Disk Art

Artist Nick Gentry creates stunning pieces of art with, yes, floppy disks. Albeit a little strange, I think they're quite fetching!

Don't Copy Your Floppy

After a search on YouTube for floppy-related funnies, this video was too good to pass up. A public service announcement from 1992, it's trying to teach children that pirating programs on floppies is a bad thing. But everyone did it anyway. :o)

Thanks to the Culture Market for some backgound on floppies.

Tags: computers