• @Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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    682 months ago

    The pointer icon is an arrowhead, ~74000 years old. I don’t want to hear people complaining about how old the floppy disk is.

  • @samus12345@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    The idea that human society will make it to 4269 as well as the old Twitter logo at the bottom really dates this one. 😥

    • @JokklMaster@lemmy.world
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      122 months ago

      People probably said similar at the fall of every empire throughout history. People will endure and build anew. Life finds a way.

      • @merc@sh.itjust.works
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        132 months ago

        Most other empires didn’t have the ability to destroy the ecosphere of the planet they lived on.

        The modern empires can do it not just on purpose using nuclear weapons, but also accidentally through climate change.

        Life will find a way, but will civilization? And will the dominant species still be humans?

        • @bluewing@lemm.ee
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          12 months ago

          Does any of that matter to the planet? Like any of the ancient plants and critters that have come and gone, humans will have their time and then pass from existence and memory. Something new and different will replace us.

          Such is evolution.

          • @merc@sh.itjust.works
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            12 months ago

            Does any of that matter to the solar system? I mean, one of the planets has some molecules that combine in complex ways. Big deal.

            • @bluewing@lemm.ee
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              12 months ago

              No it does not. Nor does the universe bother about galaxies. The point is that all things that exist have their time under the sun and then pass so something new and different can take it’s place.

              It’s huberous of the highest order to think everything will continue on as it is right now, And to try and preserve it all for your personal comfort.

      • @samus12345@lemm.ee
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        42 months ago

        It’s unlikely that people will go extinct, but we’re perfectly capable of creating a Mad Max or Fallout type of world.

  • Lad
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    472 months ago

    I like it. It’s universally recognisable, you know what it means and what it does.

    • @ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      382 months ago

      It’s only universally recognized because of precedent. The true challenge is to create something that can be understood by someone that has no background with computers (or whatever)

      Like the radiation ☢️ thing, danger ⚠️ , are supposed to be examples of this. Radiation more so because it’s not supposed to rely on language even

      Now excuse me while I press the call button on my phone which is shaped like a landline handset from 30 years ago

      • @egrets@lemmy.world
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        122 months ago

        For sure, but it doesn’t actually matter whether it’s abstract from the outset or has become abstract through technological advance so long as it’s unique and understood. Someone who’s never seen a floppy disk will still learn it quickly, because it’s distinctive.

      • @merc@sh.itjust.works
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        32 months ago

        It’s interesting how that precedent happened though.

        30 years ago saving something basically involved taking a floppy, putting it into the floppy drive, and then hitting a “save” button. That was often because computers didn’t even have a hard drive. And, when they did have a hard drive, having your files on a floppy drive was basically the only way to get them onto another computer. So, because of that, a floppy drive was pretty universally recognized as a place where you saved files.

        In the time since then, saving to a hard drive became more common. But, it’s hard to use a hard drive as an image for “save” because only computer geeks know what a hard drive actually looks like. Even if you could get people to recognize a hard drive icon it’s also ambiguous because you use your hard drive for many other things other than saving. Finally, it’s also less necessary to put the save files on external media, because you can email them, upload them, save to the cloud, etc.

        The only physical media where people still save things is USB thumb drives. So, you could put in an image of a USB thumb drive, which more people would recognize, but that’s more ambiguous because people only save files to a thumb drive in certain specific cases. It’s also harder because there’s not really a globally recognized thumb drive image. All floppy drives had to look more or less identical because of the constraints of the disk drive system. But, USB drives only have to have the USB part in common – and in some cases that’s hideable or retractable.

  • Steve Dice
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    322 months ago

    There’s KDE software (might be a Linux-wide thing, idk) that changed it to a down arrow pointing to a rectangle. I don’t like it. I really don’t fucking like it.

  • @bss03@infosec.pub
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    262 months ago

    The Floppy Disk is Computer Jesus. They both died to become the universal symbol of salvation. ;)

    • @bluewing@lemm.ee
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      32 months ago

      You can still buy new 3 1/2" disks. And usb connected drives are available to read and write them. So they ain’t dead.

      But I do pour one out for the 5 1/4". The OG of common portable storage. It was the floppist of the floppies.

      • kamen
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        32 months ago

        There’s some additional nostalgia attached to calling them with the simple fractions as opposed to the decimal ones, even if they mean the same thing. HDDs for example are still around and I’ve always seen their form factor as 3.5", not 3 1/2".

        • @bluewing@lemm.ee
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          12 months ago

          Don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say three point five" HDDS or read it in the decimal form-- Three and 5 tenths. It’s always said as the fractional form-- 3 1/2".

          I think they mark them as 3.5" because it’s easier to typeset a decimal than fractions. Even those accursed 3 1/2" floppys seem to be marked 3.5" these days.

  • @7rokhym@lemmy.ca
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    182 months ago

    My favourite are the kids excited that their mom 3D printed the save icon when she showed them a floppy disk.

    • @dev_null@lemmy.ml
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      112 months ago

      Which never happens yet everyone repeats it as if it’s a common occurrence.

      I like the joke, but let’s not pretend this is something that happens.

  • Rhaedas
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    142 months ago

    The various symbols found on audio and visual media comes from tape reel machines. Specifically the right arrow Play button only makes sense in relation to tape movement, yet we use it for just about any format to begin play.

  • @Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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    132 months ago

    I’ve seen a growing number of programs that use an arrow pointing towards a picture of a computer or hard drive for "save* and an arrow pointing away from it for “load” and I feel like that’s very graceful skeuomorph to shift to that might hold up for longer (although it breaks if it’s talking about cloud save, but replace the picture of a computer with picture of a cloud and you’re back in business I suppose)

    • TeNppa
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      112 months ago

      I’ve seen those being used as download and upload but not for saving.

  • @WanakaTree@lemm.ee
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    132 months ago

    My wife coaches high school field hockey. She told me how one day she overheard them talking about how one of them lost their work on a homework document and had to start over.

    One of the girls said “you just gotta get in the habit of clicking the blue square”, which the others were confirming is the thing to do. So then my wife asks “blue square, what do you mean” and another clarified “the save button”.

    They had no idea what a floppy disc was

  • @rumschlumpel@feddit.org
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    2 months ago

    I’d be surprised if using these kinds of point-and-click GUIs was still common in 2244 years, as opposed to some kind of language- or thought processing. Then again, people are still writing with pen and paper sometimes, despite all the digital advances.

  • Bahnd Rollard
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    112 months ago

    Skeuomorphism is the word your looking for, its why your digital cameras still make a mechanical click sound even through there isnt a mechanical shutter

  • ComradeSharkfucker
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    82 months ago

    The idea of hover cars have always been so silly to me. Yes let’s waste energy on counteracting gravity instead of just using a wheel lmao

    • @Revan343@lemmy.ca
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      202 months ago

      They’re good for rough terrain, so ironically a tractor is one of the less silly things to make hover

          • @merc@sh.itjust.works
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            42 months ago

            You can spread out the pressure to a much greater degree with a hover device.

            A helicopter still has to exert enough force to lift say 900kg of mass. But, the surface area covered by a helicopter’s rotors is pretty huge compared to the contact patch of even a big, soft tire. OTOH, there’s going to be a lot of turbulence in the air pushed down by a rotor / hover device, which might damage some plants more than simply being squashed by a soft tire.

    • @Iceman@lemmy.world
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      42 months ago

      And designing your hover trtactor in the style of 2000 tractors is as much symbolism as the floppy disc.icon.