IT’S PROBABLY quite a few years since the last time you used a floppy disk to transfer files from one place to another – with high-bandwidth internet connections and portable USB drives making the old 3.5″ disks a thing of the past.
But one user on Reddit today noted that the Irish government – officially, at least – still uses the technology that has now become obsolete.
A page on the official Freedom of Information website – which has been in the news for other reasons today – noted that among the fees you might pay for a request.
Most of these fees are fairly routine – and include the standard €20.95-per-hour charge that you might incur if your request requires a public worker to have to leaf through larger batches of files in order to isolate the ones you want.
And tucked in there – between the 4c-per-page charge for each page of photocopying, and the €10.16 you’ll be charged if the documents are sent out to you on a CD-ROM – is the charge for a “three and a half inch computer diskette containing copy documents”.
We’re fairly sure that the inclusion of a floppy disk option is a hangover from an older time, with the FOI website having required little amendment since the latest major changes to FOI law in 2003.
Modern computers no longer come supplied with floppy disk drives – indeed, many of Apple’s MacBooks don’t even come with CD drives, such is the likelihood that a modern user will be able to download a file instead of needing a ‘hard’ copy of it.
But, if you’re into retro technology – or if you’re just plain awkward – at least you now know that the option is there…
