Uh.
Wut.
Not the Onion… huh
For critical systems, reliability, predictability, consistency, and long-term performance data are more important than modernization. It makes perfect sense that a system like this would lag the leading edge of technology significantly. It is ok if the technology has problems, even if it has high failure rates, as long as the failure rates are predictable - then you can write procedures around them. Floppy disks don’t exactly offer bulletproof reliability, but they are well understood - and also you can generally just toss them on a desk or in a drawer without worrying too much about incidental damage.
You want this kind of technology to be so simple and dependable that you don’t have to think about it, it just works as expected. It also massively simplifies staff training and procedure documentation if the relevant bits of technology don’t change very often - until of course those bits become so outdated that the procedures for getting them to interface with newer systems becomes its own mess.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
This guy ITs.
Yeah, I’d guess most of these systems have single purpose computers with a screen that updates every second. There’s not much need to replace 100, 1MHz, computers with a server sending data to 100 ipads, updating every second with pretty colors. Plus I’d say familiarity for the controller is 1000x more important than anything else.
This is at least as disturbing as it is reassuring.
Or, should we be worried? The stupidest kakistocracy in history in charge of replacing a very important, highly complex, mission critical system? These people don’t think you and I deserve any human rights at all. Look at the pool man!
Be more disturbed that the Minuteman III missiles, one leg of the nuclear triad, rely on the big 8 inch floppies in their launch control systems.
The replacement missiles will not enter service until the “early 2030s.”
FAA information display systems to be floppy-free at 435 sites by end of 2028.
not so fast!
Neat. Can I have the old ones? It’ll go well with my water modeling software from the 80s that I got from an old company trashing their old stuff.
No more floppy disks or paper strips to provide operationally essential information for controlling aircraft 👍