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I also remember plenty of floppies that I’ve written data to not even surviving the 30 minute cycle to college back in the 90s.

I think stray magnetic fields were more of a problem back then. Fridge magnets, magnetic clasps on wallets and bags, magnetic clasps on notebooks and binders, etc. There were lots of hidden opportunities for corruption.

These days, nobody worries about the mag stripe on their credit card getting wiped. But it was an active concern back then.



To be fair, basically nobody uses magstripe anymore.


Plenty still do. The Home Depots near me don't do chip. They're magstripe only.

I'm more annoyed when a store doesn't take Apple Pay. The clerks always seem embarrassed when I ask because I'm sure I'm the 900,000th person to inquire. I find it so odd that the Krogers in two cities I've been to recently don't do contactless payments at all.




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