Styles: Magnetic Media

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CHILDREN OF THE '80s marvel that early home computers stored data on audio cassettes. Kids of the '00s will never believe we kept precious documents on bits of plastic film. First, computers stopped coming with floppy drives. Now, it's a challenge to even buy diskettes -- except for those reborn as purses, notepads and other novelties.

» These wee, wood-mounted depictions of obsolete tech (Apple Newtons, Atari joysticks, in addition to "Boot Disk," shown) are by turns plaintive and nostalgic. Yes, the '80s and '90s were simpler times. But magnets would eat your portable media. ($40, pixelgirlshop.com)

» The floppy's last, longest, gasp was the 3 1/2" disk. Think Geek hawks notepads made with 3 1/2", 5 1/4" and even 8" diskettes -- which no one born after 1970 can even remember. ($7 to $20, thinkgeek.com)

» The user group will be green as a 1975 CRT with envy. Pack this vinyl bag (show at left), encased in 12 floppies, with USB keys, CompactFlash cards and DVD+Rs, all of which will be clogging landfills by 2015. Fear not snags: The metal doors are glued down. ($55, fractalspin.com)

» Two outmoded technologies converge in Acorn Studios' notebooks: disks and paper. Enjoy writing with pens on wood pulp while you still can, as the 5 1/4" floppy covers spur you to contemplate the evanescence of data.
($10, acornstudios.ca)

» Stash office detritus in a sweetly geeky pencil cup made from colorful 3 1/2-inchers. This vendor didn't stop with floppies -- check out the hard-drive clocks, too. ($5, geekgearstore.com)

Photos courtesy Pixel Girl and Fractal Spin