2022年10月26日 VOA慢速英语：软盘在回收服务中获得第二次生命

 

Do you know the "save" icon on your computer? It is a picture of a floppy disk. Back in the 1900s, they were the main way computer files were saved and stored. Back then, there were no USB flash drives and there was no cloud-based storage.
你知道电脑上的“保存”图标吗？这是一张软盘的图片。早在 1900 年代，它们是保存和存储计算机文件的主要方式。那时，没有 USB 闪存驱动器，也没有基于云的存储。
 
Today, floppy disks are hard to find. And demand for them is rising.
今天，软盘很难找到。对它们的需求正在上升。
 
Tom Persky runs the website floppydisk.com, a seller of the well-known palm-sized floppy disk. The 73-year-old says business is growing. The California-based business recycles new and used disks, removes the information stored on them and sells them to a dependable customer base. He estimates that he sells about 500 disks a day.
Tom Persky 经营着 floppydisk.com 网站，该网站是著名的手掌大小软盘的销售商。这位 73 岁的老人说，业务正在增长。这家总部位于加利福尼亚的企业回收新的和用过的磁盘，删除存储在磁盘上的信息，然后将它们出售给可靠的客户群。他估计他每天销售大约 500 张磁盘。
 
So, who buys floppy disks in the year 2022? Persky says there are many kinds of people who make such purchases. They include people who work in the embroidery industry and in the airline industry.
那么，谁在 2022 年购买软盘？Persky 说有很多种人会进行此类购买。他们包括在刺绣业和航空业工作的人。
 
"If you built a plane 20 or 30 or even 40 years ago, you would use a floppy disk to get information in and out of some of the avionics of that airplane," Persky said.
“如果你在 20 或 30 甚至 40 年前建造了一架飞机，你会使用软盘来获取进出该飞机某些航空电子设备的信息，”Persky 说。
 
At his warehouse, there are huge numbers of colorful disks - bright green, orange, yellow – sent from around the world. He uses a large magnetic machine with a conveyor belt to remove the information from the disks, and then another machine puts written information on them.
在他的仓库里，有大量来自世界各地的彩色圆盘——亮绿色、橙色、黄色。他使用带有传送带的大型磁力 机器从磁盘中取出信息，然后另一台机器将写入的信息放在磁盘上。
 
His warehouse even has older versions of floppy disks that were used in the 1970s and 1980s. One even is labeled with the 1960 John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon U.S. presidential debate.
他的仓库甚至还有 1970 年代和 1980 年代使用的旧版软盘。其中一个甚至被贴上了 1960 年约翰·F·肯尼迪和理查德·尼克松美国总统辩论的标签。
 
Despite being "the dinosaurs" of the tech world, Persky said floppy disks still have some good qualities.
尽管是科技界的“恐龙”，Persky 说软盘仍然具有一些优良品质。
 
"Floppy disks are very reliable, very stable, a very well understood way to get information in and out of a machine," he said.
“软盘非常可靠、非常稳定，是一种非常容易理解的将信息输入和输出机器的方式，”他说。
 
Persky went into the floppy disk business after working for a tax company in the 1990s doing software development. He used to make copies of the software on floppy disks. After that, he said that he fell in love with the floppy disk business.
Persky 在 1990 年代为一家税务公司工作后从事软盘业务，从事软件开发。他过去常常在软盘上制作软件副本。之后，他说他爱上了软盘生意。
 
He was not expecting his business to last as long as it did.
他没想到他的生意能持续这么久。
 
"When I see the 'save' icon, I see a floppy disk. But most people just see the 'save' icon," Persky said. "I'll be here for as long as people continue to want to have these disks. But it's not forever."
“当我看到‘保存’图标时，我看到的是一张软盘。但大多数人只看到了‘保存’图标，”Persky 说。“只要人们继续想要拥有这些磁盘，我就会一直在这里。但这不是永远的。”