On Mon, 4 Oct 2004, Paul Koning wrote:
> >>>>> "Tom" == Tom Jennings <tomj_at_wps.com> writes:
>
> Tom> On Mon, 4 Oct 2004, Paul Koning wrote:
> >> Nope. DECtape is 3/4 inch wide, 10 tracks, block oriented, random
> >> access. It is nothing like anything else (except LincTape). It's
> >> the world's first streaming tape, and also the most reliable tape
> >> ever made.
>
> Tom> ANd that last might not even be an exaggeration :-)
>
> In college, we used DECtapes for the "open to all" file storage. We
> had more free space there than on disk... For that application, we
> actually managed to wear out tapes to the point that they became
> unreadable, much to the surprise of an ex-DEC employee who came to
> work at the college. He had never heard of such a thing.
>
> On the other hand, he or one of his friends once put some pants in the
> laundry, only to discover afterwards that one of them had a DECtape in
> the pocket. That tape still worked just fine afterwards.
A modern day equivalent tale:
I once washed a pair of jeans with one of my SmartMedia cards in it. It
came out just fine (with all the photos it had stored on it). Not
terribly surprising though.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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Received on Mon Oct 04 2004 - 20:50:35 BST