What are these tapes?

[Agent24]

Re: What are these tapes?

Could give them to these guys: http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2014/05...ers-from-1978/

[ratdude747]

Re: What are these tapes?

Wow, that long already? I swear it seems like not so long ago.
Well, in any case... I doubt any law enforcment will be checking BCN just for this, and doubt even more than anyone will do anything about it even if they did find out. I don't know how law enforcment is where you are at, but down where I go for college, it's pretty "loose" for "small" things like this and cops are very understanding. I mean, it has to be! If it wasn't, the police force will need to be the size of the army and almost every other person would be in jail. It's a sketch town - lost of nice people but lots of suspicious folks too. Most aren't doing anything "too illegal" for the police to be bothered with, though.

I was a mod from 1/1/2012 (to clean up the FAQ) to 9/11/2013 (a signifigant number of members wanted me out of power). C_hegge now has my former mod position.

[momaka]

Re: What are these tapes?

Wow, that long already? I swear it seems like not so long ago.
Well, in any case... I doubt any law enforcment will be checking BCN just for this, and doubt even more than anyone will do anything about it even if they did find out. I don't know how law enforcment is where you are at, but down where I go for college, it's pretty "loose" for "small" things like this and cops are very understanding. I mean, it has to be! If it wasn't, the police force will need to be the size of the army and almost every other person would be in jail. It's a sketch town - lost of nice people but lots of suspicious folks too. Most aren't doing anything "too illegal" for the police to be bothered with, though.

[ratdude747]

Re: What are these tapes?

he was a moderator for a short time.....

Just over 1.5 years.

[goontron]

Re: What are these tapes?

.


Riiiiight
I'm glad you're not a police officer. You'd be one of those tight jack-holes that never cuts you slack and follows the law to the last comma and period.
For an electrical engineer, on the other hand, this is a good thing. I think you picked wisely .

he was a moderator for a short time.....

[momaka]

Re: What are these tapes?

I say try selling a few on eBay. Seems like anything goes in that place. Just make sure to use proper keywords like "antique", "vintage", and "classic" in the description .

I've already requested this be moved to VIP... since you probably broke the law... trespassing and if you took anything, theft. "abandoned" doesn't mean "ownerless"... all it takes is an owner finding this somehow and your life goes to hell for a while.

Riiiiight
I'm glad you're not a police officer. You'd be one of those tight jack-holes that never cuts you slack and follows the law to the last comma and period.
For an electrical engineer, on the other hand, this is a good thing. I think you picked wisely .

[DJduck]

Re: What are these tapes?

Well I don't have the equipment to use them but I can use them as string for tying up stuff And when I run out, I can get more.

[pentium]

Re: What are these tapes?

Oooh, 9-track tapes.

If you have the hardware handy to use them they are fun to keep around or have hanging up on a rack but otherwise most people these days would only show interest in first party labled stuff like your IBM products. The big kicker is that with tapes this old you need to "bake" the tapes to reactivate the adhesive that holds the oxide coating or else it flakes off in the drive and makes a real mess.

[Ed Herdman]

Re: What are these tapes?

I noticed the one tape with a label was made in 1994...System/390, perhaps? I'd guess it's still good.

Watched the bit about the nuclear arsenal a day or so ago...just hope nobody has the skill and tools to try to reverse engineer the launch sequence command signals. I'm sure it's more complicated than hotwiring a car, but...

[Compgeke]

Re: What are these tapes?

Not sure I would want to destroy the tapes, they aren't the easiest thing to find anymore and some people such as the classiccmp mailing list or VCF guys actually still use this stuff.

Might be of interest to them but it would be a bit of a waste to make some "art" out of it.

[Mad_Professor]

Re: What are these tapes?

military using floppies? That system was broke before it began!!

eeeerrr eeeeerrrr eeeeeerrr gak..... Errrr errr errrr gak.

Unable to read disk!
Format a:?

[rhomanski]

Re: What are these tapes?

In 1986 we were using tape on our planes but we had a backup hard drive. It was called a drum, it was about two feet long, two feet tall and weighed about 60 pounds. It held a backup operating program for the main computer though. If the tape drive was broke you could still load it up from the drum. You only had one shot with it though, The next time you had to take it to another plane with a good tape and reload it.

[Topcat]

Re: What are these tapes?

If it ain't broke don't fix it.

Military using floppies? That system was broke before it began!!

[stj]

Re: What are these tapes?

ha i used those.
the translucent blue cake-tin covered platters and the drive that looks like a top-loading washing machine!

[ank]

Re: What are these tapes?

On my first assighnment I operated a Digital PDP-11 that used such a tape drive and a sort of removable hard disk, kind of hybrid floppy drive, more than a foot in diameter and about 10mb if memory is still good. I still remember the noise from the motors and heat fans made when those suckers started. A small plane by todays standards ... Those were the days. 1986 these were still in operation.

[Agent24]

Re: What are these tapes?

Good for collectors and museums maybe, worthless for use unless there is some interesting data on them..

[DJduck]

Re: What are these tapes?

Thank you all for your replies. It is very interesting to read up on old tech. And LOL at the military still using floppies.

So the tapes are worthless? They do sem ti be strong and long, I guess I'll find a use for them and maybe keep a few as souvenirs.

[Agent24]

Re: What are these tapes?

I sense flipped bits...

[ratdude747]

Re: What are these tapes?

True, very true.....I think some government agencies still use these tapes.....thats how antiquated the US is these days...

If it ain't broke don't fix it. Heck, you see how many old boards get recapped out of CNC machines... while it's obsolete, in some cases, it's not worth the cost or risk of data loss to redo a system.

[pfrcom]

Re: What are these tapes?

Guy I worked with, recommended discarded magnetic tape for tying up garden plants - because it's wide, light and strong

Tape generally got discarded by being cut off from front of reels when a section got faulty, then a new beginning-of-tape marker was applied - try doing something like that with a floppy disk

FWIW, first tape reels I worked with as a computer operator recorded at 556 BPI