[TriLUG] Private note - Re: can anyone read a 5.25" floppy disk?

Jim Ray jim at neuse.net
Thu Jun 9 09:04:03 EDT 2011


Only the teachers were allowed to use the paper tape. We students had to
key in BASIC code on a teletype terminal every time and had the shortest
programs possible until Woodberry Forest School upgraded to the DEC
RSTS/11 with 8" floppy storage in the '70's.

Regards,

Jim Ray, MCSE
President

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-----Original Message-----
From: trilug-bounces at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-bounces at trilug.org] On
Behalf Of Glenn Hennessee
Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2011 8:10 AM
To: Triangle Linux Users Group General Discussion
Subject: Re: [TriLUG] Private note - Re: can anyone read a 5.25" floppy
disk?

I don't remember oil impregnated tape but I have used paper tape before.
In the mid 70s I was a grad student doing x-ray crystallography and the
computer was a Data General Nova 1200 with 4 K of CORE memory. There was
a mag tape drive for programs and saving data but when it broke we used
the paper tape reader on a Teletype ASR33 to input programs. The
teletype was the printer for the system and the "CRT". The 1200 had
toggle switches on the front and there was a bootstrap loader keyed in
with them for reading the mag tape drive. While the bootstrap should
never have needed keying in, it would get "blown" out of memory and have
to be rekeyed  at least once a week.  I almost knew that thing by heart.
glenn

On Thu, Jun 9, 2011 at 6:27 AM, Peter Neilson
<neilson at windstream.net>wrote:

> On 06/08/2011 11:05 PM, David Burton wrote:
>
>  In fact, I can even *punch* 8-channel paper tape, but the tape is 
> hard to
>> come by these days.
>>
>
> Do you remember how some of the tape was oil-impregnated, to lubricate

> the punch? Do you remember the vast amount of write-once--read-once 
> tape we would use up for some applications. Or even 
> write-once--read-never? Do you remember buckets overflowing with oily
tape and oily chad?
>
> Did you ever wonder what would happen if someone dropped a lit cigar 
> into a an overflowing bucket of paper tape and other trash?
>
> My father found out.
>
> He picked up the burning bucket and carried it outside, scorching his 
> thumb in the process.
> --
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>



--
Glenn
--
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