26 Oct
2020
26 Oct
'20
10:50 p.m.
Hi all,
Back in the early 70's I was an operator on an IBM 360/40 with 4
tapedrives. Nobody could understand that sometimes a tape transfer would
stop saying "end of tape", mainly around 3 PM, when not called for. It
was mainly one specific drive, but its two neighbours, one on each side,
could also behave like this. Tape drive specialists visitied us,
scratched their heads, and went off again. When the blinds were rolled
down, the error disappeared. The reason for the strange behaviour was
that the sun could shine into the machine room when it was in a specific
position, so it could send some light into the drive, where the tape
then reflected the light into the sensor, making it believe that it had
met the end-of-tape marker.
/Nico OZ 1 BMC
On 2020-10-26 17:01, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:
http://mnembler.com/computers_mini_stories.html
"George Dragner always wore a belt with a metal dragon buckle.? He was
a colorful character known for pissing off management.? His most
famous act was tossing a chair through the window at a customer site.
The customer refused to believe that the lack of humidity in the room
was screwing up his magnetic tape media.? As the tape heads depend on
the moisture from the air to prevent the magnetic oxide from being
torn off the media from the friction during a rewind. George broke the
window to prove his point.? He was right ! "
There is a minimum RH specified for tape, but "tape heads depend on
the moisture from the air"? ??