6 Apr
2010
6 Apr
'10
8:43 a.m.
On 6 Apr 2010 at 10:11, Roger Holmes wrote:
Why nastier? The card ones are thicker (7 thou) and
have sharp square
corners. I think the first time I heard about them (in the UK) the
card ones were called chads. It in a warning from our lecturer not to
use them as confetti as he knew of a case of them getting into the
bride's eye and she spent the next few hours in hospital because of
them.
The paper tape chad is much smaller than the card (chips,chad) and
much more difficult to get out of one's hair. If one wanted to play
a prank, it was best done on a dry cold winter's day when static
electricity would play hob with the things sticking to everything in
sight.
The punched card (chips,chad) being much thicker and larger was
somewhat easier to deal with.
Another artifact of the old days is 1/2" tape write rings. At CDC
Sunnyvale, there were very high (ca 14') ceilings on the machine
floor, which made it a perfect environment for playing ring-toss onto
the fluorescent light fixtures when one had a couple of hours of
block time in the middle of the night and nothing to do but wait
while a job completed. One rarely used them for their intended
purpose--it was possible to reach behind a mounted tape with a couple
of punched cards and toggle the latching write sensor.
--Chuck