[Fwd: paper tape, black or otherwise, and non-paper]

I don't know why everyone's so hot to buy old oxidized crumbly tape when you can buy it BRAND NEW MANUFACTURE from www.westnc.com for cheaper... mylar too (not cheap). * Mylar is shiny and strong. You can (almost) tow a car with it. * Paper is, well, paper. It rips. * Except when it's not: there are paper-mylar-paper hybrid tapes, which were once popular; it handles like paper but is much tougher. In the URL below, the larger picture on the left is hybrid tape. * There are oiled paper tapes, but those were mostly for mechanical systems. Most "modern" punches handle mylar. ASR33's and the like do NOT, they like oiled paper. Many really-low-cost readers, like from the early hobby computer era, prefer black tape, since the cheaper reader heads needed 100% contrast (and yellow tape passes yellow->IR (incandescent) light). http://wps.com/projects/paper-tape/index.html PS: A quick check of WestNC's website shows skyrocketing prices! I think they are phasing it out... maybe I should stockpile more... http://www.westnc.com/paptape.html]