Visible LINCtape Tracks

[Ian S. King]

On Tue, Jan 31, 2017 at 1:11 AM, Pontus Pihlgren <pontus at update.uu.se>
wrote:

> On Mon, Jan 30, 2017 at 07:41:59PM -0500, Michael Thompson wrote:
> > We applied some Magnetic Developer to a piece of LINCtape and can see the
> > tracks. You can clearly see the extra space between the Mark and Data
> > tracks. When we can get access to a microscope with an attached camera we
> > should be able to see the bits.
> >
> > This time with a link:
> >
> [snip]
>
> http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/equipment/dec-pdp-12/
> dec-pdp-12-restoration-blog-starting-1117
>
> Fascinating work though :) It looks really cool.
>
> /P
>

Yes indeed!  It brings to mind a paper I read a couple of years ago, J. F.
(2011). A material history of bits. *Journal of the American Society for
Information Science and Technology*, *62*(6), 1042-1057.  Underneath the
abstractions there are physical phenomena - such as magnetic domains on a
tape.  Cheers -- Ian
-- 
Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS, Ph.D. Candidate
The Information School <http://ischool.uw.edu>
Dissertation: "Why the Conversation Mattered: Constructing a Sociotechnical
Narrative Through a Design Lens

Archivist, Voices From the Rwanda Tribunal <http://tribunalvoices.org>
Value Sensitive Design Research Lab <http://vsdesign.org>

University of Washington

There is an old Vulcan saying: "Only Nixon could go to China."