I'd argue "yes" to all those examples. Books, especially, have always been "data storage devices"; I don't see why a portion of a book couldn't be by reduction.

I'd argue "yes" to all those examples. Books, especially, have always been "data storage devices"; I don't see why a portion of a book couldn't be by reduction. Back in the 1980s, some magazines had a scannable page of barcode-like print that were programs to load into your computer (I think it was for the Mac, using a handheld scanner). It didn't work as well as hoped, and didn't last long. Some magazines also came with small plastic floppy records, that if you knew what you were doing, you could load programs from as audio (just like from a cassette tape). From what I understand, these were more common in the UK and Europe than in the United States. Then you have things like punch cards and punched paper tape (and the plastic variants). Where do you draw the line?