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Gone are the days of tape operators on roller skates, but this article is correct in its assessment that change in the datacenter moves at a very deliberate pac

Gone are the days of tape operators on roller skates, but this article is correct in its assessment that change in the datacenter moves at a very deliberate pace. Oddly enough, I found the reading pace of this article similar to the change it describes. Nothing negative mind you, just gently rolling in its delivery.

markus_zhang 5y ago
Hi do you have any book/video talking about skaters in data center? I checked Youtube and only found one for switch board. Thanks!
- donalhunt 5y ago
  From personal experience, health and safety officers prefer workers to walk around facilities. Accidents while rare can result in hospitalisation (broken bones) when using skates, scooters and bicycles. I was once in a datacenter that had a golf cart to get from one end to another (yes - it was that long).
  - markus_zhang 5y ago
    Wow that's fun time~~
  - kjs3 5y ago
    I've been in 3 or 4 (very large) datacenters over the years where they used 3-wheeled bicycles to get around. Bonus of this was there's a pretty roomy basket between the back wheels to hauls stuff around. But yeah...OSHA (in the USA) applies to datacenters too and I can't imagine allowing roller skates.
- johnohara 5y ago
  No. Sorry. My comment was from a conversation I had in the mid-80's with a couple of field service reps who worked the site and couldn't believe it themselves. The magtapes used to hang on row after row of metal racks. The operators would retrieve the tapes, hold them on their forearms, and bring them back to what were usually a centralized set of tape drives. Here's an offset into a video showing what it typically looked like. [0] The narrator refers to a "search tape" used to retrieve the person's information. The tape had to be retrieved from the racks. The sheer weight and overall length of the rows/racks meant the rooms were often lower level with vinyl flooring over concrete (raised tile later). Imagine walking up and down for an 8-hour 5pm-1am shift. Not difficult to imagine skates. Here's another video with a good representation of how it worked. [1] As I have come to accept, the mid-80's was pre-everything. Deliberate change takes time. [0]: https://youtu.be/Iddrm7mHPrY?t=111 https://youtu.be/Iddrm7mHPrY?t=111 [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwj6pfhWBps https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwj6pfhWBps
  - markus_zhang 5y ago
    Thanks a lot for the links!
  - dtgriscom 5y ago
    A few seconds after your starting point in that first video, you can see a loop of tape vibrating back in forth in a rectangular channel. That's a vacuum column, with a (mild) vacuum pulling the tape loop to the right. This lets the servomotors that move the tape past the heads start and stop rapidly, while the heavy tape reels can spin up and down more slowly. See how the vibrating loop passes back and forth across a hole in the middle of the column? That's a pressure sensor. As the loop moves across the hole, the pressure in the hole changes, telling the drive whether it's time to reel in or dispense more tape. More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9_track_tape https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9_track_tape
    - johnohara 5y ago
      IIRC, once it had a stable hold on the tape the drive would begin reading in an effort to locate the start of the data. On old tapes this might take a number of retries with the drive rewinding, reading, rewinding, reading... etc. Sometimes it didn't work at all and you were stuck with a bad tape that needed special attention.
- johnohara 5y ago
  Couldn't resist. Here's another video showing a streamlined and "much more compact" computer room from around 1990. That 44GB of disk storage (DASD) probably cost $150,000 at the time. Somebody signed the P.O. and slept well that night. [0] Best part. You could roller skate to the music. [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlvUz3T4WTA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlvUz3T4WTA

markus_zhang 5y ago

Hi do you have any book/video talking about skaters in data center? I checked Youtube and only found one for switch board. Thanks!

donalhunt 5y ago
From personal experience, health and safety officers prefer workers to walk around facilities. Accidents while rare can result in hospitalisation (broken bones) when using skates, scooters and bicycles. I was once in a datacenter that had a golf cart to get from one end to another (yes - it was that long).
- markus_zhang 5y ago
  Wow that's fun time~~
- kjs3 5y ago
  I've been in 3 or 4 (very large) datacenters over the years where they used 3-wheeled bicycles to get around. Bonus of this was there's a pretty roomy basket between the back wheels to hauls stuff around. But yeah...OSHA (in the USA) applies to datacenters too and I can't imagine allowing roller skates.
johnohara 5y ago
No. Sorry. My comment was from a conversation I had in the mid-80's with a couple of field service reps who worked the site and couldn't believe it themselves. The magtapes used to hang on row after row of metal racks. The operators would retrieve the tapes, hold them on their forearms, and bring them back to what were usually a centralized set of tape drives. Here's an offset into a video showing what it typically looked like. [0] The narrator refers to a "search tape" used to retrieve the person's information. The tape had to be retrieved from the racks. The sheer weight and overall length of the rows/racks meant the rooms were often lower level with vinyl flooring over concrete (raised tile later). Imagine walking up and down for an 8-hour 5pm-1am shift. Not difficult to imagine skates. Here's another video with a good representation of how it worked. [1] As I have come to accept, the mid-80's was pre-everything. Deliberate change takes time. [0]: https://youtu.be/Iddrm7mHPrY?t=111 https://youtu.be/Iddrm7mHPrY?t=111 [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwj6pfhWBps https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwj6pfhWBps
- markus_zhang 5y ago
  Thanks a lot for the links!
- dtgriscom 5y ago
  A few seconds after your starting point in that first video, you can see a loop of tape vibrating back in forth in a rectangular channel. That's a vacuum column, with a (mild) vacuum pulling the tape loop to the right. This lets the servomotors that move the tape past the heads start and stop rapidly, while the heavy tape reels can spin up and down more slowly. See how the vibrating loop passes back and forth across a hole in the middle of the column? That's a pressure sensor. As the loop moves across the hole, the pressure in the hole changes, telling the drive whether it's time to reel in or dispense more tape. More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9_track_tape https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9_track_tape
  - johnohara 5y ago
    IIRC, once it had a stable hold on the tape the drive would begin reading in an effort to locate the start of the data. On old tapes this might take a number of retries with the drive rewinding, reading, rewinding, reading... etc. Sometimes it didn't work at all and you were stuck with a bad tape that needed special attention.
johnohara 5y ago
Couldn't resist. Here's another video showing a streamlined and "much more compact" computer room from around 1990. That 44GB of disk storage (DASD) probably cost $150,000 at the time. Somebody signed the P.O. and slept well that night. [0] Best part. You could roller skate to the music. [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlvUz3T4WTA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlvUz3T4WTA