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My 1980 dissertation research on the scattering properties of Jupiter's upper atmosphere is in my attic, stored on a 2400 foot reel of 9-track tape, 1600 bits p
by CliffStoll 3y ago
My 1980 dissertation research on the scattering properties of Jupiter's upper atmosphere is in my attic, stored on a 2400 foot reel of 9-track tape, 1600 bits per inch, NRZI, if I remember right.
Maybe 40 Mbytes of data. It's archived with the write-ring removed.
Somehow, I don't think I'll try to rebuild the scattering matrix for Jovian cloud particles...
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- deltarholamda 3y agoYou need to transfer that ASAP to some SyQuest drives. Baby steps.
- macjohnmcc 3y agoit would fit easily on audio tape using an 8-bit retro computer more than likely. Babier steps!
- PaulHoule 3y agoThose bad boys (9-track tapes) could easily hold 40MB which was a few hundred times bigger than floppy discs of the 8-bit age and would add up to quite a few compact cassettes. (As expensive as it was, I was so happy to switch to floppy disk for my TRS-80 Color Computer because restoring stuff I saved on a cassette was always hit or miss.) Mainframes in 1968 were handling much bigger data sets than you could handle with a micro until 1990 or so.
- aidenn0 3y agoHelical-scan VHS tapes could hit over 2MB per inch, which is crazy dense. The feed mechanism is a lot more mechanically rough on the tape though.
- selcuka 3y agoThere is no way you could fit 40MB into an audio tape, even when using the fastest fast loader [1]. 40MB is 3.2e8 bits, which means you'd need a transfer rate of ~60kbps even with a 90-minute tape. 8 bit computers could do 1-2kbps at best. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_loader https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_loader
- yetanotherloser 3y agoMakes me a little sad to think of it gradually succumbing to bit rot, even though I know everything does and I don't mind that some of my own data is going the same way. If you want to preserve it I bet it wouldn't be too hard to rustle up volunteers to try to retrieve and transfer it.
- VectorLock 3y agoBit rot, tapes are extremely prone to actual physical rot too.
- avmich 3y agoI suspect your book has a bigger importance, right?
- CliffStoll 3y agoThe number of people who have read my dissertation would fit into a bus shelter.
- 0cf8612b2e1e 3y agoOh la-de-dah look at Mr. Popular here.
- dredmorbius 3y agoOr, more optimistically, a very large Klein bottle.
- bombcar 3y agoI have always wanted to put a modern LTO head on one of those giant reel to reel tapes. Probably wouldn’t work right, but if it did it would be awesome.