Re: Question about DECtape formulation

2022-01-24 Thread Gary Oliver via cctalk
On 1/24/22 4:25 PM, David Gesswein via cctech wrote: On Sun, Jan 23, 2022 at 03:09:53PM -0800, Gary Oliver wrote: Taking the bits of tape, I exposed them to various concentrations of isopropanol/water (from about 25% to 99% iso) and found than in all cases, some of the data side of the tape

Re: Question about DECtape formulation

2022-01-24 Thread David Gesswein via cctalk
On Sun, Jan 23, 2022 at 03:09:53PM -0800, Gary Oliver wrote: > Taking the bits of tape, I exposed them to various concentrations of > isopropanol/water (from about 25% to 99% iso) and found than in all cases, > some of the data side of the tape came off on the wipe.? The remaining tape > fragment

Re: Question about DECtape formulation

2022-01-24 Thread Chuck Guzis via cctalk
So, can we assume that the words about a "tape sandwich" refer to a mylar base, oxide coating, and a lubricant/protective coating? That is not an oxide coating sandwiched between to layers of mylar. There was such a tape construction, used on the Datamatic 1000. (ca. 1955) --Chuck

Re: Typing in lost code

2022-01-24 Thread Douglas Taylor via cctalk
I've tried to OCR old Fortran Code from DTIC pdf documents.  There were 2 big problems; 1. The copies are very poor to start with and all OCR attempts produced about 75% error rate. 2. Old Fortran code limited variable names to 6 characters so they were generally not descriptive of what they

Re: Typing in lost code

2022-01-24 Thread Dennis Boone via cctalk
> That's true generally. Anything other than actual photographs > (continuous tone images) should NOT be run through JPEG because JPEG > is not intended for, and unfit for, anything else. Printouts, line > drawings, and anything else with crisp edges between dark and light > will be messed

Re: Typing in lost code

2022-01-24 Thread Paul Koning via cctalk
> On Jan 24, 2022, at 5:57 PM, ben via cctalk wrote: > >> ... > Document source is also a problem. > You would want to keep scan it at the best data format, > not something in a lossey format. That's true generally. Anything other than actual photographs (continuous tone images) should NOT

Re: Typing in lost code

2022-01-24 Thread ben via cctalk
On 2022-01-23 12:47 p.m., Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote: On 1/23/22 10:16, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote: Maybe. But OCR programs have had learning features for decades. I've spent quite a lot of time in FineReader learning mode. Material produced on a moderate-quality typewriter, like the

Re: mystery S-100 available

2022-01-24 Thread Jay Jaeger via cctalk
FYI, that "unpopulated board" is not and never was S100, and has clearly had some told contact fingers cut off. Perhaps used as a source for parts at some point. You might want to join and post this to the "s100computers" Google group. JRJ On 1/23/2022 1:42 PM, Stan Sieler via cctalk wrote:

Re: Question about DECtape formulation

2022-01-24 Thread Gary Oliver via cctalk
On 1/24/22 12:42 PM, Noel Chiappa via cctalk wrote: > From: Gary Oliver > Paul - thanks for the bitsavers reference. Ahem! In any case, it's Al who really deserves the credit, for finding that document, and putting it up. Noel Clearly Al is to blame :-)  Yes, thanks to

Re: Question about DECtape formulation

2022-01-24 Thread Gary Oliver via cctalk
On 1/24/22 11:09 AM, Chris Zach via cctalk wrote: It sounds more like some sort of sprayed-on coating of some sort of abrasion-resistent material.  It might well be porous, which would be a possible explanation for the oxide coming off when rubbed with solvent. paul Is it possible we're

Re: Question about DECtape formulation

2022-01-24 Thread Chuck Guzis via cctalk
On 1/24/22 11:50, Paul Koning wrote: > > I thought Black Watch has coating on the back, as others mentioned. DECtape > is not black but brown, so graphite doesn't seem to be involved. I grabbed a reel of BW out of my stash and you're correct--the black is on the back. Still, I can see where

Re: Question about DECtape formulation

2022-01-24 Thread Noel Chiappa via cctalk
> From: Gary Oliver > Paul - thanks for the bitsavers reference. Ahem! In any case, it's Al who really deserves the credit, for finding that document, and putting it up. Noel

Re: Question about DECtape formulation

2022-01-24 Thread Paul Koning via cctalk
> On Jan 24, 2022, at 2:46 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk > wrote: > > On 1/24/22 11:05, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote: > >> Looking at that spec some items pop out. >> >> The coating is quite thin, much thinner than the backing. Not too >> surprising actually, if it were thick it would

Re: Question about DECtape formulation

2022-01-24 Thread Chuck Guzis via cctalk
On 1/24/22 11:05, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote: > Looking at that spec some items pop out. > > The coating is quite thin, much thinner than the backing. Not too surprising > actually, if it were thick it would reduce the max possible bit density. > > There is a coating wear spec (as a ratio

Re: Question about DECtape formulation

2022-01-24 Thread Sytse van Slooten via cctalk
The other thing on my mind is, high end audio tape from the same period had a coating to reduce static electricity. But that would be on the rear side. > On 24 Jan 2022, at 20:09, Chris Zach via cctalk wrote: > > It sounds more like some sort of sprayed-on coating of some sort of >

Re: Question about DECtape formulation

2022-01-24 Thread Chris Zach via cctalk
It sounds more like some sort of sprayed-on coating of some sort of abrasion-resistent material. It might well be porous, which would be a possible explanation for the oxide coming off when rubbed with solvent. paul Is it possible we're looking at something called "dirt"? C

Re: Question about DECtape formulation

2022-01-24 Thread Paul Koning via cctalk
> On Jan 23, 2022, at 8:40 PM, Noel Chiappa via cctalk > wrote: > >> From: Gary Oliver >> I've always thought the physical tape wound on a DECtape spool was a >> fairly conventional 'sandwich' of mylar/oxide/mylar ... >> Was there some kind of 'lubricating' coat on the data side? It makes >>

Re: Question about DECtape formulation

2022-01-24 Thread Gary Oliver via cctalk
On 1/24/22 7:30 AM, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote: On Jan 23, 2022, at 8:40 PM, Noel Chiappa via cctalk wrote: From: Gary Oliver I've always thought the physical tape wound on a DECtape spool was a fairly conventional 'sandwich' of mylar/oxide/mylar ... Was there some kind of 'lubricating'

Re: Question about DECtape formulation

2022-01-24 Thread Paul Koning via cctalk
> On Jan 24, 2022, at 10:56 AM, Jon Elson via cctalk > wrote: > > Back in 1971 or so, we had a PDP-5 with DECTapes, and bought 3/4" analog > recorder tapes surplus to make up new tapes. It was much thinner than > DECTape, and we had print-through issues of tapes that were stored for a few

Re: Question about DECtape formulation

2022-01-24 Thread Jon Elson via cctalk
Back in 1971 or so, we had a PDP-5 with DECTapes, and bought 3/4" analog recorder tapes surplus to make up new tapes.  It was much thinner than DECTape, and we had print-through issues of tapes that were stored for a few weeks. That seemed to clear up if the tapes were then used again.  I

Re: Question about DECtape formulation

2022-01-24 Thread Chris Zach via cctalk
One way to tell is to do an independent test. I have a ton of Dectape, including some stuff that is probably psychological data from 50 years ago. So what are the exact steps, I'll replicate on some LincTapes and report back. C On 1/24/2022 10:30 AM, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote: On

Re: Question about DECtape formulation

2022-01-24 Thread Paul Koning via cctalk
> On Jan 23, 2022, at 8:40 PM, Noel Chiappa via cctalk > wrote: > >> From: Gary Oliver > >> I've always thought the physical tape wound on a DECtape spool was a >> fairly conventional 'sandwich' of mylar/oxide/mylar ... >> Was there some kind of 'lubricating' coat on the data side? It makes