On Fri, 13 Oct 2017 18:47:21 -0400, Phil Smith III wrote: > >>"I got lots of great software that way!" > >*facepalm* > >Since it's Friday and we're swapping tape stories, back in the day, I had a >couple of red 3480 cartridges that I'd picked up somewhere. I'd take 'em to >customer sites, because it was usually easier to tell the operators "It's >the red one" when I needed it mounted or returned. > Legend is that Ralph Griswold, the author, mischievously distributed SNOBOL4 on red flanged tapes (3420? 729?). At some highly secured sites possessing a red tape was a security violation.
You were lucky. >That is, until an operator put it into an STK silo. Seems the red cartridge >and the red laser didn't get along: the silo insisted the slot was empty, >and then of course wouldn't pull the cart to return it. They had to power >down the silo to extract it manually. After that, I took two: a red and a >black, and asked about silo use before providing either. > >Anyone know if Sterling Forest still has 3420s? Last time I was there >(2004?) they did, and even a 7-track drive IIRC. They could contract to cut service tapes for Ed. -- gil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
