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Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape

From Daniel <me@fuhgitabutit.com>
Newsgroups alt.folklore.computers
Subject Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape
References <116g0jl$2apg7$1@dont-email.me> <nf1plaF5rktU29@mid.individual.net> <20260825112508.1600f06a9da77e28ec7715cc@127.0.0.1>
Message-ID <877blaacpq.fsf@rpi3> (permalink)
Organization Newshosting.com - Highest quality at a great price! www.newshosting.com
Date 2026-08-28 01:09 -0700

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"Kerr-Mudd, John" <admin@127.0.0.1> writes:

> On 24 Aug 2026 02:47:06 GMT
> rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 23 Aug 2026 23:43:49 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
>> 
>> > My immediate thought is: “you got to be kidding, right?” Not that I have
>> > personal experience of such usage, but everything I’ve heard says that
>> > they were clunky, slow, unreliable, frustrating, and basically a sheer
>> > pain to use as a computer data/program storage medium. Who would want to
>> > willingly suffer through those days again?
>> 
>> After seeing an ad for the Sinclair ZX-81 which was under 100 USD in the 
>> kit form, I had to see what you got for that money. 32 character wide 
>> display via a RF modulator and your TV, a membrane keyboard, and program 
>> storage on a Walkman cassette player. It wasn't a high point in my 
>> computing experience. It did make an adequate doorstop.
>> 
>> It's not a fair comparison because of the price but the Trash-80 and 
>> Commodore PET 4000 series had moved away from tape by then. iirc the 
>> VIC-20 went back to the purpose build external cassette drive from the PET 
>> 2000 series.
>> 
>> The good old days...  
>
>
> So where's the floppy drive revival?!!

Some of us never stopped using floppies. I can count the number of
floppies that have gone bad over the years on one hand. I lost
count on the number of flash drives that got damaged one way or another
or refused to write files or corrupt file system or files or mount.

CD/DVD's have slowly shown signs of decay. Some old discs won't
load or mount - especially the discs that were made in the 2000s. My
old, original mp3 backups-on-cd that I downloaded off napster are long
lost. Those discs were unreadable a few years ago. Some time ago, a
neighbor reported to me that a dvd of home videos no longer loads on his
player. I suggested taking it to a professional data restoration service.

To me, floppies are still king for file-types that can be kept at a
small size. 

It would be fascinating to see a homebrew audio tape backup system
developed today for modern computers. I did a cursory bit of reading, a
ninety-minute tape could hold over 950mb of raw data @ 16bit/44.1kHz.

For documents and text files this would be functional. It would also
give me a reason to crack open a few piles of unused tape bought years
ago. 

--
Daniel
sysop  | air & wave bbs
finger | info@bbs.airandwave.net

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Thread

The Return Of Cassette Tape Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-08-23 23:43 +0000
  Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-08-24 02:47 +0000
    Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape "Kerr-Mudd, John" <admin@127.0.0.1> - 2026-08-25 11:25 +0100
      Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape ... and punch cards? "Mr. Chang Man-wai" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2026-08-25 20:34 +0800
        Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape ... and punch cards? jerryab <jerryab@juno.com> - 2026-08-25 09:39 -0500
        [OT] Arguably unreasonable crossposts (was: Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape ... and punch cards?) Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-08-25 18:37 +0100
        Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape ... and punch cards? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-08-26 05:16 +0000
          Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape ... and punch cards? "Mr. Chang Man-wai" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2026-08-28 19:47 +0800
        Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape ... and punch cards? JJ <jj4public@gmail.com> - 2026-08-26 16:42 +0700
          Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape ... and punch cards? "Mr. Chang Man-wai" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2026-08-28 19:44 +0800
            Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape ... and punch cards? Peter Flass <Peter@Iron-Spring.com> - 2026-08-28 08:05 -0700
              Re: The Return Of .... ink+pen+paper? clay tablet? "Mr. Chang Man-wai" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2026-08-29 10:23 +0800
            Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape ... and punch cards? knuttle <keith_nuttle@yahoo.com> - 2026-08-28 11:39 -0400
              Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape ... and punch cards? Peter Flass <Peter@Iron-Spring.com> - 2026-08-28 13:07 -0700
                Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape ... and punch cards? Hank Rogers <Hank@nospam.invalid> - 2026-08-28 17:36 -0500
                Re: The Return Of ... Dark Age? "Mr. Chang Man-wai" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2026-08-29 10:33 +0800
                Re: The Return Of .... monks laboriously copying a manuscript by hand? "Mr. Chang Man-wai" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2026-08-29 10:26 +0800
                Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape ... and punch cards? "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-08-29 22:38 +0200
                Re: The Return Of ... replication old things? "Mr. Chang Man-wai" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2026-08-30 04:43 +0800
                Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape ... and punch cards? Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-08-29 22:02 +0000
              Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape ... and punch cards? Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-08-28 22:20 +0000
              Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape ... and punch cards? Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2026-08-29 03:51 -0400
        Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape ... and punch cards? Daniel70 <daniel47@nomail.afraid.org> - 2026-08-26 19:50 +1000
          Re: The Return Of .... Time of creation? "Mr. Chang Man-wai" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2026-08-29 10:36 +0800
      Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-08-25 21:35 +0000
        Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-08-26 01:34 +0200
          Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-08-26 05:23 +0000
        Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-08-26 05:21 +0000
          Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape Chris Ahlstrom <OFeem1987@teleworm.us> - 2026-08-27 12:02 -0400
            Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-08-27 21:12 +0000
              Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape Peter Flass <Peter@Iron-Spring.com> - 2026-08-27 14:18 -0700
                Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2026-08-27 21:48 +0000
      Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-08-26 05:14 +0000
        Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape SpallsHurgenson(NG) <user14325@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-08-26 15:02 +0000
          Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-08-26 18:54 +0200
            Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-08-27 00:48 +0000
              Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-08-27 08:39 +0200
                Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-08-27 21:10 +0000
            Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape SpallsHurgenson(NG) <user14325@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-08-28 14:53 +0000
              Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-08-28 22:22 +0000
              Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape "Kurt Weiske" <kurt.weiske@realitycheckbbs.org.remove-lo6-this> - 2026-08-29 08:39 -0700
                Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape Chris Ahlstrom <OFeem1987@teleworm.us> - 2026-08-29 15:47 -0400
                Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape Bob Eager <throwaway0008@eager.cx> - 2026-08-29 20:16 +0000
                Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2026-08-29 21:07 +0000
                Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape Chris Ahlstrom <OFeem1987@teleworm.us> - 2026-08-30 12:18 -0400
                Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape Bob Eager <throwaway0008@eager.cx> - 2026-08-30 20:36 +0000
                Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-08-31 03:09 +0000
                Connector, plugs and socket naming (was: Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape) Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-08-31 10:18 +0100
                Re: Connector, plugs and socket naming (was: Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape) Bob Eager <throwaway0008@eager.cx> - 2026-08-31 10:18 +0000
                Re: [CORRECTION] Connector, plugs and socket naming (was: Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape) Bob Eager <throwaway0008@eager.cx> - 2026-08-31 10:24 +0000
                Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape SpallsHurgenson(NG) <user14325@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-08-29 22:31 +0000
                Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-08-30 10:24 +0100
                Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-08-30 20:00 +0000
                Old cables and other things to hoard (Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape) Lars Poulsen <lars@beagle-ears.com> - 2026-08-30 06:48 -0700
                Re: Old cables and other things to hoard (Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape) Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2026-08-30 15:49 +0000
                Re: Old cables and other things to hoard (Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape) Peter Flass <Peter@Iron-Spring.com> - 2026-08-30 12:48 -0700
                Re: Old cables and other things to hoard (Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape) "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-08-31 13:04 +0200
                Re: Old cables and other things to hoard (Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape) scott@alfter.diespammersdie.us (Scott Alfter) - 2026-09-11 15:16 +0000
                Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2026-08-31 09:22 -0700
              Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape scott@alfter.diespammersdie.us (Scott Alfter) - 2026-09-11 14:46 +0000
          Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-08-27 01:22 +0000
      Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape Daniel <me@fuhgitabutit.com> - 2026-08-28 01:09 -0700
        Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape Bob Eager <throwaway0008@eager.cx> - 2026-08-28 11:43 +0000
        Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2026-08-28 08:45 -0700
        Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-08-28 21:35 +0000
          Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2026-08-29 00:20 +0000
          Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape Chris Ahlstrom <OFeem1987@teleworm.us> - 2026-08-29 09:55 -0400
  Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape Chris Ahlstrom <OFeem1987@teleworm.us> - 2026-08-25 15:07 -0400
    Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-08-26 05:13 +0000
      Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2026-08-26 18:08 +0000
        Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-08-27 00:45 +0000
      Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape Chris Ahlstrom <OFeem1987@teleworm.us> - 2026-08-27 11:58 -0400
  Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape antispam@fricas.org (Waldek Hebisch) - 2026-08-26 14:11 +0000
    Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-08-27 00:52 +0000
      Re: The Return Of Cassette Tape "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-08-27 08:44 +0200

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