Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site fortune.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!ihnp4!fortune!mbr From: mbr@fortune.UUCP Newsgroups: net.unix Subject: Re: YADS - Yet Another DECtape Story - (nf) Message-ID: <2579@fortune.UUCP> Date: Fri, 17-Feb-84 23:06:53 EST Article-I.D.: fortune.2579 Posted: Fri Feb 17 23:06:53 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 18-Feb-84 05:27:03 EST Sender: notes@fortune.UUCP Organization: Fortune Systems, Redwood City, CA Lines: 19 #R:sri-arpa:-1607600:fortune:26900027:000:781 fortune!mbr Feb 17 17:29:00 1984 Sorry about the last message. I accidentally sent out a copy of the base note. Many moons ago, I worked on a multi-user basic interpreter for the PDP-11, whose main I/O device was dectape. We had a newly written device driver for it, and left some tests running overnight. Big mistake! We had forgotten to put an upper limit on the number of error recovery attempts. The next morning, we found that the dectape had been seeking back and forth over a bad block the entire night! The magnetic emulsion on that portion of the tape was completely worn away. The drive head was visible through the now clear backing of the tape, and was it ever HOT!!!!! {allegra,amd70,cbosgd,dsd,dual, harpo,hpda,ihnp4,megatest,nsc, oliveb,sri-unix,twg,varian,VisiA,wdl1}!fortune!mbr