Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2021 18:37:17 -0500
From: Cory Heisterkamp
This is a bit of a long shot, but is anyone aware of a successful
method to read IBM Selectric MT/ST tapes?
A museum in Australia has a box of them and are interested in the contents.
At the Computer History Museum we sometimes
On 7/31/2021 8:12 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
On 7/31/21 6:23 PM, Steve Malikoff via cctalk wrote:
A practice still observable on Youtube where you can marvel at a grimy oily
ASR33 being stripped down and restored, all the while whilst wearing a spotless
crisp ironed long-sleeve pin-st
On 7/31/21 6:23 PM, Steve Malikoff via cctalk wrote:
> A practice still observable on Youtube where you can marvel at a grimy oily
> ASR33 being stripped down and restored, all the while whilst wearing a
> spotless
> crisp ironed long-sleeve pin-striped business shirt... :)
> https://www.youtube.
Paul said
>Part of the fun of the banking terminals was some bank branches had the
>machines on the counter, right where the banks customers are, and
>customers would often feel obliged to offer some of their wit or wisdom
>while you where up to you elbows in a greasy machine. I those days of
>wor
On 7/31/21 1:38 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
Typo--I don't see so well in the morning. Obcously, S/360
ACK
I would have assumed a typo, but as I get deeper and deeper into IBM,
I'm finding more and more System/### than I ever heard of. So there was
a non-trivial possibility that's wha
On 7/31/21 10:40 AM, Paul Berger via cctalk wrote:
> I have never seen either of these machines but looking at pictures of
> them it looks like the first version of 1620 had a type bar typewriter
> as a console. These type bar machine would have a common heritage with
> the Flexowriters both are
On 7/31/21 12:22 PM, Grant Taylor via cctalk wrote:
> On 7/31/21 10:19 AM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
>> Did the 1620 Mod II and the 1130 use the same Selectric mechanism as
>> the S/260 1052?
>
> Is the S/260 a system that I'm completely oblivious to? Or is it a typo?
Typo--I don't see so we
On 7/31/21 10:19 AM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
Did the 1620 Mod II and the 1130 use the same Selectric mechanism as
the S/260 1052?
Is the S/260 a system that I'm completely oblivious to? Or is it a typo?
--
Grant. . . .
unix || die
On 2021-07-31 1:19 p.m., Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
On 7/31/21 8:55 AM, Paul Berger via cctalk wrote:
Since there was still a few 360s around when I started I also got to see
the inside of a 1052 a few times, they are a really stripped down
keyboardless selectric. They used a function cam
On 7/31/21 9:19 AM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
On 7/31/21 8:55 AM, Paul Berger via cctalk wrote:
Since there was still a few 360s around when I started I also got to see
the inside of a 1052 a few times, they are a really stripped down
keyboardless selectric. They used a function cam to s
On 7/31/21 8:55 AM, Paul Berger via cctalk wrote:
> Since there was still a few 360s around when I started I also got to see
> the inside of a 1052 a few times, they are a really stripped down
> keyboardless selectric. They used a function cam to space and since
> they did not have a tab rack the
On 2021-07-30 11:34 p.m., Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
On 7/30/21 6:22 PM, Paul Berger via cctalk wrote:
The MT/ST did pretty good for being a electro-mechanical device,all the
logic was relays in it. I seem to recall many years ago one of the old
OP guys telling me that it write in stripes
On 7/30/21 6:22 PM, Paul Berger via cctalk wrote:
> The MT/ST did pretty good for being a electro-mechanical device,all the
> logic was relays in it. I seem to recall many years ago one of the old
> OP guys telling me that it write in stripes across the tape. It would
> have to be some very simpl
I would think that an engineer would realize that the glass is neither
half-full NOR half-empty; it is merely that the glass was spec'ed with the
wrong size.
Yes, I am too cynical to be in marketing.
On Fri, 30 Jul 2021, Mike Stein wrote:
And here I've always thought of you as a pessimist
And here I've always thought of you as a pessimist who would have called it
'Half Empty ST'...
On Fri, Jul 30, 2021 at 9:17 PM Fred Cisin via cctalk
wrote:
> Yep.
>
> And, it was not appreciated when I suggested an interim release between
> the MT/ST emulator and "Full-ST" to be called "Half Ful
On 2021-07-30 9:39 p.m., Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
One of the shortcomings of the MT/ST when compared to word processors is
the lack of a good "mailmerge" option. You could code a stop code on
the tape, where the typewriter would allow for manual fill-in-the-blanks
operation, but that ge
Yep.
And, it was not appreciated when I suggested an interim release between
the MT/ST emulator and "Full-ST" to be called "Half Full ST"
On Fri, 30 Jul 2021, grif...@mindspring.com wrote:
Scope Creep.. no telling how many projects died in stalled development.
On Jul 30, 2021 16:36, Fred C
On 7/30/21 4:36 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
> Well, form letters are "important".
> But, once microcomputer word processing matured, they could be done
> easily and much better.
>
> An acquaintance was working on creating an emulation of the MT/ST, as a
> way for those who were familiar with
On Fri, 30 Jul 2021, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
Not really--it's very old technology, (1964), of limited capacity (about
20 KB per tape), was a hideously expensive way to buy a typewriter
(about USD$7000 in 1964, or about USD$61,000 today), used almost
exclusively in large corporate offices to
On 7/30/21 3:56 PM, Cory Heisterkamp via cctalk wrote:
> With all of the pet projects documented on the net (ranging from the esoteric
> to the absurd) it’s interesting that no one has tackled this one yet. -C
Not really--it's very old technology, (1964), of limited capacity (about
20 KB per tap
> On Jul 29, 2021, at 12:46 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk
> wrote:
>
> A link I forgot to include that gives a flavor of how the tapes are used:
>
> https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED112083.pdf
>
> Curious thing is that was no take-up reel on the MT/ST; the 100 feet of
> tape simply was ejec
A link I forgot to include that gives a flavor of how the tapes are used:
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED112083.pdf
Curious thing is that was no take-up reel on the MT/ST; the 100 feet of
tape simply was ejected loose and later rewound back into the cartridge.
--Chuck
Here's the MT/ST typewriter setup
https://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/.a/6a00d8341c464853ef01901bc4e1f6970b-500wi
Here's a brochure for the S/360 reader:
http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/IBM-ProdAnn/2495-5.pdf
Here's a training guide for the MT/ST:
https://ia800805.us.archive.org/26/items/IBM-M
On 7/29/21 7:21 AM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
The hard part is going to find one of the reader units.
Digi-Data made them
https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102662523
Sadly, whoever cataloged this had no idea it was for IBM MT/ST tapes
so there is no mention of MT/ST in
On 7/29/21 1:58 AM, Dave Wade G4UGM via cctalk wrote:
> Its only recorded at around 25BPI so I don't thing it would be too hard to
> decode.
> Given its a character at a time, I suspect some iron filings or similar would
> reveal the codes and track spacing and with a bit of luck you could find
One of those magnetic fluid tape checking devices would show the bits very
easily at that density (or even a lot higher).
It seems to me this sort of thing should be no problem at all for the various
general purpose tape reading machines that have been built, especially the ones
with MR heads
Cory,
Its only recorded at around 25BPI so I don't thing it would be too hard to
decode.
Given its a character at a time, I suspect some iron filings or similar would
reveal the codes and track spacing and with a bit of luck you could find a head
that would read the data...
I am sure we used to
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