CheeseHunter1176d ago
Anthony Horton
Inspired by a CD burning indirect age verification poll I saw this morning let's push things a little further back with a poll about cassette tape.
I don't know what a cassette tape is
1%
I do know what a cassette tape is
21.3%
I've listened to music on cassette tape
25%
I've recorded music to cassette tape
26.1%
I've loaded software from cassette tape
15.8%
I've written software to cassette tape
10.8%
Poll ended at .
Mar 23 at 3:17amWeb
Show threadAnthony Horton6d ago
To clarify, I'm specifically asking about analogue Compact Cassette audio tape here. DAT/DSS, etc., don't count.
Show threadAnthony Horton5d ago

This nostalgic train of thought promoted me to hunt down samples of the BBC Micro Model B's distinctive "boop beep" startup sound.

It has now replaced the ICQ message notification sound as the default notification on my phone.

I found it here: https://jonripley.com/8bit/Sounds/

Show threadPhilip Kendall5d ago
@spacelizard fun fact: the first half of the "boop beep" is non-deterministic and caused by activating the sound chip with junk in its registers. It took a long time for emulators to get it sounding right.
Show threadAnthony Horton5d ago
@pak21 Huh. That would explain why the boop doesn't sound like a single pure tone, unlike the beep that follows it.
Show threadPhilip Kendall5d ago
@spacelizard precisely that :)
Show threadaburka 🫣6d ago
@spacelizard I have made many a tape archive file but never actually written one to a tape
Show threadKen Milmore6d ago
@aburka @spacelizard I doubt if many other people have either. The tar format was not used with analogue compact cassettes, which were the storage format of choice for cheap '80s 8-bit microcomputers. I bet someone on here will know of an exception though!
Show threadaburka 🫣5d ago
@kbm0 @spacelizard I dimly remember the first family computer (mid 90s) having some kind of tape drive for backups
Show threadKen Milmore5d ago
@aburka @spacelizard It may have been a QIC drive or similar that worked over the PC floppy disc interface. They didn't use the analogue compact cassettes though, they were more a like a budget LTO drive.
Show thread🤯Matera the Mad🤯6d ago

@spacelizard
Yep. Back in the early '80s, a friend gave me a bitty toy computer that I could plug into a regular tape recorder - and a black-and-white TV -and lo! I learned to program...within 1k.

I miss it.

Show threadBellycan6d ago
@spacelizard bonus question:
Do you know how to use a pencil with a cassette
46.9%
Have you used a pencil with a cassette
53.1%
Poll ended at .
Show threadAnybody's King (Scrummy)6d ago
@pelicangut @spacelizard BIC crystal ballpoint pens work awesome for this too!
Show threadKanaMauna5d ago

@pelicangut @spacelizard

I would like to know what the 11% who have used a pencil with a cassette without knowing how thought they were doing.

Show threadBellycan5d ago
@KanaMauna @spacelizard maybe they wrote on the label in pencil 🤷‍♂️
Show threadSkewray Research (ZF¬C)6d ago
@spacelizard You mean that newfangled tape thing that's like an eight-track tape?
Show threadLoad average6d ago

@spacelizard TRS-80 BASIC

turn the volume way down before you play it on a regular cassette player because two tracks of irregular square waves is kind of painful to listen to.

Show threadAnthony Horton6d ago
@laprice It was a BBC micro for me. I dimly recall watching it count upwards in hexadecimal as it loaded some game or other. Like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f2JhORxsCY
BBC Micro: Elite by Acornsoft (Loading from tape)

YouTube
Show threadMichael Gemar6d ago
@spacelizard @calvin I’ve never written software to cassette tape, but I *have* written it to *paper* tape.
Show threadMarjorieR6d ago
@michaelgemar @spacelizard @calvin ditto.
Show threadDavid Penington6d ago
@marjolica @michaelgemar @spacelizard @calvin
Ditto, including lots of NC machine tool "programs" onto paper tape in 1982/3. Paper tape was a near universal standard then, except some of the Russian NC machines needed very opaque black paper tape.
For machining blanks for experimental multifocal spectacles, the manager had linked micro PDP-11s into some of the machine's paper tape reader's circuits, giving us the (needed) ability to send more than 1000 feet worth of data with no pauses.
This was when physically massive hard drives were about 80Mb & the company's main computer had 1/2Mb of RAM.
Show threadMarjorieR6d ago
@DavidPenington @michaelgemar @spacelizard @calvin nothing so huge. Back in the early 1970s I was running a program (possibly a oil refinery model I was using to assess the cost of taking lead out of petrol in Japan) remotely on a timeshared mainframe in I think Texas. The program parameters were stored locally on paper tape.
Show threadtootbrute6d ago
@spacelizard confirmed. people on mastodon are old.
Show threadEye6d ago

@tootbrute @spacelizard

LOL, I was thinking this!

(And I'm one of the oldies) XD

Show threadKanaMauna6d ago

@spacelizard

TRS-80 cassette tape players were so much fun. /s Much of the time you'd wait 10 minutes for it to load just for it to fail and you's have to try it again. Eventually the tape would just go bad.

Show threadRalf6d ago
@spacelizard SAVE "HELLO",1,1 iirc
Show threadBodhi 心6d ago
@spacelizard Who knows what a pencil is, and has respooled a cassette tape with one?
Show threadJJ5d ago
@bodhipaine @spacelizard
Heh. Just replied about that seconds ago!
Show threadBodhi 心5d ago
@JJ @spacelizard Great minds (of a generation) think alike!
Show threadLeif Samuelsson6d ago

@spacelizard

Huh, more people have recorded to cassettes than have listened to them.

Show threadEliza MB6d ago

@leffe @spacelizard

Yes, seems improbable.

Show threadFrancesco Marini6d ago
@spacelizard still kinda miss my 1530 😁😅
Show threadTim_Eagon6d ago
@spacelizard The Sinclair ZX81 my aunt got me made me barely qualify for the last two points!
Show threadmyrmepropagandist6d ago

@spacelizard

I feel like I need to say that I have written and loaded software on tapes, but only as a "vintage computing" activity with my trusty TRS 80 which I bring in to scare my students from time to time "this is what laptops used to be like" they love it and are fascinated... or terrified, hard to say their eyes are very big the whole time.

But it's not really of my time. I did grow up listening to rock and roll on cassette tapes however, in Ohio no less behind a 7/11

Show threadWalter van Holst6d ago
@futurebird @spacelizard We had a program on national radio that would broadcast software to be recorded on casette tape and to be used on your home computer. It used a universal BASIC called BASICODE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASICODE
BASICODE - Wikipedia

Show threadThe Enraged Raccoon6d ago
@futurebird @spacelizard I go back even further I’ve written and loaded programs on/from a paper tape roll! (PDP-8E BASIC)
Show threadmyrmepropagandist6d ago

@spacelizard

The little screen had menu options on it with numbers and one of them tried to press the screen... to be fair touch screens did exist when this was made... but they looked like they were covered in horrible plastic wrap.

Show threaddon6d ago
@futurebird @spacelizard the first programming I did was on a TRS (trash) 80 with a cassette drive.
Show threadДими́трий6d ago

@futurebird @spacelizard

this is baller teaching right here.

Show threadmpark6d ago
@futurebird @spacelizard I typed in programs from magazines for my Vic 20 and C64 back in the day and saved to tape drive. I do not miss it.
Show threadAMS5d ago
@futurebird @spacelizard I have provided students with HP-42s programs for a few things while TAing because I used them for solving live problems on the board/chat. They were mostly horrified.
Show threadAMS5d ago

@futurebird @spacelizard nifty things like add parallel

1/x
X<>Y
1/x
+
1/x

Show threadHugo Mills6d ago

@spacelizard I *still have* some software that I wrote on cassette tape. And the machine it was written on.

Although it may not be readable by now, and, I don't think I have the hardware required to play the tape.

Show threadBarry Schwartz 🫖6d ago
@spacelizard I have a bulk eraser.
Show threadQueen of Anxiety6d ago
@spacelizard We had a computer lesson in 2nd grade that involved read/write on a cassette. I remember clearly because I got in trouble for hitting the rewind button before the teacher told us to. She was a bitch who had it in for me, but at the time I was super upset for having gotten in trouble for something I didn’t understand.
Show threadBishop6 (Ed Alan T.)6d ago
@spacelizard analog magnetic tape, paper tape, punch cards... oh, and those big reel-to-reel tapes as well. Yeah, I'm one of the old ones.
Show threadKierkethumbs up convincingly6d ago
@spacelizard i still remember facebook audiophile boomers ranting about how cassette tape audio is better than both vinyl and cd
Show threadFarce Majeure6d ago
@Kierkegaanks @spacelizard As usual, this argument depends on either not understanding the sampling theorem or having /unusually/ subjective criteria about "better".
Show threadKierkethumbs up convincingly6d ago
@spacelizard @vathpela the sampling theorem was not involved when comparing with vinyl. But they did adorably claim an ultrasonic frequency cutoff. I guess at their age the standard cassette bandwidth of 12kHz is near-ultrasonic
Show threadFarce Majeure5d ago
@Kierkegaanks @spacelizard hahaha
Show threadVefhtagn6d ago

@spacelizard

I feel old....-_-"""

Show threadLux 6d ago
@spacelizard I'm a little triggered by the fact MORE people recorded music on tape than people have listened to it. They recorded it just for the fun of it ?
Show threadDavid JONES3d ago
@orange_lux @spacelizard they record a mixtape and give it away without listening to it :)
Show threadMartin Vermeer FCD6d ago

@spacelizard Not only have I written and read software to and from cassette tape, I wrote a utility to use cassette tape as a transfer medium between operating systems!

https://archive.org/details/Dragon_User_1988-03_Sunshine_Books_GB/page/n11/mode/2up

Dragon User (1988-03)(Sunshine Books)(GB) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Dragon User (1988-03)(Sunshine Books)(GB)

Internet Archive
Show threadDavid Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)6d ago
@spacelizard More people have recorded music to a cassette tape than listened to one or know what a cassette tape is?
Show threadRo✨️6d ago
@david_chisnall @spacelizard "idk what this is but it sure does play music"
Show threadDavid Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)6d ago

@Recalcitrant @spacelizard

I'm more surprised by the 3% who have recorded music to a tape but never listened to music on a tape.

Show threadCraig Francis5d ago
@david_chisnall @Recalcitrant @spacelizard I assume some people don’t see the “choose one or more”, and (at least on my client) I see circles (radio fields) so maybe people see the options as levels?
Show threadDave Muth6d ago
@david_chisnall @spacelizard Some probably didn't know they could check more than 1.