Re: REPOST: RMAN question

From: Howard J. Rogers <hjr_at_dizwell.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 11:32:42 +1000
Message-Id: <4144f8ba$0$20583$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au>

Mark Bole wrote:

> Joel Garry wrote:
>

>> Daniel Morgan <damorgan_at_x.washington.edu> wrote in message
>> news:<1094102685.782496_at_yasure>...
>> 
>>>>Not a user's PC, but definitely on servers.  (Well, I've come close on
>>>>my own PC :-O but I'm the only person I know who uses tape on a PC.
>>>>Because I'm a packrat.  Yes, I have stacks of punch cards.)
>>>
>>>If you have a few of the sorting needles too and would be willing to
>>>part with them for demonstration uses at the U please contact me
>>>off-line and name your "reasonable" price.
>> 
>> 
>> Don't have those, sorry.
>> 
>> jg
>> --
>> @home.com is bogus.
>> How 'bout that evaluation, eh? 
>> http://www.bookpool.com/.x/hgwppormg4/sm/1590593871

>
> way too late to the party, as usual...
>
> Are "sorting needles" those things they used to use in libraries to do a
> search through a stack of cards with cut-outs punched around the outer
> edge to indicate the various categories that each card could be
> "searched" on? You push the needle through the entire stack at the
> location of your desired search category (user defined, IIRC), lift up
> the needle, and only those cards *without* the full cut-out would be
> selected? (not 80-column Hollerith cards)
>
> I'm firmly on Daniel's side. Tape is 20th century techology. I have
> quite a few important (to me) files dating back to the mid-80s, and I've
> moved them along over the years in a useful fashion from hard disk to
> hard disk. The next most reliable media I have is paper-based (source
> code listings, hand-written address lists, teletype paper punch tape,
> which of course you can read by eyeball if you know the language).
>
> --Mark Bole

You obviously don't have cats. I have one that loves eating anything of cardboard or paper made (which rules out punched cards, and much else, for me). "Cats in the server room?!" I hear you cry... well, you should try a possum sometime (happened at an insurance company I worked for. God knows how it got in. One learns not to ask where possums are concerned).

Anything good enough for NASA or the British Museum is good enough for me when it comes to assessing storage media for the long-term. That's why I use tape.

I am, however, still the proud possessor of a punched tape from 1978 on which I stored my first ever basic program (10 input A 20 input B 30 print A*B). And yes, if I have enough to drink first, I think I can still just about read its random assortment of holes. It helps knowing what it means first, of course!

Your description of the punch cards reminds me, too, of two Weetbix packets and my mother's knitting needles from about 1969 when I think I independently invented the data retrieval mechanism you describe. It required rather careful insertion of the knitting needles as I recall, since Weetbix packets were not known for their particular rigidity. And the database was down whenever a jumper (sweater) needed knitting of course. Given England's Winters, that meant a lot of downtime. :-)

Regards
HJR Received on Sun Sep 12 2004 - 20:32:42 CDT