Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!psuvax1!ukma!uflorida!beach.cis.ufl.edu!rlp
From: rlp@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Bob Powell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Will the Next sell?
Summary: cassette loading and those good ol' errors
Keywords: color RAM disk backup software exchange
Message-ID: <21323@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU>
Date: 30 Nov 89 02:42:38 GMT
References: <4283@helios.ee.lbl.gov> <21301@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> <802@wet.UUCP>
Sender: news@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU
Reply-To: rlp@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Bob Powell)
Distribution: na
Organization: UF CIS Department, Oddities Division
Lines: 34

In article <802@wet.UUCP> epsilon@wet.UUCP (Eric P. Scott) writes:
|In article <21301@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> rlp@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Bob Powell) writes:
|>I've been diddling with computers since my first TRS-80 Model I
|>back in Oct. 1979.  Remember 4K of RAM, tape (audio cassette) storage,
|
|>Right now, the NeXT doesn't do what I want.
|
|Ok... There's a "microphone" jack on the back of the MegaPixel.
|It can't be that hard to hack together something to read from
|a cassette tape.  After all, even the "modern" IBM PCs (ca. 1984)
|had cassette ports.  There you go--low-cost distribution media,
|and no peripherals to buy--EVERYONE has a Walkman(tm).  You don't
|really care how long it takes to transfer since you only have to
|do it once.
|>
|I really amaze myself sometimes.  :-)

Hey, great idea!  But I *do* care how long it takes.  Y'see, I also
remember tapping my foot, watching the little asterisks in the upper-
right corner blinking with every 500 bytes or so that came in.  Every
once in a while, after waiting for a five-minute load, the last couple
of K would get fouled (bad volume setting, dirty tape head, etc), and
I'd have to go back and redo the whole bloomin' thing.  Anoher five
minutes, and sometimes *that* would blow up too.

My preference for low-cost distribution medium would be 1/4" tape,
or maybe DAT (though the drives for both are costly; but hey, the
cube has a multi-thousand-dollar floptical, so what's another
few thou ? :).  Also, any peripheral (even a little Walkman) adds
to the clutter of stuff on the desk, which the "pure" NeXT would
avoid.  I'd like to see some of that front panel space used for
a tape system of some kind.

Bob