thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) (08/05/89)
Was reading something (which I found to be funny) in the August issue of the magazine "DEC Professional", and want to share it for your amusement. In a discussion of streaming tape backup units, an operational and/or config problem which causes the tape to stop, rewind/backup, then restart because the drive wasn't being "fed" data continuously was referred to as: "... shoe-shining your data ..." WOW! Would YOU want YOUR data "shoe-shined"? Does this mean software vendors should toss in a bottle of Shinola along with their manual and warranty card? :-) :-) :-) Seriously, other than having the oxide rubbed-off down to clear mylar (which I *HAVE* seen happen with large auto-loading reel-reel tape drives) when a tape section is continually spaced and backspaced over the heads, has anyone: 1) heard of the phrase "shoe-shined" in this context, or 2) heard of such a problem with streaming tape units? Another euphemism I've heard recently is "Big Red." We know that "Big Blue" refers to IBM, but to WHOM does "Big Red" refer? My guess is Unisys, but ... Are "Marketing Types" coining these phrases, or what? I recall also the term "waterfall" used to describe the line of H-P plotters in which the paper moves in one axis and the pen(s) in another (contrast with drum and flatbed plotters). Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com (OR) ..!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!thad ]
kdb@chinet.chi.il.us (Karl Botts) (08/06/89)
>Seriously, other than having the oxide rubbed-off down to clear mylar (which I >*HAVE* seen happen with large auto-loading reel-reel tape drives) when a tape >section is continually spaced and backspaced over the heads, has anyone: I once watched from across the room as a colleague took the plastic cover of the fromt of an HP 9 track unit he had been using to back up some vital data by streaming it onto a second. Anyhow, somehow the tape had gotten threaded a little wrong so it ran over a metal burr, which had stripped the oxide from most of the width of the tape, end to end. When he took the plastic cover off a fine cloud of brown flakes of oxide buried his feet up to the ankles. The burr was in front of the read head. The copy of the clear mylar (over the previous useful iteration of the data) was flawless.
dts@quad.uucp (David T. Sandberg) (08/08/89)
In article <21048@cup.portal.com> thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) writes: >Another euphemism I've heard recently is "Big Red." We know that "Big Blue" >refers to IBM, but to WHOM does "Big Red" refer? My guess is Unisys, but ... Big Red refers to the oft-used switch on the side of a Big Blue. ;') -- David Sandberg "Strike Hard, Strike Sure" PSEUDO: dts@quad.uucp Bomber Command, R.A.F. ACTUAL: ..uunet!rosevax!sialis!quad!dts
scs@itivax.iti.org (Steve Simmons) (08/09/89)
thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) writes: >has anyone: >1) heard of the phrase "shoe-shined" in this context, or Absolutely. If you're seriously looking at tape performance you're bound to run into it eventually. >2) heard of such a problem with streaming tape units? More than I ever care to remember...sigh. -- Steve Simmons scs@vax3.iti.org Industrial Technology Institute Ann Arbor, MI. "Velveeta -- the Spam of Cheeses!" -- Uncle Bonsai