From: kludge@panix.com   
      
   >On 2025-11-29, Dave Froble  wrote:   
   >>   
   >> Why would anyone want one of these drives?  It sure isn't for storage   
   capacity.   
   >> There are many things from the past, but show me anyone who has any real   
   use for   
   >> them.  I mean, I do not collect wheels, covered wagons, model T Fords, and   
   >> certainly not an RA82 drive.   
   >>   
   >   
   >Because some people care about how we got to where we are today.   
   >   
   >Around Europe, there are carefully preserved and some maintained   
   >historical train locomotives that are many decades old. Some are   
   >over a century old.   
      
   The RA81 and RA82 are not Model T Fords.  They are Maxwells, prone to   
   breaking down and leaving people stranded in the middle of the road.   
      
   When we were running many of them, we had a DEC FE who was on site a   
   couple days a week replacing heads, and without that support I would   
   not want to be running them.   
      
   The things took three 6250 tapes to do a full backup too, and you   
   had to be religiously careful about backups.   
      
      
   There are many devices that should be preserved in working condition so that   
   new generations should see how they worked when they were new and experience   
   them working.  The RA81 should be left in the rack broken, so that new   
   generations can see how they were when they were new.   
   --scott   
      
      
   --   
   "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)