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Scotch Tape Storage
Hoss Man writes "It seems like a few techno-heads out there have figured out how to make a 10Gig harddrive out of a roll of Scotch Tape. It would be cooler if it was Duct Tape, but I guess we can't really complain. " Alright, I'm not sure whether I believe it or not, but it looks pretty darn cool.
I also wonder if it would be ROM or if it would be rewritable and
They state that it's WORM.
RANT>The problem with these stories is that many people read them and don't see that it is only a scientist goofing around.
The use of actual sticky tape is just goofing around I'm certain. Much like the joll-o laser (and the competing vodka laser from the USSR)
Perhaps in a few years, the operating principle can be applied to a usefully stable medium to come up with a really cheap high density WORM. R/W seems unlikely, since the technique seems to involve relaxing of the stress in the backing. I'm not sure if they mean the simple tension from rolling the tape (where the adhesive holds the tension), or the stress on the polymer chains from stretching the backing (probably the latter).
Packing tape as a medium. Want to send some secret files to your friend back in the USSR, write them on packing tape, and use it to wrap the package. He just uses the package reader version to pull the files off the now unrolled tape, but watch out for streaching.
What I like about it is the shear audacity of it. Here is a common product tape and they go and make it into a storage media. Oh, wait it already was a type of storage media. I guess it gives new meaning to binding the bits.
Gives new meaning to "setting the sticky bit"...
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If we could only figure out a way to use fishing line to network the things we would be set!
As shown by this shop selling both Scotch Tape (9th listed) and Tesa Kristallklar (2nd listed)...The Tesa is about 3 times more expensive, but still pretty darned cheap (1.95 DM is about US$0.96) per roll.
I'm guessing Kristallklar probably translates as "Crystal Clear"?
Heat generation during read/write operations is hardly the biggest problem. Lower the entire thing in a vat of liquid ethane.
Adhesive tapes are made by extruding/casting a liqud layer which is dried to make the polymer film. There are so many problems with getting an uniform film using this technique. Inbuilt stresses during drying, edge effects, etc. etc.
This is one reason LCDs are so expensive. If only they can be made like polymer films...
the brand of tape is "tesa Multi-Film, kristallklar" or some shit like that. IT IS NOT SCOTCH TAPE
Buying a Dell computer is equivalent to dropping the soap in a prison shower.
Encode about a hundred thousand copies of css-auth.tar.gz and DeCSS.zip on a roll of tape, then use that roll of tape for your letters, promotions, etc. There's guaranteed to be at least one copy on each section if you write it right, and there are likely hundreds more in case of accidental data loss (read, ripping off and throwing in garbage can).
And better yet, it would be way to expensive for whatever agency was trying to destroy all copies to find which pieces of tape actually contained the code. Of course, the MPAA could just destroy all tape they found, but is that not some kind of criminal act? [evil snicker]
Small nitpick... It's not in fact a hard-drive, it's a write-once medium. Still pretty darn cool, though.
Wouldn't the heat caused by rapid reads and writes actually change the data. also, depending on how colse the tape was to other tape, It could easily expand and contract. I noticed in the article, that the tape they were using was on a slide, preventing it from moving. Although the idea is good, I don't see this ever being used in a real world situation.
perl -e "print(pack('H37','4d65726b7572795a40676e7572642e6e6574'))"
All joking aside, this, in my opinion, is a classic breakthrough in which a 'silly' idea or thought-experiment leads to a minor or perhaps major revolution. The idea of wide, rolled surface for data storage is phenominal. The amount of surface area is MUCH larger than that of a cd-rom or any other flat spining surface, and the amount of movement necessary for a given read is greatly lessened. The idea of three dimensional storage is a tad beyond me, but I can see the potential and it's very exciting.
Before you laugh this off as funny ("it's tape! Huh huh! That's stoopid!") read the page and check out what they're doing. This is big stuff!
With some very sticky implications...
DOH!
**>>BELCH
That ought to fix things right up!
One hermetically sealed clean room.. $750,000
One pen laser $20
One roll of Scotch Tape $3
One more way to piss of the MPAA Priceless
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This story has been doing the rounds for a couple of months allready. Though it is a theoretical possibillity to store data on Scotch tape, it would not be of alot of practical use. There was an Ask Slashdot on Data Obsolescence and Media Decay. Well, Scotch tape would definitely run large risks of media decay. I also wonder if it would be ROM or if it would be rewritable and how often it would be rewritable.
(RANT>The problem with these stories is that many people read them and don't see that it is only a scientist goofing around. It is amazing to see here on Slashdot the reaction research results. People assume that because it has been done in a lab it is therefore possible to do it anytime, any place, anywhere. Fact is, you can't. Most inventions are only proof of concept and need alot of work before they can be used by you or me. Now next time you see a cool invention, understand that it takes at least 2 to 3 years t end up on your desktop.
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...Unable to mount volume "3M", couldn't find damn beginning of roll...
These comments and opinions are mine and mine alone, although they shouldn't be.
You'd be faced with a dilema, fix the printer and lose your 3rd backup of Win95.
Have a paper clip, I need it to make a helicopter.
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Drive "3M" is not ready: Abort, retry, Unroll? Can't access drive; Unable to find beginning of roll! Don't become unglued! Invalid media, insert single-sided tape only! And the number one user complaint of the future: "I inserted double-sided tape, and it stuck! I thought I could get twice the storage..."
This