Collaborate Disseminate
Some brand names become the de facto name for the generic product. Xerox, for example. Or Velcro. Teletype was a trademark, but it has come to mean just about any …read more Continue reading A Teletype by Any Other Name: The Early E-mail and Wordprocessor
Building a paper tape reader by itself isn’t super complicated: you need a source of light, some photoreceptors behind the tape to register the presence of holes and some way …read more Continue reading Building a Motor Feed For the UE1 Vacuum Tube Computer’s Paper Tape Reader
After previously working out a suitable approach to create a period-correct paper tape reader for his tube-based, MC14500B processor-inspired computer, [David Lovett] over at the Usagi Electric farm is back …read more Continue reading Usagi Electric’s Paper Tape Reader is Ready to Hop With the Tube Computer
Over at the [Usagi Electric] farm, [David Lovett]’s custom 1-bit, vacuum tube-based computer (UEVTC for short) has been coming along well the past years, matching and exceeding the Motorola MC14500B …read more Continue reading Building a Paper Tape Reader To Read Bytes
We may be a bit biased, but the storage media of yesteryear has so much more personality than that of today. Yes, it’s a blessing to have terabyte SD cards …read more Continue reading Homebrew Reader Brings Paper Tape Programs Back to Life
If you are a ham radio operator of a certain age, you probably remember ads for “The Instructograph,” a mechanical device for learning Morse code. [Our Own Devices] has an …read more Continue reading Machine Teaches Morse Code
Computing used to run on punch cards. Great stacks of cards would run middling programs, with data output onto more punched cards in turn. [Nii] has built a machine in …read more Continue reading Paper Punching Machine Looks Like Cute Piece of Computer History Past
These days, data is as likely as not to be “in the cloud.” Otherwise, it’s probably on a USB flash drive or SD card. But in the old days, paper …read more Continue reading Let’s Listen to a Tape — Paper Tape
[Scott M. Baker] wants a paper tape punch for his retrocomputer collection. That’s fine with us, we don’t judge. In fact, these electromechanical peripherals from the past have a lot …read more Continue reading Reverse-Engineering Helps Typesetting Machine Punch Paper Tape Again
Input devices consisting of optical readers for punched paper tape have been around since the earliest days of computing, so why stop now? [Jürgen]’s Paper Tape Reader project connects to …read more Continue reading Paper Tape Reader Self-calibrates, Speaks USB