Re: Favorite Tom Lane quotes

Scott Marlowe wrote:

>> What is a tape?
>
> Apparently something to do with backups.  But I don't know what those
> are either... :-P
>

 From The Top Of My Head Dictionary -

Backup Tapes
noun
Thin flimsy strip of plastic with a fine coating of iron oxide or
similar compound which is then wound up around a small plastic wheel,
stretched over a little head and onto another small plastic wheel.
Normally used as a means of translating digital computer talk into an
ear piercing noise that humans can then listen to to ensure that the
computers aren't plotting to overthrow the earth.

Legend has it that computers can use these tapes to reconstruct some
piece of information as it was at some historic moment. While it has
often been attempted to prove that this process is possible, the mixed
reports about it's success leave most in doubt as to whether it can
really be done and believing it is all just mythology.

Of course the true believers will argue endlessly about the wonders of
what can be done and how important it is, but they tend to have a low
conversion rate among the listeners.


;-)



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Shane Ambler
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