On 03/05/2017 12:02 AM, Mark Linimon wrote: > On Sat, Mar 04, 2017 at 01:34:25PM -0800, Chuck Guzis via cctalk > wrote: >> terrible fluorescent lighting. > > There's another kind?
The fixtures themselves were so high that they *did* make for some recreation. Bored operators would engage in late-night "ring toss" with magtape write rings to see who could land the most on top of the fixtures. I'm sure that the maintenance people detested getting the big ladder out and clearing them off the fixtures, but they weren't around at 2AM to observe the evil deeds. I don't recall many who used those yellow rings for their intended purpose. It was just too easy to forget to remove one. You mounted tapes without and reached around the back of the reel with a punch card and tripped the "finger" that detected the ring. So the things accumulated in great piles. This probably changed (I don't recall) when the 66x auto-loaders came into the picture. --Chuck
