Paul Gilmartin wrote:
On Wed, 11 Oct 2017 23:52:12 -0500, Edward Gould wrote:
<snip>
I have asked the auditor and he seems happy with a plastic sealed envelope that
is handled by signatures.
"signatures"? Do you mean you expect Ginni to pick up a Sharpie and
sign the plastic sleeve?
I believe John Eels at SHARE Denver predicted the demise of tape as an
interchange vehicle. In part because the media are no longer being
manufactured.
*Older* media are no longer manufactured. Current media remains
available, of course. However, cross-vendor compatible media is no
more. If you don't buy our drives, you can't read our tapes. Some
customers run tapeless, and others buy from The Competition. Tape
orders are dwindling fast. The confluence of these things is what leads
me to the conclusion that software delivery on tape is dying.
A customer asked, "Then might it be permissible to return used tapes to IBM
for re-use?"
"No."
And I stand by that answer for a number of reasons, practical,
technical, and legal.
Like I said I was always happy with a 3480/3420 tape. I suspect that if someone
is going to intercept a tape they are reasonably advanced counterfiting team.
Nobody makes either of those any more. Further, 3420 is far past
end-of-life because the oxides and binding agents deteriorate rapidly in
comparison to 3480 and later tape.
<snip>
--
John Eells
IBM Poughkeepsie
[email protected]
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