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from the what's-old-is-still-old-but-they-are-making-more dept.
Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
National Audio Co. is the only company in the U.S. that produces cassette tape. Now, as cassette tapes enjoy a resurgence in popularity, National Audio has less than a year's supply left of the stuff, The Wall Street Journal reports.
For the last 15 years, National Audio's co-owner and president Steve Stepp has been clinging to his company's dwindling supply of music-quality magnetic tape. In 2014, National Audio's South Korean supplier stopped making the material, so Stepp bought out their remaining stock before they shuttered — and has been left with a shrinking stockpile ever since.
Although the demand for tape has increased in recent years, the quality and supply has not; National Audio has long relied on outdated gear that Stepp jokes is "the finest equipment the 1960s has to offer." That's why the company — which makes cassettes for everyone from indie bands to Metallica — is planning to build the U.S.'s first high-grade tape manufacturing line in decades.
Crap! Where am I going to store my TRS-80 programs now?
Source: https://theweek.com/speedreads/735269/america-running-cassette-tape
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Monday November 13 2017, @10:34PM (2 children)
My experience:
A 1966 family station wagon. (Chevy) Gives good service for years, with good maintenance. Croaks at 13 years at almost exactly 100,000 miles. It suddenly all goes bad at once. Multiple problems.
A 1977 family station wagon. (Chevy) Gives good service for a few years. Croaks at about 5 years. But this seemed to be par for all Detroit vehicles from the late 1970's. Almost as if designed to fall apart.
A 1990 Honda Accord. Goes 25 years. Rust starts to be the biggest problem. A/C broke -- to expensive because fix would require major upgrade. Still has lots of power and runs great. Practically wants to leap off the road when you mash the pedal. Gave it to a friend. It was just so old, needed suspension work, and I was at the point of not wanting to invest much more in it.
A 1997 Honda Accord. Still drive every day. Over 240,000 miles. Runs great. Put all new tires a few years ago. Earlier this year about $400 of exhaust work.
A 1998 Saturn. POS. (And I don't mean point of sale.) Still runs. But what a junk. Gave to daughter after getting new tires and a bit of work.
On that 1977 station wagon, there were various minor defects from the factory, little things, that you would never see in a Honda or Toyota -- in my experience.
Maybe American cars were made better in the 1960's compared to anything else in the world -- at that time. But geez, they really screwed themselves in the late 1970's when everything on the road was redesigned for tighter emissions standards. At that point the only vehicles worse than Detroit vehicles was, I suppose, the Moscovite.
No wonder GM went bankrupt.
As for cassette tape. In high school (late 1970's) we had a Wang 2200 BASIC computer. It needed these very special, very expensive cassette tapes. It had a 9-track head, and recorded data / programs across the full width of the tape in one direction only. No flipping the cassette. I discovered that I could get the Radio Shack 15 minute cassettes -- and they apparently had just think enough tapes, that they worked. Pretty well. The math / computer / science / physics / chemistry teacher loved my discovery. The school could afford to supply everyone with one tape. Sorry I can't remember how RS branded these cassettes at the time. But it was a letter followed by the number of minutes. Like a C-15. C-30. C-45. C-60. C-90, and C-120. Those C-120's were very prone to jam due to thin tape. The C-90's worked okay in high-speed cassette duplicating machinery in 1970's small church. And that cassette duplicator had the fastest rewind I had ever seen. Electronically controlled. It slowed down deliberately as it reached the end of the rewind. I'm sure that kind of thing was much more common in the 1980's. But impressive in the 1970's. Especially to a teenager.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 14 2017, @10:08AM (1 child)
I see, you don't like your daughter. ;-)
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday November 14 2017, @02:07PM
Everyone gets a junk car as the first car they are expected to wreck.
Most importantly, it runs.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.