On Fri, 22 Oct 1999, jean huot wrote:

> What should be a full proof method, place the tapes in a bath of oil.  Even
> with the a lot of cleaning care, I doubt you can clean the
> tape sufficient to ever recover the information.
>
> Jean Huot
> Northern Credit Bureaus Inc.


Which would be fine, so long as they wanted to store the tapes forever...

I think the point is that Grace wants to get the tapes *out* of their
warehouse, and adding one dangerous contaminant (oil) to another (the
tape) should serve to make it even harder to dispose of.

Speaking from the perspective of a classic computer hobbyist, I can tell
you that media is prohibitively expensive sometimes for someone who runs
old minicomputers in their garage for the fun of it. I'm sure there's
someone who would love to have some of the tapes, but finding someone to
pick them up would be the hard part.

Perhaps an advertisement for "free tapes" in various collector/enthusiast
circles, with the stipulation that any media removed be degaussed by the
recipient on the premises, would help get rid of some of them. From my
personal experience, many of the people who are into this kind of stuff
are also into audio/radio/etc and have access to equipment like that. If
you were in the LA area, I could drag a 70lb degausser over and help you
make short work of any data you didn't want...I'm sure there's *someone*
near Akron who could do the same!

Cheers,

Aaron