On Fri, 14 May 1999, John Korb wrote:

> Real Geeks could figure-eight roll at least half a spool of paper tape
> between their thumb and pinky AND read the holes in the tape.

Yeah, I used to do that.  I also used to hang recurring figure 8's on the
wall next to machine for easy access.  I preferred the old completely
punched paper tape for these figure 8's.  You could not roll as much with
the newer chadless style of hole punching, where the hole was not
completely punched out.  (We called the residue of the holes "chad" other
places may call it "chaff".)  Besides, we could save the chad for New
Year's Eve and through it out on Main street from the roof or 23rd story
window in the late afternoon.

P.S.  There used to be some good artwork created with teletype,
characters.  This was because you could do a carriage return without a
line feed and overstrike with a different character, often several times.
In the Navy, I remembered a real good printout of a nude woman...(but that
was before the Navy became politically correct.)

Tracy Johnson "Trust No One" - Semper Gumby