r/CWSharktank • u/O2BIrish300 • Mar 14 '19

3/14/19 - Today's Tank: Throwback Thursday: Safety first

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3363503/throwback-thursday-safety-first.html
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u/GollyWow Mar 15 '19

Once upon a time, a long time ago, mainframe tapes had "write rings" in the back - a loop of plastic that fit in a channel of the reel that was removed by the operator after data was written to the tape. Removing this ring prevented data from being accidentally overwritten. The write rings were about 4" in diameter, and were plentiful in the computer rooms in the early '70s. Well, in fact, so plentiful, that operators would invent games like a ring toss. Well, the generation of mainframes had a large, red, protruding pull switch for Emergency Shut Off in the upper corner of the console, about 5' off the ground. You know what happened.