[geeks] Software Bloat

[Kurt Huhn]

> > <waves walking stick> I too have done paper tape.  1993, on a milling
> > machine.  AFAIK, that machine is still in use.
> >
>    And I've seen the giant machines that do the fancy embroidery work on
> hats, golf shirts, etc., and they use a paper tape.

And that's the "late" model stuff.  Late 1800s, early 1900s saw embroidery
and weaving machines that made rugs, blankets, and other heavy material.
They used *wooden* punchcards - slats of wood, usually of a hardwood (pine
was too fragile) about 1/8" to 1/4" thick.  You don't really see them in use
anymore, as they were replaced by the machines above in the 1940's - during
the second industrial revolution (war is great for technological progress).

Individual punchcards were tied together with heavy string, or sometimes
wire to make a big pattern that the machine read in order to weave the
pattern into the fabric.

There's one on display in a mill museum in Prov, RI - or at least there was
when I was in college and studying architectural conservation.

Kurt