[rescue] "I prefer a GUI"

[Mike Meredith]

On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 09:20:14 -0400, Jeffrey Nonken wrote:
> OK, sorry. DDS panned, followed by ideas how to cheaply buy a DLT
> setup, followed by this remark seemed like a rather scornful criticism
> of my choices.

I wasn't criticising your choice of DDS ... just explaining why some
people (including me) tend to react badly when it's mentioned.

> As a matter of fact, I spent $315 on the drive (eBay), plus more on
> the backup software -- I forget how much and I'd have to find the

Hell, I've still got an old Sony DDS1 drive around here somewhere that I
spent something like $1800 on a number of years ago. I've replaced it
with a DLT drive from work that I know has only ever been lightly used.

> I have to wonder: How much of DDS's piss-poor reputation has been
> because of this duty cycle that none of the manufacturers seem to want
> to admit to? At least, not for any of the drives I've worked with

Almost all of it? And to be honest it's deserved. Before work used DDS
drives, they (not me ... I'm not quite this old) were using 9 track
tapes which would have be in use for up to 24 hours at a time. Selling
"tape drives" that can only be used for 2-5 hours at a time in a market
that is used to tape drives that can be driven hard is not only foolish,
but could be argued to be "not of merchantable quality" whether or not
the small print was present.