On 7/8/08, Alan B. Pearce wrote: > Unfortunately I just cannot get my mind around storing a 10MB picture from a > digital camera on punched tape .... The storage and retrieval times would be > something to behold, even with a high speed reader ... to say nothing of the > tape volume ... If you store it with the right format and encoding then you don't even need a computer - just take the tape, cut it into even lengths (depending on the width of the image) tape them up on a dark wall (light tape with darkened holes) and you'll be able to view the image. With a good encoding scheme you may be able to do this and still store the high resolution, color version in the data punched. Assuming you made a paper tape that stores a byte in 1.125" x 0.125" area of 0.0032" thick paper tape, your 10MB file would be 19.7 miles (31KM) long, and would take a volume of 2.6 cubic feet (0.07 M^3). Which doesn't seem like a lot until you realize you have thousands of these pictures. A good 8x10 blowup on archival quality media (film or ink and paper) would likely be adequate, and cheaper/faster/easier to use. -Adam -- EARTH DAY 2008 Tuesday April 22 Save Money * Save Oil * Save Lives * Save the Planet http://www.driveslowly.org -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist