Show and Tell 1304

Spaces embedded in an e-mail address? That's an interesting anti-spam tool. At least I hope that's what it is...

We would have just called it a splicing tool.

Nope, sorry. I never had any fancy gadgets like that; I always just butted the torn ends of the tape together, created a few inches of tape with all holes punched, applied a coating of white glue, and used it to stick the tape together. We had a few strips of pre-glued splicing tape - sort of like inch-wide cellophane tape with the holes pre-punched - but the adhesive was attacked by the oil in the tape and the whole thing would turn into a gummy mess that jammed under the read head. I threatened violence to anyone who used those things.

I've heard it called a tape dressing tool. I finally found myself in a shop that had one; until then I used the tool which I still have on my keychain: a nail clipper. I could get a nice clean rounded edge, and if the end had to be crimped so that it would feed properly in an autoloading drive, I would just crumple it a bit. Worked like a charm.

Can't help with the rest, sorry. But it's nice to see that I'm not the only one who salivates at the sight of Nixie tubes.

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