Re: cauzin softstrip

[Tony Cianfaglione <ab616@chebucto.ns.ca>]

I started using it on my IIc so I also have the 5 pin din that plugged
into the modem port.  I picked up the other versions (with hardware and
cables) from an old Mac dealer when the stuff was being delisted and in a
sale bin.  Surprisingly the Mac dealer also carried the PC version.

It's not 1's and 0' but more of a scrambled mess of design patterns.  The
reader ran at one speed; once you selected read and pressed return, the
reader would start.  If you didn't have the alignment markers aligned
properly, you would get a read error and the reader would stop.  This
forced you to go back to the menu and start over (time-consuming).  The
reader would then reset itself after you selected read and pressed return
and start again.  It was a slow reader too.

You could photocopy the strips, write on them, supposedly spill coffee on
them (I didn't try this one) and they would still work.  I have the
stripper software to create the 1k strips.  The Laser Archivist (for the
PC) has a option to create 5k strips but you need the output professionaly
printed as the scrambled patterns are so finely detailed, your home
printer wasn't able to it.

This was, of course, in the days of dot matrix printers and you may
actually be able to print the 5k higher density strips yourself nowadays
using a high quality ink jet or laser printer.  Creating strips is even
slower than reading them.  I don't think there would be much call for this
stuff these days as files are large and internet uploading/downloading
is a piece of cake.  The strips were a great way of getting software to
the masses via magazines but without having to type them in.

Nibble was planning to support the device but realized that it would bite
into their disk sales so the plan was dropped.  You may be able to still
get the software from SoftStrip of Waterbury, Conn.  I purchased The Laser
Archivist several years ago and the rep, Suzanne Szerszon, told me the DOS
3.3 II version was still available as well.

Do you have a reader?

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On 19 Feb 2003, Jon Co wrote:

> I was going through my pile of old II magazines and saw a review of
> it.  The guy had the IIe II+ version which did not eat up a slot, but
> connected to the CASSETTE PORT.  Software would interpret data, and
> presumably send instructions to move its "read head".  I'm just
> guessing because it used both the cassette in and out.  The IIc
> version (if there was one) would be different, probably used one of
> the modem ports.  This must be just a bunch of 1 and 0..  If we had
> both the copy of the file a particular set of strips generated then
> finding the process shouldnt be that hard..  also a copy of the
> "stripper" software (for making your own strips) might help.  I'm
> doing this not for any real use, but for curiosity's sake.  Who knows
> we might have it incorporated in an emulator, and have the strips
> inputted in gif or tif (some non-lossy) format.