Tape straightens its tie, speeds away from villain's lair: I think I'll die another day

Declines in the sales of tape media are decreasing and the death of tape has now been postponed - indefinitely. The Santa Clara Consulting Group tracks the tape market on a quarterly basis and its latest release describes what happened in the third 2013 quarter. Total backup tape cartridge sales were $141.73m with LTO format …

[Tannin]

Wow! Tape is not dead! Errr ... don't tell me, let me guess .... this must be The Register and it's Tuesday? Now how did old Winnie put it? Never in the history of one trade rag has so much been written by so many on one topic to be read by so few with such regularity .... Hmmm maybe not - after all, I read it, just as I read nearly all the other ones, so maybe you did too.

"What did you do on your days off, Granddad?"

"Read articles saying tape isn't dead yet, little apple of my eye."

"Oh. .... And what's a tape, Grandad?"

"I can't remember exactly now, dear one. Some dead computer bizo thingie, probably. there were lots of them."

"You mean like a rhino or a Minke Whale, Grandad?"

"Not really. Deader than that. Well, maybe close enough."

[BongoJoe]

Statistics, Damn Statistics and That Graph

There is a clear downward trend on that graph and there's only one way to interpret that; that the sales are diminishing.

Secondly that chart is drawn on a linear vertical scale; draw it as it should be, on a logarithmic scale, and the decline, in percentage terms, is more pronounced.

What's the encore; spin on the US National Debt. I can't wait for this one?

[Ragarath]

Re: Statistics, Damn Statistics and That Graph

Why would you want to scale the chart logarithmically for such a simple chart?

Even if you did log it, the last 2 data points on the LTO plot are the same value. Surely a logarithmic scale would level out too?

I don't have the exact values to enter into a chart though so they could be wildly different I suppose which of course a logarithmic plot would reveal either an up or down trend.

Darn now I agree, give us a logarithmic chart.

[BongoJoe]

Re: Statistics, Damn Statistics and That Graph

The log chart would show the proportional drop from 2011 for what it really is.

One can change all sorts with a chart by not starting from zero, by using linear or logaritmic and so on. As a rule if I am doing stuff like this and there's no negative values then a logarithmic chart is usually what I reach for.

[Jim 59]

Tape

It's the 1940s tech we love to love.

[SYNTAX__ERROR]

And what do we say to the god of death?

"Not today."

[Sir Sham Cad]

LTO 1 & 2

I can only assume that's being used by masochists who won't upgrade the ancient libraries because they love carrying a suitcase full of tapes when it's swap time.

Like, erm, a friend, yeah, that's it, I have a ... friend whose workplace still does that! *cough*

[Stevie]

Bah!

In related news: Mainframes still plugged in despite press reports circa 1990 and Cobol alive and well and running vast amounts of financial operations despite grumpy 1986-era CS graduate wishes.

Next up: wither three tier client server (the technology of tomorrow)?