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(Editorial comment about the futility of memory cards deserved some counter-argument; certainly is easier to hand someone a disk or CF card than tell them where to look for the information on a network)
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'''Tapes''' or '''cards''' were a type of [[23rd century]] [[computer]] memory storage medium, resembling [[20th century]] floppy discs but with far greater capacity. ([[TOS]]: "[[The Cage]]", "[[The Menagerie, Part I]]", "[[The Menagerie, Part II]]", "[[Tomorrow is Yesterday]]", "[[And the Children Shall Lead]]", "[[The Lights of Zetar]]", "[[Obsession]]"; [[TAS]]: "[[The Survivor]]")
 
'''Tapes''' or '''cards''' were a type of [[23rd century]] [[computer]] memory storage medium, resembling [[20th century]] floppy discs but with far greater capacity. ([[TOS]]: "[[The Cage]]", "[[The Menagerie, Part I]]", "[[The Menagerie, Part II]]", "[[Tomorrow is Yesterday]]", "[[And the Children Shall Lead]]", "[[The Lights of Zetar]]", "[[Obsession]]"; [[TAS]]: "[[The Survivor]]")
   
:''Considering the memory storage capabilities of 23rd century computers, it is unclear why such a medium would be necessary, unless it became a security measure to safeguard information from being downloaded by alien scans.''
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:''Considering the memory storage capabilities of 23rd century computers, it is unclear why such a medium would be necessary, unless it became a security measure to safeguard information from being downloaded by alien scans. Of course, it's often easier to move a physical object from one device to another than to use a finding aide such as a browser to locate the same item again, so perhaps this was merely a convenience rather than a permanent storage facility.''

Revision as of 20:17, 26 May 2006

File:FoodCards.jpg

Chapel with an array of food cards.

Tapes or cards were a type of 23rd century computer memory storage medium, resembling 20th century floppy discs but with far greater capacity. (TOS: "The Cage", "The Menagerie, Part I", "The Menagerie, Part II", "Tomorrow is Yesterday", "And the Children Shall Lead", "The Lights of Zetar", "Obsession"; TAS: "The Survivor")

Considering the memory storage capabilities of 23rd century computers, it is unclear why such a medium would be necessary, unless it became a security measure to safeguard information from being downloaded by alien scans. Of course, it's often easier to move a physical object from one device to another than to use a finding aide such as a browser to locate the same item again, so perhaps this was merely a convenience rather than a permanent storage facility.