Date   : Wed, 20 Jul 2005 07:36:08 +0100 (BST)
From   : Pete Turnbull <pete@...>
Subject: Re: floppy discs

On Jul 20 2005,  1:23, Jonathan Graham Harston wrote:
> > Message-ID: <10507161213.ZM22488@...>
>
> Pete Turnbull <pete@...> wrote:
> > > http://www.worldofspectrum.org/TZXformat.html
> > >
> > > I don't know if there is a similar format for Beeb tapes?
> >
> > Not that I know of.  But aren't those just used by emulators?  You
> > can't use them directly with a real Spectrum.  MP3s and the like
are
>
> Yes you can!  My Spectrum Serial Server runs on a BBC and acts as
> a fileserver to a Spectrum. You can load/save .TAP files without
> the Spectrum knowing the difference. Several people have produces
> floppy and hard drive add-ons for the Spectrum that let you load
> and save .TAP files directly. A lot of them also allow the
> standard Spectrum snapshots to be loaded as well.

But you're not using it directly, you're using some software to to
encode raw data into audio again, and you need a computer to do it.

An MP3 is digitised audio, and you can carry an MP3 player around in
your pocket.  We could argue about the difference between raw binary
data being encoded to audio and a digitised audio stream that's decoded
from storage, but to me there's a difference in kind, and portability.


-- 
Pete                                           Peter Turnbull
                                               Network Manager
                                               University of York