I started with punch cards and thought that was pretty bad. Then we went to perforated tape. I’m glad that technology died quickly.
We used perforated tape for our Radioteletype machine.
It used to go bad quickly inside a metal box in Germany. Humidity let the tape stretch.
It was fun to hold a fluorescent light by the antenna and watch it glow from the induced currents.
we ran all yellow pages for pennsylvania and a coule of other states with mag tapes. had to wait a long time for tape mounts until i started dating a guy who mounted them. instant presto!! i think he left them permanently up. :)