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Another fun fact: The USAF data center I worked at in 1987 was still using punched cards and paper tape.

I used punched cards in a university entrance exam in 1991. We would poke holes to mark the answers. They were identical to the IBM cards in shape and size but there were perforation lines to help you punch out the answers with a pencil. It was precarious and you could easily damage it.

Somebody told me the tabulating machine sometimes munched up a card.

For manual entry, there were cards you'd mark with special pencil that would leave magnetically recognizable marks.

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