flap: vt. 1. [obs.] To unload a DECtape (so it goes flap, flap,
flap...). Old-time hackers at MIT tell of the days when the disk
was device 0 and DEC microtapes were 1, 2,... and attempting to flap
device 0 would instead start a motor banging inside a cabinet near
the disk. 2. By extension, to unload any magnetic tape. See also
macrotape. Modern cartridge tapes no longer actually flap, but
the usage has remained. (The term could well be re-applied to DEC's
TK50 cartridge tape drive, a spectacularly misengineered contraption
which makes a loud flapping sound, almost like an old reel-type
lawnmower, in one of its many tape-eating failure modes.)
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