[PCWorld]

Post your comments for If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It: Ancient Computers in Use Today here

[PercivalMerriwether]

I've said to people that visiting Texas is like revisiting the 1950s. Apparently I was wrong; it's like revisiting the 1940s.

[ddaley]

Scary... truly scary.

[JamesVanHoute1234]

You should see how poorly small businesses are operated down here. Zero professionalism, zero standards, zero customer service. Just a bunch of weather worn plywood shacks or ramshackle cement buildings whose dress codes are non-existant.

[waldojim]

I never have understood the need for faster machines when all you use is excel (or similar). Machines get faster, yet the applications never do.

[LiveBrianD]

OK, maybe some of those are a bit too old now... (isn't it just easier to use a new machine?)

[VanceVEP72]

Memories! My first computer was a 16K Tandy (Radio Shack) Color Computer 2 (CoCo2). I even went to a local Radio Shack in 1981 and attended a BASIC (as in the programming language... not military) training camp. All data was stored on cassette tape. I even received a monthly magazine subscription called "Rainbow Magazine" which was a specialty magazine for the Color Computer. Having a CoCo back then was kind of the equivalent of being in special ed. All the "cool kids" had Commodore Vic 20s or Commodore 64s.

In 1986, I upgraded to the 128K CoCo3 and monitor. Wow... having a computer monitor back then was so cool... no longer having to hookup my computer to a tv set!! I also graduated from a cassette drive to a floppy drive.

[rgreen4]

At least they don't have to worry about their data being hacked. They don't have to worry about retraining, and if they know how it works and how to do it, what's the hassle.

Besides, a good number of small businesses around the entire country still keep records by pen on paper. If they didn't the forms wouldn't still be in the office supply catalogs.

[HulkSmashForever]

PercivalMerriwether, on 19 February 2012 - 08:14 PM, said:

I've said to people that visiting Texas is like revisiting the 1950s. Apparently I was wrong; it's like revisiting the 1940s.

Where did you visit? One place? Two? Did you go to Dallas, Fort Worth, or Austin? Houston? You've made a judgment as simple-minded as those you have chosen to belittle and make fun of.

[BaliRob1]

There - and my friends laugh at me for keeping my five year-old Nokia and I will keep it for another five years god willing

[shanedr]

Wow, that is ridiculous. Those people could upgrade to a modern computer and save both electricity and manpower that would more than pay for the cost of the upgrade.

Some people just don't understand when something is broken.

[Internet2k4]

Comforting to know some of our major military systems are immune to hackers, and nobody can walk out of the base with the whole thing in his briefcase.

[j1shalack]

Just last month, I worked on a telephone switchboard system running on a Commodore 64. It has been running continuously since they bought it new. My repair was not to the system, a wire had been accidentally disconnected.

[MarcMosherjhey]

There's actually a BBS shown on one of the screens in this article! Talk about outdated.

[kennyrbaker]

VanceVEP72, on 19 February 2012 - 10:37 PM, said:

Memories! My first computer was a 16K Tandy (Radio Shack) Color Computer 2 (CoCo2). I even went to a local Radio Shack in 1981 and attended a BASIC (as in the programming language... not military) training camp. All data was stored on cassette tape. I even received a monthly magazine subscription called "Rainbow Magazine" which was a specialty magazine for the Color Computer. Having a CoCo back then was kind of the equivalent of being in special ed. All the "cool kids" had Commodore Vic 20s or Commodore 64s.

In 1986, I upgraded to the 128K CoCo3 and monitor. Wow... having a computer monitor back then was so cool... no longer having to hookup my computer to a tv set!! I also graduated from a cassette drive to a floppy drive.

Color! You were lucky. I remember learning BASIC and Fortran on a black and white TRS-80 in high school.
I thought I could control the world!

[TimRussell]

MarcMosherjhey, on 20 February 2012 - 05:59 AM, said:

There's actually a BBS shown on one of the screens in this article! Talk about outdated.

Still got one going here. Won't run on anything above Windows 2000. Should be replaced soon but for now it and it's 16 analog phone lines are still needed.

[AndrewWiggin]

Back in the late '60s, as a novice IBMer I was a programmer for accounting machines such as the 402. I've been a programmer ever since, and that was still some of the most fun programs I've ever written.
I've often felt that certain applications are still better handled using cards through batch applications (though the example in this article ISN'T one of them).
I controlled 3 plants of over 1,000 people using a punch card application on an early computer (System/3 M10). Did Material Requirements Planning, Expediting, and a bunch of other stuff - and the computer was finished with its work by 10AM.

[rgreen4]

It's hard to convince the owner that they can save manpower by upgrading to a newer system when he is the one using the system and would have to spend money out of his pocket for the equipment and get the training. Especially in this economy.

[AndrewWiggin]

In 1969, fresh out of IBM basic computer school, I was accompanied to a company by my manager and was introduced as the guy who was going to program an A/P check for them. As my manager chatted with the DP Manager, I wandered around the computer room looking for a number on a machine. I finally found it: it was a 402 - the machine I was to program on - but couldn't remember what it looked like.

[dlauber]

I would be simply nuts if I still used my 1981 Altos CP/M computer and NEC Spinwriter printer -- and so are these folk. Just crazy. Aside from all the electricity they waste, they don't have a clue how much easier and faster everything they do can be done on a current computer and with current software. What they're doing is nothing to celebrate.