Oldest computer still in current use

From: Roger Merchberger <zmerch_at_30below.com>
Date: Sun May 11 00:38:00 2003

At 01:00 05/11/2003 -0400, you wrote:
> >I dont understand your logic.
>
>Logic plays no role...

[snip]

>If it is running ONLY because no one knows its running AND no one knows
>it exists... then its a mute point. If a tree falls in the woods...
                          ^^^^^^^^^^ & ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Was the pun intended? The term is "moot point" -- to be "mute" is to be
unable to speak/make sounds, which does tie into the original quote, which
IIRC is "If a tree falls in the woods, and no-one is around to hear it,
does it make a _sound_. Sound is merely a disturbance in a medium (in this
instance, air) within an audible range. The fact that the tree disturbed
the medium is all that matters, so the answer is "yes..."

... Which is why I had a notebook in college which had a much more
thought-provoking quote: "If a tree falls in the woods, and no-one is
around to hear it, does anybody give a shit?" ;-)

>Although, I would still, for my original question, consider it not valid.
>Because it isn't in normal use....

Define "Normal" -- If you can't define "normal" to us, and can accept or
dismiss anything any way you like, then we cannot give you a logical answer
to your original question and the entire discussion up to this point is
moot. ("Mute? Unless you're using text-to-speech software, I doubt you're
hearing this... ;-)

>But for my first question, 'm looking for the type of answer along the
>lines of "Company XXX still uses YYY for their ZZZ process".

So, does that leave the gubbermint out? A different poster had postulated
(and I'm paraphrasing - I don't have the original...) " The gubbermint has
so much money that they replace everything every few years. " Bzzt! Anyone
who has actually done time in the military (read: gubbermint) knows that
there's *still* Civil-war surplus floating around...

... Okay, so I'm exaggerating a little - but the government still uses a
*lot* of commo gear designed/built from the late 50's -> the '70s, and
they're still using crypto gear that I was trained on in the late 80s...
and if I could pass messages over 40Mhz FM with the little [unnamed
computer -- If I told you, I'd have to kill you... ;-) ] beastie, I could
prolly get it connected to the Internet *somehow*... ;-) Granted, you
couldn't *read* the messages; they're encrypted, after all...

And when I worked at EDS back in '89, and we had *lots* of big-iron capable
of 100+MIPS (insane, back then... My shiny new '386SX was rated for 2.8 or
so) - the gubbermint contracted sites were still working with 2-3 MIPS
machines for daily business... and prolly still are.

My SWAG's would be that your best bets are: a) the gubbermint, and b) older
CNC/punch/cutting machines -- I still get a few calls to work on
computerized CNCs & Punches which were built back in the late '70s, and I'm
in a small town... there's prolly still quite a few of 'em around being
useful...

Laterz,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
Received on Sun May 11 2003 - 00:38:00 BST