On Fri, 21 May 2004 20:51:56 +0100
"Antonio Carlini" <arcarlini_at_iee.org> wrote:
> > Yes, indeed. Many of the original PC parts are getting very
> > hard to find
> > now. I guess because people considered them worthless :-(
>
> Almost all the stuff I've been given has been given to me by
> people or organisations who consider it to be worthless or
> almost worthless. The only exceptions seem to be the stuff
> for which I pay a nominal sum or the stuff given to me by
> other collectors.
>
> Quite how last year's Tek 2465 can be considered worthless
> (or this week's S4 Eprom programmer, admittedly sans PSU)
> I don't know, but somehow I managed to stay quiet. I may
> even stay quiet when I ask about the PowerPC emulation
> system (although I guess that will be off-topic for a
> good while yet :-)).
>
> Long live people with no sense of value :-)
>
I just started contract work at a big company that produces automotive
and appliance controls. I've been surprised by the ancient machines
they're actively using in the test labs to control machines and acquire
test data. There are IBM XT's all over the place. The newest boxes in
the lab are old 386 and 486 mini-towers with tiny hard drives, running
MS-DOS. They drive stepper motors, acquire data, etc., using GW Basic
programs. In talking to the old timers I've discovered they made a slow
reluctulant transition to the PCs from Commodore 64's. I am not talking
about some small-time company, either, they make controls that go into
GM cars and Maytag appliances. I've noticed one Commodore 64 still
deployed in the lab, it's an SX-64 portable.
So there are companies, even divisions of Fortune 500 companies, that
still value ancient old PC hardware, and use it every day.
Scott
Received on Fri May 21 2004 - 19:02:29 BST