IBM AT Free to a Good Home

From: Don Maslin <donm_at_cts.com>
Date: Fri May 21 22:39:15 2004

On Fri, 21 May 2004, Scott Stevens wrote:

> 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
>

Just goes to show that there are still a few who believe the old
adage: If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

                                                - don
Received on Fri May 21 2004 - 22:39:15 BST