81–90 of 93 posts
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I wonder what became of that. Of course, fast forward to now and they could migrate to ZX Nexts. :-)
Yes, me too. I'm no longer in that geographic area (or area of the industry, for that matter), so I don't know. However, I am anxiously awaiting my Spectrum Next...it seems to be inching towards a delivery date.
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Why not replace? So you don't have downtime. If it breaks now, the system is well known (30+ years) and maintained. If it's updated to something new, everything may be off until they bring back the old system.That could be months of no classes, which would be much worse than spending money to replace. If they do nothing now, instead of taking a bet the new system will be more stable than the old one (a bet against th…
> is well known No... It's known by the guy who wrote it 40 years ago that happens to still live there and want to chip in to fix it > maintained Well, they said parts are difficult to find now. I would not consider something with no replacement parts well maintained > taking a bet the new system will be more stable than the old one What? It's a gamble to leave it as it is with a bus factor of 1 and rickety old compu…
So yes, it's well know by this person and his company. I'd be surprised if in 30 years he didn't document the system and teach it to his employees.
> Setting up a replacement doesn't imply this one goes away.
Agreed, it generally implies a replacement project that goes on for years before being declared a failure at taxpayer expense.
> Well, they said parts are difficult to find now. I would not consider something with no replacement parts well maintained
The parts are "difficult" to find, yes. So if you say there are "no replacement parts", you are moving the goalpost from "possible" to "impossible" to obtain, while they are available for money on ebay. A few thousands will get you many vintage computer parts!
BTW spares for the new system will also be necessary, if you plan to have it work for another 30 years. They may be more expansive.
> It's a gamble to leave it as it is with a bus factor of 1 and rickety old computer parts
We do not know how many employees he has, and whether the replacement parts are "rickety and old". If you are used to maintaining vintage system off ebay parts, you will see lots of perfects parts available for about everything.
> If this computer catches on fire, they have to pray they can find a working replacement that the original implementor can install.
They say they have 3 spares, so no prayer required. Documentation and backups are likely available.
I just don't understand how so many people are afraid of the existing and want to rewrite everything from scratch. Looks like Resume-Driver Development to me: good for the developer and manager, bad for the company and its clients.
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Ladder logic, written by peasants. (signed: control peasant that prefers ST)
Lucky you, my stakeholders would run screaming for the hills whenever they caught a whiff of written code on PLCs. All ladder, all the time.
You could retrofit a more modern computer in there. Probably even reverse engineer the radio system and replace it. This would have been done by an enthusiastic high school student with both programming, electronics, maybe some RF knowledge too. Radio amateur? I find these stories kind of sad. Clever system built by someone talented, at a low cost -- replacement with a modern system costed in the millions. Those tale…
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> I suspect this is what would be difficult to replace. A bespoke wireless sensor monitoring and communications system, integrated into an old heating/cooling system. Modern system just would not integrate into this, without a lot of work. You would have to replace everything, probably including the actual heating/cooling systems themselves. I wonder if it just integrated into a pre-existing control network: > The Co…
> If programming it was a school project for an 80s kid, might as well try to make its replacement a school project for a 20s kid. If a kid did it back then, the integration can't be that hard. You need to find a decision-maker to agree to the liability of letting some kid implement a system today. What if something goes wrong and all the children roast alive or something? Then the parents would sue. It'll never happ…
The real risk here seems to be "the HVAC stops working, the person who implemented it is indisposed/gone, and there is no entity to recover money from to get someone else to fix it"
Keep it classy, America.
>This content is not available in your country/region. Keep it classy, America.
I wonder if they're still running it eight years later and after Covid.