[rescue] How old skool is your IT?

[Sheldon T. Hall]

Quoth Clemson, Chris ...

> http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37238
> 
> I'm sure most people on here will be able to beat the OS/2 stuff given
> as an example!

$ORK(-1) (the CMHC part of http://www.ntst.com/) still has customers using
dumb terminals.  I think they (the terminals) are attached to HP 9000
machines, but it might be TI 990 or 9000 or something like that.  I never
had any truck with those folks, since I worked on the GUI/WIMP products, but
I know they were there.  The base software has been around for 28 years.

I did a project for NBC News about 10 years ago, and part of the project
spec was that the software had to run on '286s.  They were going to run this
thing (a satellite-based corporate information system) on one machine at
every NBC affiliate station, and using any old junk PC (of which they had
hundreds) would save them from having to buy, ship, and install 250 new
machines.  At the time, they projected a 10-year minimum lifecycle for the
software, so it's possible that some of those '286s are still out there,
plugging away.  Of course, it's equally possible that they have canned the
whole thing and gone to something internet-based, too....

I'd mention the old stuff here, except (a) by Rescue standards, it's neither
all that old nor all that interesting, and (b) it would be a stretch to say
it was "used in business".

-Shel