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Texas Company's Antique Computers Are For Production, Not Display

Posted by timothy on from the commute-by-horseback-numb-with-ether dept.

concealment writes "Sparkler Filters up north in Conroe [Texas] still uses an IBM 402 in conjunction with a Model 129 key punch – with the punch cards and all – to do company accounting work and inventory. The company makes industrial filters for chemical plants and grease traps. Lutricia Wood is the head accountant at Sparkler and the data processing manager. She went to business school over 40 years ago in Houston, and started at Sparkler in 1973. Back then punch cards were still somewhat state of the art." See kottke.org for an eye-popping view of one of the "programs" — imagine debugging that.

3 of 289 comments (clear)

  1. Debugging that... by icebike · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "THAT", (a wired board), is vastly easier to debug than any modern software. In fact a trainee can usually debug it by trial an error in just a few minutes.
    Now get off my digital lawn whipersnapper!

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    Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
  2. The manager's moto by Dancindan84 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "If it ain't broke, don't replace it. Even if replacing it would lead to a 3 fold increase in employee productivity."

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    "Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
  3. Re:If it ain't broke... by 0racle · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The problem with that can end up being "when it is broke, how are you going to fix it?"

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    "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."