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

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.

2 of 289 comments (clear)

  1. Points at IBM 402 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Hideki!

  2. Re:Debugging that... by Joce640k · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    The 4 hour group was (sorry to say this, but it's a fact) Black girls. Big loopy wires over the boards, and every time they tried to fix one connection, they broke another. Painful to watch.

    Did they bend the jumper wires into little heart shapes?

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