What's the Oldest Technology You've Used In a Production Environment?

itwbennett writes: Sometimes it's a matter of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it,' sometimes corporate inertia is to blame, but perhaps even more often what keeps old technology plugging away in businesses large and small is the sense that it does a single, specific job the way that someone wants it done. George R.R. Martin's preference for using a DOS computer running WordStar 4 to write his Song of Ice and Fire series is one such example, but so is the hospital computer whose sole job was to search and print medical images, however badly or slowly it may have done the job. We all have such stories of obsolete tech we've had to use at one point or another. What's yours?

Comments

Uhmmmm

[Daimanta]

Pen and paper?

Re:Uhmmmm

[rudy_wayne]

Sometimes it's a matter of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it,' ,

If it ain't broke, break it.

Re:Uhmmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

My last two jobs were both still using 3270 terminal emulators to connect to CICS systems. I understand that's still fairly common in both government and industry.

Re:Uhmmmm

[Bing Tsher E]

They seem to only be talking about IT stuff, which is a shame, because Slashdot is much bigger than that. For awhile we were using a General Radio Megaohm Bridge that uses vacuum tubes, but I'm certain I've also run tests using a Variac from the 1950's.

As far as old IT stuff (*sigh*) up until a few years ago we were using some old Commodore SX64s to do some of the testing. Until about a year ago there were a bunch of PC-XTs at test stations out in the lab but those are gone now. The main life tests still run on 386 and 486 boxes because the Test Engineer can't be moved off of using his GWBASIC programs to run the stepper motor controllers and log results. I was setting up a test one one of those rigs today.

I took the SX64s home when they were being scrapped out, so I have four or five of those waiting to be tested, refurbished, then probably sold or traded to other collectors.

Re:Uhmmmm

[dcollins117]

Reminds me of the time I was working with an older engineer and we needed to know the current coming out of a variac. I went to fetch my digital ammeter and when I came back found he had looped a piece of wire around the output leads and connected it to an analog meter. When I said let's use my meter it will be more accurate he said "I know how this works" (pointing to his setup) ".. and I don't know how that works" (pointing to my digital meter). I have to admit, he won that round.

Re:Uhmmmm

[DerekLyons]

I've heard of a handful of machines still surviving from the early 1950s to WW2 days, but they're few and far between, and most of those are probably gone by now.

That would be my oldest machine - the MK113 Torpedo FCS, basically a Really Fancy version of the WWII era TDC. The first entered service with USS Thresher in 1960, and the last left service when USS Kamehameha was decommissioned in 2003. Quite a run for a machine whose core functionality came from an analog computer directly descended from a 1930's design.

Re:Uhmmmm

[colinnwn]

Many airlines, including some very large ones, use a CICS application called Maxi-Merlin to manage aircraft maintenance planning, compliance recording, material requirements, order management, and warehouse operations. At least one airline in particular is still actively developing new features with a large development team each with their own expertise of a particular module of the system. Maxi-Merlin is still used not because no one understands it and how to replace it, but because it is extremely expensive and complex to migrate a fleet of aircraft off of one maintenance ERP system onto another, while the business builds familiarity with it and gets FAA/EASA signoff, even with one of the many modern COTS systems.

Oldest?

[SoCalChris]

One of the servers was on wheels. Wheels

Re:Oldest?

[Tablizer]

One of the servers was on wheels. Wheels

You lucky devil; we had to push our stone servers ourselves across the ground.

Legacy system based on Fox DB

[Coldeagle]

I'm working on a project to replace a legacy system that runs on Fox DB and is completely DOS based. It's so old that it can't actually be run on desktop systems without a VM because it's 8bit and all of our current systems are 64Bit.

Re:Legacy system based on Fox DB

[geoskd]

I think you mean 16-bit. DOS was never 8-bit.

MS-DOS was never 8-bit...

Serial RS-232 port

[renergy]

I use RS-232 (essentialy a 50 years old technology) regularly to read data from lock-ins, picoammeters, and various other instruments. It works well enough, I don't need extra fast reading (the measurement itself is the slowest part). It's not always a smooth ride, but overall it's pretty reliable and straightforward.

Maybe the question should be...

[sudden.zero]

...what is the oldest computer technology that you have used in a production environment?

Not obsolete if it meets specs

[Etcetera]

It's not obsolete if it's still capable of performing its function within specifications.

The ability to *alter* it to match *new* specifications should be taken into account (if it's written in a language no one speaks any more), but that doesn't prevent it from functioning.

Systems that have to deal with altered specifications because the environment around (physical or virtual) them changes can become obsolete faster than systems that are disconnected from their environment.

Note: That's an excellent reason to keep your systems disconnected from the environment.

Modems, serial, dumb terminals

[TWX]

We have phone systems and network switches that have serial, still configured for 9600-8-N-1. We have modems connected to the phone system devices that can be called via POTS line to do maintenance if all other methods fail, and since we have all of six people to take care of eighty sites we'd really rather not go for a drive if we can avoid it. I also happen to have a WYSE-52 on my desk that I have connected to a switch console port at 38400; If something breaks the workstation VLAN for whatever reason, I can still maintain the network through a different VLAN through this terminal.

I used to work at a place that handled paging (like, literal TNPP and TAP paging) and we had Digi serial multiplexers with 24 serial ports for connecting to 24 individual modems for paging, fax, and other low-speed services. There were lots of customers still using that technology too; we tried to migrate to Equinox and their digital modems (basically a T1 that emulated 24 modems) but they had trouble with extremely short-length low-baud connections causing lockups. It was literally better to have a huge room full of equipment because it wouldn't crash instead of a single rack full of PCI cards that would constantly have port errors.

SCO Unix...

[darkain]

SCO Unix runs GREAT inside of VMWare... don't ask me how I know this, as I get back to the server room to beat the shit out of some random OS that isn't performing well... again....

Morse Code

[Bruce Perens]

I lobbied to end the requirement for an examination of the ability to decode Morse code with your ear and brain. Until 2007, the U.S. Federal Government required it before they would license all but the lowest grade of Amateur Radio hobbyists.

As part of my lobbying effort, I successfully passed a test for receiving code at 20 words per minute, and then subsequently refused to use the code on the air. 20 WPM is so fast that you have to decode by the sound of each character, you don't have enough time to pick out the individual dots and dashes.

We won.

Re:Morse Code

[Obfuscant]

Until 2007, the U.S. Federal Government required it before they would license all but the lowest grade of Amateur Radio hobbyists.

1. The novice class license had a Morse code requirement. That was the lowest grade of amateur radio license. Five WPM.

2. The Morse code requirement was mandated by the ITU treaty (International Telecommunications Union) that required anyone who had access to HF bands (that included Novice class amateur radio licensees) to know Morse code. That requirement was based on maritime safety, as an ability to read CW could help during emergencies. Satellite and other systems have replaced the old radio op sending the weak SOS signal from a sinking vessel, so that requirement went away.

As part of my lobbying effort, I successfully passed a test for receiving code at 20 words per minute, and then subsequently refused to use the code on the air.

As if the FCC cared that you passed the test and then never used code on the air. I dare say, there were many many people who lobbied the same way -- without any effect, and without even knowing it. Does it count that I passed the test and used CW exactly once, forty years ago?

We won.

There are a lot of people who lost, or at least have a good argument that they did. If nothing else, CW was a good way of holding back the push for government agencies and NGO to get access to amateur frequencies.

With the loss of CW and the changes to the rules, all it takes for a government agency to get essentially free access to the ham bands is having their employees pass a 34 question test. At that point, paid employees can use the ham bands for exercises and drills:

(i) A station licensee or station control operator may participate on behalf of an employer in an emergency preparedness or disaster readiness test or drill, limited to the duration and scope of such test or drill, and operational testing immediately prior to such test or drill. Tests or drills that are not government-sponsored are limited to a total time of one hour per week; except that no more than twice in any calendar year, they may be conducted for a period not to exceed 72 hours.

NGO are limited to one hour per week but for two weeks they can be 3 days long. There is no time limit on government-sponsored "drills".

I know that government agencies are doing exactly this, because I've VEd exam sessions where they had employees getting their licenses.

Re:Morse Code

[Bruce Perens]

The Novice license stopped being the path to entry once the no-code Technician licensing started. There was indeed an ITU requirement, but it was at the behest of IARU, not as the requirement of any government. Similarly, FCC actually raised code speed requirements at the behest of ARRL. Shore stations had moved to phone and teletype decades before. Most ships no longer employed radio operators, but left that duty to other staff who only used phone. There was only a token continuing monitoring of Morse ship transmissions, now entirely gone.

There was one pro-code guy who pleaded with me to allow Amateur Radio to "die with dignity". If nothing else did, that convinced me that the pro-code folks could see the end coming and would accept it as long as it came after they died. Amateur licensing was declining fast, operators were dying faster than new ones got licenses, and we could see the end of Amateur Radio would come in a few decades at most..

Now there are more hams than ever, and Amateur Radio is healthy. When I say "We won", it means "Amateur Radio won". It's too bad we had to fight our own old guys.

There isn't really any reason for government agencies and NGOs to use Amateur Radio. They have satellite phones, etc. But if it really bothers you, why not lobby against allowing compensation for operators? I'd join that bandwagon.

Pixar

[Bruce Perens]

The Pixar code base came from Lucasfilm, and went back to the 1970's. Some of that code is still in use.

An interesting field trip

[Snotnose]

CSB time. I went to a community college the first 2 years it was open (Cuyamaca college, San Diego county if you're in the area). In my first semester computer class the instructor took us on a field trip, on a Saturday. There were 3-4 of us who agreed to go, we met on campus. Got in teach's pickup, he drove us to the midway district, into an industrial park, and into an alley going behind a bunch of buildings. There we saw a PDP-8 sitting by a door. Turns out the PDP-8 belonged to my instructor's old company and they were donating it to the school. Our "field trip" was providing muscle to get the thing into the pickup truck, back to school, then into the computer lab.

Used that PDP-8 for the next 2 years, it was the only computer they had.

/CSB

TCP/IP

[ASDFnz]

Fairly much everyone uses TCP/IP, that dates from the 70's.

Legacy System Theseus

[Sean0michael]

We have our legacy system "Theseus" that has been running since the early '80s. Sure the hardware it runs on has changed three times and we've re-written it four times, but it's still the same legacy system we've always had.

Re: 25+ years

[rickb928]

Oh, LANtastic?

I was supporting a NetWare 2.15c server with a DCB inproduction. In 2003. The 40MB drives were in addition to IDE drives internal to the server chassis, and were deemed untouchable. Separate UPS, no one believed they would spin up again if they lost power. No one ever told me what was on those drives.

COBOL Program written in 1968

[jfdavis668]

One of the first programs I had to modify was a COBOL program written in 1968. Over time, the source code had gone missing. I tracked down a yellowed, falling apart compile listing, and realize the program had never been copied off cards. It was also written in backward indentation, where command lines start at the beginning, and control lines like IF statements are indented. This allows you to move the working lines around. I ended up typing in the code from the compile listing, and ended up only missing 4 periods. Of course, when I got it working, I then had to make the requested change.

Re:25+ years

[lucm]

And exactly what were people committing into in 1980?

Crimes against fashion.

40 year old spectrometer

[NixieBunny]

I work on the 12 meter radio telescope on Kitt Peak. It was built in the mid sixties, refitted with a new dish in 1982, and replaced last year with an ALMA prototype antenna. We still use the old filter bank spectrometers. They were built in 1973-4. This item.

So I see

[davidwr]

I Google'd "bruce perens site:fcc.gov" and this came up as the first hit.

how about an emulated Wang 2200 on SCO Unix ?

[dickens]

I almost want to post anon but I can't resist. When I took over my current job ten years ago, the company used a green-screen accounting system based on an emulated Wang 2200 running on SCO Open Server. That puts the actual technology in use back around 1973. This used the Niakwa Basic2c system. The system was lovingly maintained (!) by some dedicated guys in Auburndale.

Before we migrated it off it we got it running on Linux and I still have a KVM image running this system over Centos 5. The last time I booted it was in 2014, or 41 years after the Wang 2200 came out. I actually used one at Ashland (MA) High School - the second interactive computer I ever used. (The first was a PDP-8 accessed via a teletype at 110 baud from Wayland Junior High School).

Re:Finger and Sand

[Rei]

I've cut a plastic binding with a sharp rock. I didn't knap it myself, it was naturally sharp, but... I don't think it gets much more old school than that ;) Unless there's someone here who made productive use of throwing their own excrement in a production environment.

Old tech

[rossdee]

I live in a country thats so old-fashioned they measure things in feet and inches...

Re:25+ years

[kevmeister]

And exactly what were people committing into in 1980? :O

RCS was released in 1982, but SCCS goes back to 1972. In the latter part of the 70s it was dominant and available on IBM OS/360 systems and letter on AT&T Unix System III and V. It was not terribly difficult to move data from SCCS to RCS when it moved to a dominant system.

So managing a code base going back to 1980 is not at all unreasonable.

Re: Finger and Sand

[rsilvergun]

I use power point. Does that count?