I own a non-wi-fi electric kettle, which takes me a total of less than 10 seconds to walk to and flick the switch each morning to start the boil; 30 seconds if I must fill it from the tap. The internet-of-things seems to be a baseless bunch of nonsense for the purpose of proving something can be done, no matter if it should be done at all. Gosh, just think of those folks who have to literally go out to draw water from a well or river, while simultaneously scrounging wood sticks to build a fire to boil water.
abundant supply of product "should" cause price to drop according to economics, however, as we can see on a daily basis that seems to not be holding true in the fossil fuel (oil) world with the abundant supply of crude oil driving the per bbl price down to levels not seen in decades while the pump price for refined gasoline remains more than double the price which it was at when crude was previously selling at those low bbl price levels.
one would expect no difference in the lithium market, abundant supply just means the profit margin will expand dramatically and consumers will still not see the benefit from economies of scale.
Mod +5 on the Ada observation; I too had friends in the early '90s who had worked on the Ada rewrite which was abandoned, so they ended up at our telecomm firm writing C on our projects, then C++ etc etc. Seems there has been a near continuous chain of ATCS rewrite initiatives since the '80s, none of which has replaced the core systems which very likely still have a good bit of FORTRAN (66 or 77) and COBOL inside.
OMG, you had the floppy drive... our high school only had the original PET 2001 with the cassette deck and chiclet keyboard. Did my first ever programming on that tough little keyboard, enduring all the fat finger typing since there was no space between the keys. Alas, I do remember it fondly.
Just surmising that as an AC poster, you're likely not in the 50-55 age group where you can't just 'hock a loogie on their desk and walk out' without giving up your pension and or 401 vesting, etc. and expect to go find another job. If you are a 50+ and are secure enough to spit in their face, then good for you. Have had too many associates in industry who've been faced with that dilemma, and middle age folks have a lot to lose, thus feet of clay vs young workers who know no fear.
I'd be surprised if it wasn't so simple as the users, Luhnow et al, having written their passwords down on paper. Remember, these are baseball guys, not IT experts like/.ers who would take obvious precautions.
This was posted to the Disqus comments, it appears to be from a man named Jeff who is likely the original programmer. He did post another response that talked about some problems he encountered in recent years testing an emulation solution. Bravo to this man Jeff for sticking by his system for the entire lifecycle.
When the Amiga system originally went in it was controlling well over 100 buildings throughout the district, including the entire GRCC campus at the time. The Amiga replaced the head-end of the system, which was experiencing expensive hardware failures every year... and you couldn't get parts for that mini-computer on e-bay. It is essentially acting as a huge database (schedules, configurations, control programs, history, etc.), system manager, and monitoring system ("head-end") for the remaining 19 buildings HVAC systems. If the Amiga goes down, the buildings will continue to operate using the configurations last received, with most of the individual device controls being able to be manually overridden inside each building, albeit with less energy efficiency. What you will loose is the ability to change schedules/custom control code/configurations and the ability to centrally monitor the performance of the buildings.
Each building has one or more local control systems, and those systems communicate back to the central head-end over radio-modem (there was no district-wide network back then). Schedule and other control changes are sent to the buildings and alerts/reports are sent back. That old equipment in the buildings, even older than the Amiga, is what dictates the radio communications link. They incorporate specific protocols for keying up the radio that are not directly compatible with a newer serial to Ethernet type device that would seem like a logical replacement.
The control systems themselves gather temperatures, both inside and outside the building, look at trends and do predictive control of the equipment to accomodate scheduled use of various areas of each building. For the day, this was very advanced building control and offered significant energy savings, as well as comfort in the buildings.
Over time, as buildings have been updated, sold or replaced, the local controls withing those buildings have been replaced with newer/more modern controls that communicate with newer central control systems. Replacing these controls that are local to the buildings is what is responsible for the majority of the cost I would say.
As far as the Amiga system itself, I believe most of the components are still the original. The hard drive may have failed twice over the years, requiring a rebuild from backups. They did pick up or have donated a few Amiga systems to use as parts as needed, but the system has proven to be very resilient. Obviously, Monitors, Keyboards and Mice can only take so much use without needing to be replaced. Without this, the system likely would have become inoperable and unservicable many years ago, or been incredibly expensive to keep running.
From a technical stand point, the Amiga was selected because at the time it was the only "Personal Computer" (PC) that had a true pre-emptive multi-taskng operating system. It needed to be able to handle multiple processes simultaneously, including interfacing with the systems, maintaining settings in the database, monitoring the system as well as support for both local and remote access to the system simultaneously. Basically, its capabilities fit the need. While for nostalgia reasons I would hate to see it go, it has been 30 years and I think the system has done its job. Replacing a building's control system doesn't happen overnight, and when you are talking 19 buildings with ancient (yes I am calling myself ancient I guess) control systems, it is going to take money and time. The payback in energy savings, comfort and safe control of the buildings though I think justifies the cost.
Having had cancer and having numerous friends suffering cancer, and some who have died from cancer, it truly is a celebration to still be alive. Indeed it is much better than the alternative.
Enjoy being young and hale 'n hearty, it doesn't last. Recall that joy one last time on the day when your physician tells you, "It Is Cancer".
Slashdot Mirror
It's a conspiracy to hasten the end of IPv4 by occupying all available IP addresses with pointless devices
So then why not buy a timer based electric kettle, fill it at night before sleeping, and wake to a pot of boiled water?
I own a non-wi-fi electric kettle, which takes me a total of less than 10 seconds to walk to and flick the switch each morning to start the boil; 30 seconds if I must fill it from the tap. The internet-of-things seems to be a baseless bunch of nonsense for the purpose of proving something can be done, no matter if it should be done at all. Gosh, just think of those folks who have to literally go out to draw water from a well or river, while simultaneously scrounging wood sticks to build a fire to boil water.
free food tastes better than lunch you brought from home
that's called a prius
mod +100
abundant supply of product "should" cause price to drop according to economics, however, as we can see on a daily basis that seems to not be holding true in the fossil fuel (oil) world with the abundant supply of crude oil driving the per bbl price down to levels not seen in decades while the pump price for refined gasoline remains more than double the price which it was at when crude was previously selling at those low bbl price levels.
one would expect no difference in the lithium market, abundant supply just means the profit margin will expand dramatically and consumers will still not see the benefit from economies of scale.
sigh
mod +1000
Unless you are Obama, for whom history began on January 20, 2009, the day on which the rise of the seas was stopped and the healing of the earth begun
Mod +5 on the Ada observation; I too had friends in the early '90s who had worked on the Ada rewrite which was abandoned, so they ended up at our telecomm firm writing C on our projects, then C++ etc etc. Seems there has been a near continuous chain of ATCS rewrite initiatives since the '80s, none of which has replaced the core systems which very likely still have a good bit of FORTRAN (66 or 77) and COBOL inside.
Credit to Andrew Gold, an extraordinary musician and songwriter, departed too early in 2011
OMG, you had the floppy drive... our high school only had the original PET 2001 with the cassette deck and chiclet keyboard. Did my first ever programming on that tough little keyboard, enduring all the fat finger typing since there was no space between the keys. Alas, I do remember it fondly.
Just surmising that as an AC poster, you're likely not in the 50-55 age group where you can't just 'hock a loogie on their desk and walk out' without giving up your pension and or 401 vesting, etc. and expect to go find another job. If you are a 50+ and are secure enough to spit in their face, then good for you. Have had too many associates in industry who've been faced with that dilemma, and middle age folks have a lot to lose, thus feet of clay vs young workers who know no fear.
I'd be surprised if it wasn't so simple as the users, Luhnow et al, having written their passwords down on paper. Remember, these are baseball guys, not IT experts like /.ers who would take obvious precautions.
When the Amiga system originally went in it was controlling well over 100 buildings throughout the district, including the entire GRCC campus at the time. The Amiga replaced the head-end of the system, which was experiencing expensive hardware failures every year ... and you couldn't get parts for that mini-computer on e-bay. It is essentially acting as a huge database (schedules, configurations, control programs, history, etc.), system manager, and monitoring system ("head-end") for the remaining 19 buildings HVAC systems. If the Amiga goes down, the buildings will continue to operate using the configurations last received, with most of the individual device controls being able to be manually overridden inside each building, albeit with less energy efficiency. What you will loose is the ability to change schedules/custom control code/configurations and the ability to centrally monitor the performance of the buildings.
Each building has one or more local control systems, and those systems communicate back to the central head-end over radio-modem (there was no district-wide network back then). Schedule and other control changes are sent to the buildings and alerts/reports are sent back. That old equipment in the buildings, even older than the Amiga, is what dictates the radio communications link. They incorporate specific protocols for keying up the radio that are not directly compatible with a newer serial to Ethernet type device that would seem like a logical replacement.
The control systems themselves gather temperatures, both inside and outside the building, look at trends and do predictive control of the equipment to accomodate scheduled use of various areas of each building. For the day, this was very advanced building control and offered significant energy savings, as well as comfort in the buildings.
Over time, as buildings have been updated, sold or replaced, the local controls withing those buildings have been replaced with newer/more modern controls that communicate with newer central control systems. Replacing these controls that are local to the buildings is what is responsible for the majority of the cost I would say.
As far as the Amiga system itself, I believe most of the components are still the original. The hard drive may have failed twice over the years, requiring a rebuild from backups. They did pick up or have donated a few Amiga systems to use as parts as needed, but the system has proven to be very resilient. Obviously, Monitors, Keyboards and Mice can only take so much use without needing to be replaced. Without this, the system likely would have become inoperable and unservicable many years ago, or been incredibly expensive to keep running.
From a technical stand point, the Amiga was selected because at the time it was the only "Personal Computer" (PC) that had a true pre-emptive multi-taskng operating system. It needed to be able to handle multiple processes simultaneously, including interfacing with the systems, maintaining settings in the database, monitoring the system as well as support for both local and remote access to the system simultaneously. Basically, its capabilities fit the need. While for nostalgia reasons I would hate to see it go, it has been 30 years and I think the system has done its job. Replacing a building's control system doesn't happen overnight, and when you are talking 19 buildings with ancient (yes I am calling myself ancient I guess) control systems, it is going to take money and time. The payback in energy savings, comfort and safe control of the buildings though I think justifies the cost.
The Matrix, perhaps?
Seat-belts used to be optional accessories
close which? the roads or the government?
Microwave Communications Inc., was one of the early versions of the acronym. Later it morphed into Money Coming In
Sharpening a #2 pencil, using hand-cranked unit, motorized unit, or handheld plastic-and-razor-blade unit.
soooooooo.... why are IPCC backpedaling on the certainty of their models in light of the 'pause'?
so how many more flights could be handled if they shift to EBCDIC?
Cesar Chavez was most vocal against unrestrained foreign workers, because they would devalue the labor pool and depress wages.
Having had cancer and having numerous friends suffering cancer, and some who have died from cancer, it truly is a celebration to still be alive. Indeed it is much better than the alternative. Enjoy being young and hale 'n hearty, it doesn't last. Recall that joy one last time on the day when your physician tells you, "It Is Cancer".
mod +1000