Texas Company's Antique Computers Are For Production, Not Display 289
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.
Re:Debugging that... (Score:4, Funny)
It's not old, it's hacker resistant :D
Re:Debugging that... (Score:5, Funny)
Not if you're hacking with a box cutter.
I still use punch cards ... (Score:5, Funny)
Wow (Score:5, Funny)
And people bitch about XP users hanging onto an old and obsolete system.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It's not broken, so let's break it (SAP). (Score:3, Funny)
I find it difficult to believe in your sorrow. (Score:3, Funny)
http://xkcd.com/385/ [xkcd.com]
Trust me on this, wiring skill isn't normally supposed to depend on possession of a pale pink penis. You're totally doing it wrong.
Re:So i wonder how this was discovered? (Score:5, Funny)
And...
He picked it up and threw it into the trash.
When I wrote it up, nobody wanted to believe me.
Re:So i wonder how this was discovered? (Score:5, Funny)
It's funny how those things persist. Years ago, I took over a mainframe data processing department. Every month I would be sent a fan-fold report on that old school tractor fed paper that took up a whole copy paper box. It literally was a 50 pound report. I had no idea what it was for, nor did anyone else. It went straight into the shredder. Every month a new bundle would show up. I sent it straight to the shredder. Didn't even look at it. The box came interoffice mail with no return address and there wasn't any identifying information on the report for me to figure out where it came from or how to get it shut off. Not even a report identifier I could look for in the mainframe. I can't imagine how much time, paper, and impact printer ribbon went into it. I mean, how would you even look for anything on that report? Kept coming every month for the whole 4 years I managed that department. I hear it finally and mysteriously, stopped showing up a year or two ago. The new manager has no explanation for it's demise but it was a good thing. /Shrug
nuclear war resistant (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I used to write programs in PL1/PLC on punch ca (Score:4, Funny)
Thanks. That would have been real helpful 40 YEARS AGO!
Re:I find it difficult to believe in your sorrow. (Score:2, Funny)
You should probably get that nose looked at.
Re:Debugging that... (Score:3, Funny)
Hey, it's the original spaghetti code!