The can of worms we opened when we learned of the server switched off after eighteen years and ten months' service is still wriggling, as a reader has contacted us to tell of nearly 30-year-old laptops still in service.
Reader "Holrum" says he has "a couple dozen Toshiba T1000 laptops from the mid [1980s] still fully functional (including floppy drives)".
The T1000 was introduced in 1987. [...] The machine was one of the very first computers to use a clamshell form factor. [...] It also offered a rather archaic LCD display, as illustrated.
[...]The machine ran MS-DOS 2.11 on a ROM [and] came with a colossal 512kB of RAM [...] and a single 3.5-inch floppy drive.
Holrum says the T1000s are taken offline every few years for just the few minutes required to replace the NiCad batteries and give them a clean before they are returned to duty as process monitoring terminals.
Previous: Beat This: Server Retired After 18 Years and 10 Months
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday February 16 2016, @07:07AM
Judging by the failure rate of the machines I have been supporting, I have more than ample spare parts to fix whatever broke, and I know where to get more.
The rate of failures I am seeing leads me to believe the machines will be running far longer than I will be running, providing someone doesn't like the way they look and trash 'em.
It does not require a super computer to drill a hole in a piece of metal at a certain place one after another 24 hours a day. Having access to a skilled machinist to make spare parts for the robot is a lot more critical. I could probably get anything I need right out of damn near any electronic scrap pile.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]