I am ready to upgrade

[Estil]

I have to use a CRT TV for my retro video games because the flat panel ones have annoying lag in the controls. Not to mention the newer flat panel TVs no longer have S-video

And yes I would love a nice Windows 95 based rig to play classic DOS/Windows games...ideally one that upon boot up I can use Windows 3.1 or Windows 95. Best of both worlds you see.

[raudf]

Back in MW repair, I saw my first ultrasonic TV remote. Lady brought it in for a tune up, because one of the metal bars had slid out of place. We had a tech who loved the older TV sets, so she brought it in to see if he could get it working again. I asked her why she kept the TV, an old HUGE cased picture tube TV. This was back when CRTs were still a thing and flat screen referred to the glass of the picture tube being flat, instead of the normal rounded. Big screens were the 46" rear projection TVs. None of this LED/LCD that you see nowadays.

She had gotten that TV as an anniversary present from her husband and when she lost him, the TV reminded her of all the pleasant times they'd spend watching a show together. Sure, a newer TV would have been lighter, for a CRT. Sure, the remote would require have more bells and whistles, but they wouldn't have the memories. I'm hoping she passed away before it did.

Still, it was fascinating seeing an ultrasonic TV remote!

[protege]

The worst thing a classic car has to worry about is rust.

Not necessarily. Some of the skills needed to work on/restore them, are rapidly becoming things of the past.

For example, when I bought new tires for the MG awhile back, it took quite a bit of calling around to find a shop that could balance them correctly. You need a lug-centric (on the MG's Rostyle wheels, they're centered by the lugs, not the hub) adapter for your spin-balance machine, or at the very least, a bubble balancing stand. Either the shop didn't have the adapter or had sold off their "bubble" stand. Not surprising really.

Same with the windshield. I've read that it's a bitch to fit new glass to an MGB GT, simply because of how the car is designed. Most glass shops won't even touch them--they'll refer you to a specialist instead. Too many seals, plus the chrome surround, and they freak out that they'll break it.

[dawnfire]

I have to use a CRT TV for my retro video games because the flat panel ones have annoying lag in the controls. Not to mention the newer flat panel TVs no longer have S-video

I still use A CRT TV in my bedroom . I do most of my viewing on it.

[lordlundar]

I doubt anyone was angry but geeks are a competitive sort and one-upping is a big part of it.

That said, some of the most antiquated equipment I've seen tends to come from large businesses, largely because they refuse to upgrade until the maintenance costs well beyond what it would cost to upgrade the entire business. (well, minus the central offices of course, those are upgraded almost immediately) There are still some sites that I've gone to still running XP.

[Trixie]

I have a Win 98 machine that still works better than the Win 8 one I'm using now. I was using it a few years back when my Vista machine wasn't working to check email and stuff while it got fixed. If I could figure out a way to get my saved stuff off it I'd definitely hook it up again to play old games. And fill it up with that!

[Yfandes]

Our office is still on about 50% XP machines. We are replacing them slowly, and I've told people that if they can't even be bothered to read and respond to email, there is no point in them even having a computer assigned to them.

[Chromatix]

I'm typing this on a MacBook Pro - sounds up to date, right? This is, however, a 2007 model, and I bought it practically the same week it became available. Even so, it's still my newest Mac and the machine on which I get most of my work done. One of the fans needs replacing (again), and it's on at least its third battery, but it's considerably easier to fix such things than on the newer models - and it does run the latest version of MacOS X quite happily.

It is not, however, the newest nor the oldest machine I own and use regularly.

The newest would probably be the high-end gaming machine I built about 3-4 years ago. It's still fairly decent, but it's beginning to struggle with some of the newer games I've tried, so a new graphics card would be justified for it, and I think some extra RAM would suit it too. The rest of it is just fine as it is - up to and including the installation of Windows 7, rather than 8-point-whatever. I have no intention of upgrading to Windows 10 - ever.

At the old end of the scale might be the 1996 Pentium-MMX that I regularly use for exposing performance problems in my Linux kernel-hacking endeavours. Or the 1987 Mac IIcx that I need to get around to replacing the capacitors in, but which is (surprisingly) capable of getting on the Internet. Or the 1984 BBC Micros (three of them) that I occasionally get out and play with.

[blondescales]

My parents still have their Tandy 1000 and a Radio Shack color computer. Both worked the last time they were plugged in and turned on a few years ago.

[protege]

That said, some of the most antiquated equipment I've seen tends to come from large businesses, largely because they refuse to upgrade until the maintenance costs well beyond what it would cost to upgrade the entire business. (well, minus the central offices of course, those are upgraded almost immediately)

Much of that is due to accounting. Most businesses claim depreciation as an expense...so they'll hang onto old crap as long as they can. It doesn't matter if it's held together with duct tape and bailing wire. As long as it still works and they can get a tax break, they'll do it.

For example, we had a damaged laptop. The boss' daughter had dropped it, cracking the screen and damaging the touchpad. Instead of simply throwing it out, I was told to "do something with it." It still kind of worked--moving the icons to the right got around the screen issue. Hooking up a "real" keyboard and mouse took care of the other problem.

Needless to say, that piece of crap didn't come with us when our company moved. Seems it got "lost in transit"

[Midnight]

I'm a manager at GameStop and a good portion of our clientele are still a good 10 to 15 years behind the gaming times. At least in my area.

We get customers mad that console games now require internet, hard drives and/or large installations (that's what you get for cheaping out and buying that shitty 4gb 360 or 12gb PS3 last year), and no longer offer much for split screen multiplayer because the companies that make them want you to play online or network for multiplayer. Heaven forbid you get the guy interested in a PS4 or XBO only to get the "oh" reaction when he realizes it won't work on his old tube TV after you tell him they're hdmi only systems. This despite the fact most manufacturers stopped making SD tube sets after about 2006.

Or the guy ranting about games not being made for his 360 he bought a few years ago any more despite the fact his system has been out for almost a decade now and console change overs tend to happen every five to six years or so and have been that way since the Atari days. There's a reason they don't make PS2 or original Xbox games anymore too.

Don't get me wrong, I love my retro consoles and still buy games for them, but I at least know when technology has moved on.

[Aragarthiel]

I have a Gameboy Pocket and the original Gameboy Advance, and both still work perfectly (though the battery cover on the Advance is taped on). However, we also have a 3DS and Xbox One, so we're not completely behind the times.

I also have a PS2 that we found inside a couch we got from my mother-in-law's coworker (it was less shady than it sounds, trust me). I was cleaning underneath it one day when I felt something heavy hanging from the bottom. Pulled the cushions off, found a hole in the fabric underneath, dug around inside... and surprise! It still turns on but doesn't read disks, and sadly is probably only worth anything as spare parts.

[lordlundar]

Much of that is due to accounting. Most businesses claim depreciation as an expense...so they'll hang onto old crap as long as they can.

True enough. The bank I deal with for example are JUST getting around to upgrading to Windows 7. And no, we (as I'm actually on the project) will not be done anywhere NEAR the Win 10 release.

[Racket_Man]

Much of that is due to accounting. Most businesses claim depreciation as an expense...so they'll hang onto old crap as long as they can. It doesn't matter if it's held together with duct tape and bailing wire. As long as it still works and they can get a tax break, they'll do it.

:

Do the ACRS (from the big "Regan tax reform) depreciation timetables still apply??????

And even if they do not (meaning they choose to not use the accelerated tables), all they have left "salvage value" left unless they declare a LONG life for an asset which means the depreciation claimed for each year will be so small and not really worth it.


Just going from my accounting classes 25 years ago.

[protege]

And even if they do not (meaning they choose to not use the accelerated tables), all they have left "salvage value" left unless they declare a LONG life for an asset which means the depreciation claimed for each year will be so small and not really worth it.

It's not about the money. No, it's about the "principle"

For example one of our system databases was done in Access...and was never updated. Sure, the pretty "front end" (basically an overlay done in Visual Basic) had some of its fields rearranged, and some of the text boxes enlarged, but that was it. 17 years on, the thing simply wouldn't work with Windows 7, no matter how you tried. Sure, it would open, but searching records was a pain. Slow as hell...simply because it wasn't designed to work with 7, or even Vista for that matter.

Both our 3rd party tech and I told my boss that he was going to have to upgrade. Microsoft really doesn't support Access as much now--they've moved onto SQL instead, and unless he upgrades, there's no way his database (complete with 17 years of trading data) would still be supported in the future.

Naturally, we got chewed out. Hey, it's not our fault you chose to run an old program and never updated things. It's not our fault the conversion/redesign is going to cost as much as a new Porsche. Nor is it our fault the crap server you're running cannot handle it.