Hello, All!

http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/14/amiga-controls-school-district-hvac/?utm_sou
rce=Feed_Classic_Full&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Engadget&?ncid=rss_full

An '80s-era Amiga controls the heating for an entire school district

Think the Windows XP workstation you use at the office is ancient? It doesn't
hold a candle next to what the Grand Rapids Public School district is using to
control its climate systems. All 19 schools covered by the authority depend on
a nearly 30-year-old Commodore Amiga 2000 to automate their air conditioning
and heating. It communicates to the other schools using a pokey 1,200 baud
modem and a wireless radio so behind the times that it occasionally interferes
with maintenance workers' walkie talkies. Oh, and a high school student wrote
the necessary code -- if something goes wrong, the district has to contact the
now middle-aged programmer and hope that he can fix it. It's a testament to the
dependability of the Amiga in question, but you probably wouldn't want to trust
the well-being of thousands of students to a computer that's probably older
than some of the teachers.

There's a good reason why the school district has been hanging on to this
vintage solution for so long. Replacing it with a modern system could cost up
to $2 million dollars, which isn't exactly chump change when an HVAC controller
upgrade is usually low on the priority list. There may be relief in sight,
however. If the electorate passes a $175 million bond proposal, the district
will have the cash it needs to replace its Amiga with a computing platform that
was built sometime this century.

    WBR, Alex Kovrigin 

--- Mail Manager 1.22x/n #1509