Apple has always been big in the educational market, but it’s something the company has pushed more than ever under Tim Cook — albeit with sometimes mixed results.
The dream of having schools fully embrace the Apple ecosystem certainly sounds pretty far off, however, when you hear that one school district in the U.S. is still reliant on almost 30-year-old Commodore Amiga 2000 computers to automate its air conditioning and heating systems.
Say it ain’t so, Grand Rapids, Michigan!
According to a recent news report, all 19 schools covered by the Grand Rapids Public School district use the retro machines — complete with ancient 1,200 baud modem. Apparently the code underpinning the system was written by a then-high-schooler, now middle-aged, who has to be called out whenever there is a problem since he’s the only person who understands it.
“The system controls the start/stop of boilers, the start/stop of fans, pumps, [it] monitors space temperatures, and so on,” local GRPS Maintenance Supervisor Tim Hopkin says.
Fortunately a replacement system could be on the cards, thanks to a $175 million bond proposal which may be passed this November.
May we suggest HomeKit next time?
Via: Engadget
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
14 responses to “Forget iPads, this school district relies on… Amiga?”
I loved my Amigas. I still have MaxUAE on an old Mac.
Me too buddy i used Amiga back in the day and absolutely loved it.
I find this story really cool that someone is still using them for a purpose like this.
I’ve always loved “old” tech, especially when it does what it’s supposed to do and just keeps on. Just two years ago I retired a Pentium II system that was 17 years old. It still worked but I was needed to encode video so upped to an core i7 system. I still have two systems running Windows 2000. They work perfectly and are “self contained” and need no Internet access.
I never had an Amiga but I had forerunners in the Commodore 64 and TI/994a. I guess I love old tech because I remember when it was new.
Obviously they should run a system that new people can administer, but there’s definitely a “if it ain’t broke” part to this. My dad has a 1999 Mercedes station wagon with 120k miles on it, and is constantly asked if he’ll sell it, because it was the year before they computerized the heck out of their cars… and made them damn near impossible to service without having a CS degree.
Article is D@mn click bait.
No it isn’t.
If it still functions after 30 years then it was an amazing investment. It sure won’t have any malware issues.
I’ve got and use six Amiga and they all still run to this very day, never had an Amiga break down or need repaired in the past 30 years and my main machine runs 24/7 (the only time it goes off is if there’s a power cut)… ;-)
How many times is this article going to pop up on the blogosphere?? I saw it on Gizmodo and Endgadget yesterday and now here today. With all of the cross posting and duplicate posting on multiple sites, I am really thinking it is time to trim down the number sites I read..
Well at least you’ve found a solution for what you see as a problem… you should be happy now… :-)
(course you won’t be reading this if you didn’t take your own advice and “trim down)… :-o
From the headline, I thought the students were still being taught on Amigas. It does show how well those old machines were built though.
Best computer I ever owned. I like to joke that Commodore was my first wife, and Apple is only my long term girlfriend now that I’m widowed.
Jean-Louis Gassee admitted in an interview with Amazing Computing magazine that the Amiga had everyone at Apple “scared as hell” when it came out. It was a beast!
As an Amiga user of 30 years and still using them daily and as a Mac user of 5 years all I will say is… I know which system I’d trust to do a job as reliably and for as long as that and it certainly wouldn’t be the Mac… ;-)
May I suggest (if ever needed but I doubt it will be with the AMiga being such a reliable machine unlike todays tech) eBay next time (or rather again) and the Amiga section… ;-)
I loved my Amigas very much, since 1986 to 1994. Today, I’d choose the reliability of OS X with BSD at its core, running on motherboards crafted with modern fab techniques! No clock battery acid eating away at the traces or GURU errors at the slightest unprotected memory hit. ;-)