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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Sep 29, 2016 9:35 am

Remember the old line, "Don't fix it if it ain't broke"? Well a garage in Poland took this motto and took it to a whole new level, as it still uses a Commodore 64 to run its business. But at least they didn't get all fancy pants and bust out a color monitor. We don't want the guys in the shop yearning for a game of Bruce Lee, do we? No, a green monochrome monitor and a 64C from the look of it, so it's at least from 1987.

Commodore USA posted this fantastic nugget to their Facebook just a few days ago:
This C64C used by a small auto repair shop for balancing driveshafts has been working non-stop for over 25 years! And despite surviving a flood it is still going...
And take a look at it:
c64polandAutoShop.png
Let's get a little de-greaser over here!

I wonder if their customer records are saved to 5.25 floppy? You might want to save those paper printouts from the dot-matrix printer, which is probably hiding on the floor somewhere.

User avatar
Shot97
Detroit, MI, USA

Posted Thu Sep 29, 2016 6:40 pm

If I was reliant on a 30 something year old computer for my business I would at least treat it with a little more respect than that! It's remarkable it has survived that long in that filth! It's the 2nd dirtiest Commodore I've ever seen... There was some video on YouTube of an Amiga that looked worse and still worked, most of the comments were quite negative because of that. I utterly understand and respect "if it ain't broke don't fix it" but they're giving that machine all the chances in the world to break, and they're stupid for it. I hope they have a brand new in the box machine ready to hook up when that thing dies. They make money off that thing, respect it...

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Sep 29, 2016 8:33 pm

I looked at this in awe, personally. I feel like most folks would have felt compelled to continuously upgrade their tech over the years whether they needed to or not (I mean, 99.9% do). But if all you need is a simple address book, spreadsheet and calculator... hell, this thing does what it's supposed to do! It is amazing that the thing still works after all these years - regardless of the grime.

When I saw that C64 cranking away, even though I was shocked at its appearance, it left me feeling pretty happy.

Imagine the day when they actually do have to upgrade this thing (assuming they don't buy a replacement on Ebay).

They'll be encouraged to max out the RAM, get a fast CPU, get a cloud subscription for their data... and watch it power up for 2 minutes before using it. They'll think they've downgraded!

:)





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