• MeatsOfRage@lemmy.world
    206·
    1 year ago

    For context, the emachines “never obsolete” wasn’t referring to this computer, it was a recycling program where you could send your old machine back and get a huge discount on your next one. It was actually a pretty good deal at the time, especially when your average family machine was a lot more expensive than they are today

    • FlexibleToast@lemmy.world
      6·
      1 year ago

      There were a couple of companies that tried programs like this. PeoplePC was another similar program. You would pay for their services and they would lease you a computer every 3 years.

    • CoderKat@lemm.eeEnglish
      5·
      1 year ago

      I wonder how much of a discount OP can get when they send their machine back?

      • jarfil@lemmy.world
        4·
        1 year ago

        If it’s in perfect condition, and they valued it based on second hand retrocomputing market prices… probably a nice chunk of cash.

  • SuperIce@lemmy.worldEnglish
    94·
    1 year ago

    You conveniently blocked the part of the sticker saying what they mean by “never obsolete” with the red circle. IIRC, they gave you a massive discount to trade in your computer every 2 years for the latest model, so you were always up to date. Kinda like phones now.

    • ShustOne
      12·
      1 year ago

      Exactly. It was also that trade in program that was their undoing.

      • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
        3·
        1 year ago

        Every “trade in and get the latest” has always failed imo.

        Either the company ends up being bankrupt. Or the company realizes they really f’d up and the upgrade ends up costing more than had I just bought it flat out on sale.

        Source:

        I was part of a few of them over the last 10 years. Phones. Tablets. Laptops. Tvs. I did it because I always thought this time, it’ll work out.

  • KnightfoxEnglish
    64·
    1 year ago

    What do you mean, this bad boy is probably powering a semi-critical government system somewhere, definitely not obsolete.

    Edit: not even joking or shitting on it, there’s probably a proprietary software system out there somewhere that a contractor was paid to build ages ago. The contractor is out of business or doesn’t support it anymore, but it works perfectly in its one little spot. Also an update is gonna cost a quarter of a million dollars.

    I’ve seen disk chart meters at facilities that are 40+ years old and need a new disk chart every so often. You could replace it with a digital meter, but that won’t integrate with the rest of the control panel and a third party took over production of the disks 15 years ago. The system works great and it’s unlikely to be updated unless they stop making the disk charts.

    Edit 2: the correct term is circular chart recorder

    • SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      7·
      1 year ago

      There are some data recording systems on planes designed in the 90s that still use the original designs. Memory cards that are as big as your hand and only hold megabytes worth of data.

      Upgrading would be fairly simple in theory, but getting anything approved to be used on an aircraft is an expensive pain in the ass so they don’t want to go through that. They don’t need any more storage capacity either.

      So somewhere out there some companies are making these now ancient parts for now ancient systems, and probably making a killing because nobody else makes them.

    • HowManyNimons@lemmy.world
      6·
      1 year ago

      I know for a fact that many hospitals are still running 1970s COBOL on beige servers in the corners of basements that have been taken over by ICU wards. Because I has to maintain that shit amongst the dying. Weird job.

    • Cihta@lemmy.world
      4·
      1 year ago

      I made so much money on this kinda stuff. And even after all updated they still kept those damn chart recorders. Luckily they were standalone and I guess easier than hitting print.

      And most of you would be terrified if you knew what they were manufacturing. Ignorance is bliss, trust.

        • Cihta@lemmy.world
          1·
          1 year ago

          Why did you have to bring attitude into it?

          There are components of various flying machines that are critical and must be made at certain temp and humidity. Else they are out of spec. That’s pretty much it. The people in charge of this are less thorough than you’d like.

          Be nicer.

            • Cihta@lemmy.world
              1·
              1 year ago

              What are you on about?

              I’m actually in complete agreement with you. Yes there are safeties and whatever, I was just saying those safeties aren’t exactly monitored as you would expect. Don’t worry, I’m sure it won’t affect you. Wasn’t this just about chart recorders?

              As for the personal stuff, sorry you took it that way. You want to argue about something we agree on and I know exactly how that goes. As such, i suggest we just skip to the part where we chill and do something fun. No you aren’t my child but picking apart my simple comment is sorta… well you know. It’s all good, you might be one in 8 billion but I’m still your friend. Take care.

    • Zhao@lemm.ee
      3·
      1 year ago

      I had almost this exact scenario happen with a CNC machine for a very old but profitable niche company. Pain in my ass.

      • WashedOver@lemmy.ca
        1·
        1 year ago

        Seems like this issue is across a few different industries. I had two CnC machine running software on old PC’s with special cards to interface with the drives. One was running in a Dos box while the other was running windows XP. We could never afford any down time so it was fine some old PC’s that can still run this stuff.

      • Cihta@lemmy.world
        1·
        1 year ago

        I don’t know if it’s still there but I once did some work getting a plasma cutter back to operational. OS/2. Not even warp!

        Oh it’s a pretty solid OS but i mean, damn.

        Parallel port hardware key and everything. I do believe in keeping what works working but at some point you gotta let go because you run out of people that can solve problems with it.

    • oatscoop@midwest.socialEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      In defense of circular chart recorders: if set up and maintained correctly they’re incredibly reliable. Companies still make them for a reason, and they’re popular anywhere that stores irreplaceable and delicate things – museums, libraries, archives, etc.

      Like you said, why bother with an upgrade if it still works and there’s no compelling reason to?

    • SkidFace@lemmy.world
      1·
      1 year ago

      This is super true. I occasionally visit a TRIGA reactor that was built decades ago, and a good chunk of the computers critical in infrastructure run comically old versions of windows since software used to operate the faculty was a custom job.

  • FakinUpCountryDegen@lemmy.world
    40·
    1 year ago

    God,the number of these I sold at Best buy…rolling my eyes the entire time…and making absolutely sure the customer understood exactly what that phrase meant in this ultra-scammy context…

    Ended up not being able to handle that job. Something about literally full-time debunking of lies printed on everything in sight was exhausting for me.

      • rmuk@feddit.ukEnglish
        26·
        1 year ago

        You bought the computer and paid a subscription to be able to replace the computer with a new one every year or two.

    • scottywh@lemmy.world
      3·
      1 year ago

      I sold a bunch of them used… Lol…

      They were basically obsolete the minute they were shipped to stores with the shitty Celeron CPUs, virtually no RAM, and tiny hard drives but people still bought them from me a year later for too much money.

  • mtcerio@lemmy.world
    32·
    1 year ago

    The “never obsolete” refers to a subscription service, where they would periodically send you updates somehow. LGR has a good video on this.

  • Steak@lemmy.ca
    27·
    1 year ago

    Holy shit my grandfather had this exact PC up until ten years ago or so lol

  • doctorcrimson@lemmy.today
    24·
    1 year ago

    I wonder if it’s possible to get a bunch of these, daisy chain the processors, and span hard drives until it can install and run Monster Hunter World. Lack of VRAM is the only foreseeable issue.

  • psmgx@lemmy.world
    22·
    1 year ago

    What’s the form factor? ATX?

    Rip out the guts and slap in a Ryzen with some SSDs. Troll people by playing Farcry or something equally as demanding on it.

      • PeterPoopshit@lemmy.world
        1·
        1 year ago

        By the time they got rid of the AT form factor found around the pentium and early socket 7 era, motherboard sizes and screw hole placement started following the ATX specifications which meant standardization. Manufactures still sometimes did really dumb shit with case designs but they still do that today. For example I once saw this shitty compaq with the psu right over the cpu so you can’t fit a serious cooler. And those iconic Windows XP Dell Dimensions everyone had were only big enough to fit micro atx motherboards even though the case was basically mid tower sized. I can’t even remember how they made such inefficient use of the space but it involved lots of stupid brackets and screws in idiotic places.