Never change a running system
One of the very first basic rules of IT (just after the one that most problems originate 40 cm in front of the screen) is that you should not touch a computer that is doing what is should be doing. Do not change the software, do not put in new parts, do not move it. Dust off only if you feel lucky.
There are too many stories of computers that have smoothly worked for years and then completely died the night after they were moved from the right side of the table to the left.
One of the most impressive of those stories is the tale of the university’s old mail server who ran smoothly since the late 80s until a blackout shut it down. Long and scary are the reports of those brave adventurers who walked down into the dusty cellars to find the lost artifact of ancient times…
A bit more funny is the story of the server where the IT worker tasked with replacing the still running system (tsts) called back to his superior and reported:
I am where the documentation says the server should be.
And?
The building was demolished 3 years ago.
With this background maybe you now also understand why IT’s seem to be so irrational hot when you don’t tell them if you move a part of equipment without telling them.
Anyway, we can now add another tale to those above: The one about the Grand Rapids school climate control computer.
A 30-year-old computer that has run day and night for decades is what controls the heat and air conditioning at 19 Grand Rapids Public Schools.
The Commodore Amiga was new to GRPS in the early 1980s and it has been working tirelessly ever since.
A Kentwood High School student programmed it when it was installed in the 1980s. Whenever the district has a problem with it, they go back to the original programmer who still lives in the area.
But now the time has (probably) finally come to replace that computer.
If voters pass a $175 million bond proposal in November, the computer is on the list of things to be replaced.
But:
A new, more current system would cost between $1.5 and 2 million.
What? Wait a sec. 2 million??
It can’t be the hardware, because we are not talking about legacy Commodore parts here. Every smartphone has more power then the old Amiga! Even this 5$ thing has:
So it can only be the software that makes it so expensive. Which sounds a bit strange, thinking about that guy that still maintains the old computer. He should know what needs to be programmed. Heck, he probably can compile the working source code to run on something modern! Maybe they forgot to ask him first?
Anyway, thank you to you and your old Commodore!
I have a little bit of experience with this and my guess is that it is the controls and labor that is making it so expensive to swap out the system. Especially when you are talking about 19 buildings. We recently updated our heating/cooling system and the server hardware is pretty inexpensive. Like I said the true cost lay in having the vendor build the graphics and interface so the end users could easily adjust the temperature on a per room basis. Many end point controllers(the part at the unit ventilator that the server controls) are proprietary and if the ones in place were as old as they say, they probably have to replace every single one of those, in every room, in every building. Just a guess. The cost could be inflated. School districts usually do their due diligence to ensure they select the lowest bid that gives a quality product since it is tax payer money. Being transparent, I work in a school district in Michigan, not anywhere near Grand Rapids though.
Yeah, I would also guess they have to replace the complete hardware in the schools that makes it so expensive. But it is nowhere to be found in the source, though there are some hints like the thing with the walkie-talkies.
But well, this is how the media is. They interview you, you see them writing down stuff, and in the article 1/3 is wrong, including the birth year. Been there, seen it.
Yeah, I get it. I don't disagree that the whole thing is a racket. When our guy told us the upgrade would be $14k for a new server I laughed and said I can build a Linux server in my sleep for $600 or less. Then he went on to explain about the controls and the parts between the server and the controls that allow them to interface. By the time he got to the part about having to develop the graphics for the interface we just gave up and told him fine. :P I should have went into HVAC!
Simplicity is an art in itself, only the fewest master it. Counts for anything in life - including computer systems and public administrations. :-)