Thread: Update parent's computer?

Originally Posted by Djinn

My father has been running a psychological research lab in upstate NY since 1979. All computers used for running experiments are Apple II systems (mostly II+ and IIe). He won't replace them... can't, really since the connections to the test chambers are proprietary. A few years ago, he asked me to find him a supplier of 5.25" double-density floppy disks, which was no easy feat. But the buggers never, ever break down.

So yeah... The still-active lab is running on a fleet of machines pushing 30 years old.

I suspect that the connections tot he test chambers could be replaced as easily as anything else. But if all you need is a simple black screen with text menus (type the letter of your choice), why upgrade? Frankly, I don't see the value in the vast majority of the shit we use computers for. It's all fluff, visual design shit. I loved the text menus and the high-contrast text screens.

And, like you said, they never broke down. I wrote that kind of software and the coding was all about the logic, the path the user would take through the menus, executing various functions along the way. It was a lot of fun, I thought, getting your concept straight and going to the final product in minutes or hours instead of calling in the design team to work on the graphics, tweaking shit for days to deal with unexpected glitches and issues in one layer or another of the "black boxes" that everything passes through now...

The black text screen with green letters is a highly underrated interface, in my opinion. When that is all that is called for, reliability and ease of design and maintenance dictate that is what should be used. It almost never is.