45-Year-Old Modem Used To Surf the Web 622
EdIII writes with this awesome snippet from Hack a Day: "'[phreakmonkey] got his hands on a great piece of old tech. It's a 1964 Livermore Data Systems Model A Acoustic Coupler Modem. He recieved it in 1989 and recently decided to see if it would actually work. It took some digging to find a proper D25 adapter and even then the original serial adapter wasn't working because the oscillator depends on the serial voltage. He dials in and connects at 300baud. Then logs into a remote system and fires up lynx to load Wikipedia. Lucky for [phreakmonkey] they managed to decide on a modulation standard in 1962. It's still amazing to see this machine working 45 years later.' Although impractical for surfing the Internet today, there is something truly cool about getting a 45-year old modem to work with modern technology. The question I have, is what is the oldest working piece of equipment fellow Slashdotters have out there? I'm afraid as far back as I can go is a Number Nine Imagine 128 Series 2 Graphics card on a server still in use at my house which only puts me at about 14 years."
Still working with Paper Tape (Score:5, Informative)
The CNC industry is still using NC machines built to work with paper tape. 30 years old and still going strong ...
Primary Keyboard: 1991 IBM Model M (Score:2, Informative)
How about oldest piece of equipment in regular use?
I use a 1991 IBM Model M at my main workstation, which puts me at 18 years. They just don't make them like this anymore (well actually Unicomp [pckeyboard.com] does)
Re:My hammer. (Score:5, Informative)
For those not familiar, the parent is referencing the Ship of Theseus paradox [wikipedia.org] which is an interesting read.
Re:"Would you like to play a game?" (Score:2, Informative)
I'm pretty sure you're thinking of Wargames. Ferris Bueller never hacked into any goverment computers.
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Back then (Score:3, Informative)
Hell, I can't get my 8800GTX from 2 years ago to work because EVGA won't honor their "Lifetime* Warranty".
*apparently NOT lifetime
Re:Model M Keyboard (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Model M Keyboard (Score:2, Informative)
I got this... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Model M Keyboard (Score:1, Informative)
No need to weep. They still make 'em: http://pckeyboards.stores.yahoo.net//
They can have my model M when they pry it... well, you know.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Model M Keyboard (Score:3, Informative)
Ignore my post. Jumped the gun. While I do have 2 keyboards, they are for IBM terminals and not adaptable for PC use.
I assume you mean they cannot be directly plugged in. This is not the same as "adaptable". Depending on the amount of effort you are willing to spend, almost anything/a. is adaptable for use as a PC keboard. [multipledigression.com]
You can STILL rent a Bell System phone! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Just Throw It on the Meme Heap (Score:5, Informative)
If you watched the video you'd know that this acoustic coupler doesn't support AT commands - or any other kinds of commands. it just converts bits it receives on the serial port into pulses in the tone it generates, and it converts pulses it receives into bits on the serial port.
Amiga (Score:3, Informative)
A couple of years ago I fired up my old Amiga 1000. What's that, circa '84, '85? Nifty machine. Still have my Apple II+, but that's been in storage forever. Also have an original Macintosh, but no peripherals (was someone's paperweight). I powered it up, sounded like it was working, but no screen. Haven't got around to cracking it open to play with the innards. Oh, forgot the old Okidata dot matrix printer for the II+. Wonder if I could get that to work? I'll have to find it. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever thrown out any computer equipment. Well, at least they eBay now!