Hello, All!   
      
   http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/14/amiga-controls-school-distric   
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   Engadget&?ncid=rss_full   
      
   An '80s-era Amiga controls the heating for an entire school district   
      
   Think the Windows XP workstation you use at the office is ancient? It doesn't   
   hold a candle next to what the Grand Rapids Public School district is using to   
   control its climate systems. All 19 schools covered by the authority depend on   
   a nearly 30-year-old Commodore Amiga 2000 to automate their air conditioning   
   and heating. It communicates to the other schools using a pokey 1,200 baud   
   modem and a wireless radio so behind the times that it occasionally interferes   
   with maintenance workers' walkie talkies. Oh, and a high school student wrote   
   the necessary code -- if something goes wrong, the district has to contact the   
   now middle-aged programmer and hope that he can fix it. It's a testament to   
   the dependability of the Amiga in question, but you probably wouldn't want to   
   trust the well-being of thousands of students to a computer that's probably   
   older than some of the teachers.   
      
   There's a good reason why the school district has been hanging on to this   
   vintage solution for so long. Replacing it with a modern system could cost up   
   to $2 million dollars, which isn't exactly chump change when an HVAC   
   controller upgrade is usually low on the priority list. There may be relief in   
   sight, however. If the electorate passes a $175 million bond proposal, the   
   district will have the cash it needs to replace its Amiga with a computing   
   platform that was built sometime this century.   
      
       WBR, Alex Kovrigin    
      
   --- Mail Manager 1.22x/n #1509   
    * Origin: Mail Manager, The Last Frontier! (2:5000/111.47@fidonet)