Re:Ask HN: Who's still keeping a DOS machine up because the ...
by cromka on Saturday September 26, 2026 @01:15PM
(#49858565)
OK, but the context here is IT in mission critical infrastructure, like energy or banking. These industries will not jump on the latest technology and will drag their feet for as long as possible, and for good reasons.
Also, I happen to be familiar with NotJustBikes, watch regularly. I don't see this as the same kind of problem. What you explained is clearly BROKE. What we're talking about works just fine and migration to newer technology doesn't provide advantages outside easier maintenance. It can't be justifies by costs, either.
The designs for the electrified track switches were made by one company which was sold, re-sold, and then burned down and the designs lost, and there isn't anywhere else to buy them because nowhere else uses such old track design anymore, so not only is Toronto struggling to buy parts to continue electrifying the manual junctions, it's struggling to custom-make enough replacement parts to keep the aging electric switches working faster than they fail.
And they were using trolley poles to connect to the overhead power lines instead of Pantographs until 2017, 50-100 years after everywhere else, which meant a) they couldn't get enough power through them to run air conditioning, and b) they are more likely to fall off the power line and the tram stops and the driver has to get out and reconnect them, and c) their newer trams now have to have custom dual-power connections to go through older parts of the network, and d) the carbon shoes on the trolley poles wear out quicker which means the trams are dirtier and taken out of service for maintenance more often in the wet which is when people want to use trams more.
[1] https://youtu.be/HhQxNHrD6fA?t=2311