1980s computer controls Grand Rapids Public School heat and AC

Re:1980s computer controls Grand Rapids Public School heat a... by geon on Friday June 12, 2015 @11:42AM (#9706567)

Some arduinos with an ethernet shield and a super simple web backend?

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Re:1980s computer controls Grand Rapids Public School heat a... by aswanson on Friday June 12, 2015 @01:10PM (#9707205)

Nah, somebody would say it need json-serialized config files, a flash-file system, a rails-based admin login running on a few amazon instances for fail over....

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Re:1980s computer controls Grand Rapids Public School heat a... by mmagin on Friday June 12, 2015 @02:52PM (#9707835)

"Simple" Ha. There's this whole coprocessor in the ethernet shield with its own proprietary implementation of TCP/IP and who knows when someone will find a serious bug in it. Then in 30 years you have a TCP/IP stack with a serious security issue and no way to patch it!

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Re:1980s computer controls Grand Rapids Public School heat a... by sliverstorm on Friday June 12, 2015 @01:07PM (#9707179)

Ethernet is great, but thirty years from now it and/or RJ-45 might sound just as antiquated.

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Re:1980s computer controls Grand Rapids Public School heat a... by teacup50 on Friday June 12, 2015 @05:36PM (#9708714)

Doubt it; 10Base-T is 26 years old, and still works with today's modern 10Gbase-T NICs.

There will be backwards compatibility options for an awfully long time.

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Re:1980s computer controls Grand Rapids Public School heat a... by technofiend on Friday June 12, 2015 @01:56PM (#9707487)

How right you are. On the other hand I'm continually surprised that my paycheck in 2015 comes (more or less) from a descendent of an operating system I learned in the 80's.

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Re:1980s computer controls Grand Rapids Public School heat a... by geon on Friday June 12, 2015 @02:10PM (#9707581)

Sure. And then it's time to retire it, after a job well done.

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