PCA Forums

http://jalopnik.com/this-ancient-laptop ... 1773662267

This is a Compaq LTE 5280 laptop from the early 1990s, running a bespoke CA card. In 2016, McLaren Automotive—one of the most high-tech car and technology companies on the planet—still uses it and its DOS-based software to service the remaining hundred McLaren F1s out there, each valued at $10 million or more.

I hope that companies start to learn not to base their stuff too heavily off hardware eventually.

My Dentist ran into this issue. The first gen XRay sensors were PCMCIA based. My dentist had to nurse along a bunch of old PCs with PCMCIA card slots that only supported XP for a while until they upgraded to USB based sensors. Keep in mind these sensors cost $5K a piece so it's not a cheap upgrade.

FlyingPenguin wrote:My Dentist ran into this issue. The first gen XRay sensors were PCMCIA based. My dentist had to nurse along a bunch of old PCs with PCMCIA card slots that only supported XP for a while until they upgraded to USB based sensors. Keep in mind these sensors cost $5K a piece so it's not a cheap upgrade.

It would be well for Microsoft to subsidize upgrades for the medical communities. I know it's not the bulk of their business but it would give them a better public image.

Before OBD II, I believe most car manufactures had their own specialized equipment for diagnosing cars. Cars have come a long way. Now with a 30 Bluetooth adapter and $5 Torque software, you can figure out the majority of problems yourself.

That's what happens when you build shit correctly and it runs for decades. The downside to it is that they're dependent on that old tech. Hope they can update it.