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> When they do it calls an antique web service that runs ‘somewhere’ at the bank. Honestly, it took me 3 weeks to find out where. A bit of a non sequitur, but
by hairofadog 5y ago
> When they do it calls an antique web service that runs ‘somewhere’ at the bank. Honestly, it took me 3 weeks to find out where.
A bit of a non sequitur, but this part reminds me of a place I worked where there was an old computer terminal set up in the middle of the receptionist’s office, which was tiny, and you had to kind of scootch around it to get in. It was like that for an unknown number of years.
One day before I started working there a couple of smart fellers asked what it was for, and nobody knew, so they investigated and found it wasn’t plugged into anything except the electrical outlet in the wall. Even so, it took them a while to gather the courage to unplug it, because who knows what crazy systems the people before you have set up.
Epilogue: They moved it to a stairwell where it sat for another couple of years looking like the saddest computer in the world before it was finally hauled away. [^1]
[^1]: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aboxwithrocksinit/test-bucket/main/sad-computer.png https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aboxwithrocksinit/test-buc...
- Stratoscope 5y agoThat's no terminal, that's an entire computer you got there. Albeit a very sad one with a busted keyboard. Doesn't need to be plugged into anything but electricity, and probably didn't even have one of your fancy Ethernet jacks. No Wi-Fi either; that hadn't been invented yet. Just a standalone machine that did what it could, until it was so cruelly abandoned.
- dmux 5y agoI always love hearing stories about long forgotten computers / servers that just silently hum away in the background for years. Kind of reminds me of the story about the old Novell server that ended up behind a wall after some construction [0]. Great image by the way. [0] https://www.theregister.com/2001/04/12/missing_novell_server_discovered_after/ https://www.theregister.com/2001/04/12/missing_novell_server...