One of the very first basic rules of IT (just after the one that most problems originate 40 cm in front of the screen) is that you should not touch a computer that is doing what is should be doing. Do not change the software, do not put in new parts, do not move it. Dust off only if you feel lucky. 

There are too many stories of computers that have smoothly worked for years and then completely died the night after they were moved from the right side of the table to the left. 

One of the most impressive of those stories is the tale of the university’s old mail server who ran smoothly since the late 80s until a blackout shut it down. Long and scary are the reports of those brave adventurers who walked down into the dusty cellars to find the lost artifact of ancient times…

https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2018/03/08/09/51/fantasy-3208206_960_720.jpg

A bit more funny is the story of the server where the IT worker tasked with replacing the still running system (tsts) called back to his superior and reported: 

>I am where the documentation says the server should be. 
And?
The building was demolished 3 years ago. 

With this background maybe you now also understand why IT’s seem to be so irrational hot when you don’t tell them if you move a part of equipment without telling them.

Anyway, we can now add another tale to those above: The one about the Grand Rapids school climate control computer. 

>A 30-year-old computer that has run day and night for decades is what controls the heat and air conditioning at 19 Grand Rapids Public Schools.
The Commodore Amiga was new to GRPS in the early 1980s and it has been working tirelessly ever since.
>A Kentwood High School student programmed it when it was installed in the 1980s. Whenever the district has a problem with it, they go back to the original programmer who still lives in the area.  

But now the time has (probably) finally come to replace that computer. 

>If voters pass a $175 million bond proposal in November, the computer is on the list of things to be replaced. 

But:

>A new, more current system would cost between $1.5 and 2 million. 

What? Wait a sec. 2 million??

It can’t be the hardware, because we are not talking about legacy Commodore parts here. Every smartphone has more power then the old Amiga! Even this 5$ thing has:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/app/uploads/2015/11/rsz_img_4054-500x349.jpg
([pic raspberrypi.org](https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-zero/))

So it can only be the software that makes it so expensive. Which sounds a bit strange, thinking about that guy that still maintains the old computer. He should know what needs to be programmed. Heck, he probably can compile the working source code to run on something modern! Maybe they forgot to ask him first?

Anyway, thank you to you and your old Commodore! 

[source](http://www.woodtv.com/news/grand-rapids/1980s-computer-controls-grps-heat-and-ac_20180329064517550/1086705524)



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