What's the oldest bit of kit still in use in your school?

[maniac]

I've just found a BNC repeater still connected to the old BNC loop in a room here. Although it wasn't actively in use, it was still switched on! Wonder when the last time data flowed through it was?

 

So just for fun, what old kit do you have floating around in your place, and what's the oldest piece of kit you still have in use?

 

Mike.

[Michael]

Nothing major really, just some floppy drives (does that count?) and serial mice

[tmcd35]

Still got some BNC connectors, terminals, co-ax lying at the bottom of a box - not used thank god! Maybe 1 serial mouse still in circulation somewhere in the school. Couple of BBC Micro's hit the skip last Easter (don't know when they where last used). We've also dumped our 700Mhz Celeron Tiny's, 1Ghz AMD Elonex's. I think the oldest bit of kit is now 2Ghz Celeron Elonex's. Though we are doing an inventory check through the whole site this summer (oh joy!) so no doubt something'll turn up in a long forgotten office in some dark corner of the school and it'll turn out that someone is still using a Pentium and Win2k? I'm convinced I excersed the school of Win95/98/2k machines 18 months back...

[pete]

Aside from the wetware, probably this:

 

It appears to be an NTP timeserver (parallel (?) ports on the back are labelled NTP1 and NTP2) - of some description, but google is annoyingly vague about it. We think one of the (many, varied and unlabelled) unused aerials on the school roof is for it, but no idea which one.

 

I can't find the photos of the ps2 powered parallel port webcam.

[CyberNerd]

I've just found a BNC repeater still connected to the old BNC loop in a room here. Although it wasn't actively in use, it was still switched on! Wonder when the last time data flowed through it was?

 

we found one of those in an office last summer, still switched on. fans were getting a bit noisy though. don't make em like they used to etc

[deanc]

Oldest bit of kit in active use every day is an HP Series 3 Vectra with a P75 processor in a socket 5, current use is as a linux print server.

[maniac]

Aside from the wetware, probably this:

 

It appears to be an NTP timeserver (parallel (?) ports on the back are labelled NTP1 and NTP2) - of some description, but google is annoyingly vague about it. We think one of the (many, varied and unlabelled) unused aerials on the school roof is for it, but no idea which one.

 

I can't find the photos of the ps2 powered parallel port webcam.

 

PS2 Powered webcam, I found one of those in a previous school, it was still new and boxed! Also in the same school found 2 old handheld B/W scanners complete with MCA cards they were new and boxed as well.

 

By the way, NTP on the back of that radio receiver box probably stands for 'Network Termination Point' as oppose to 'Network Time Protocol' so it's probably some sort of radio link to a remote network of some sort, possibly a weather satellite or simelar; a lot of schools got given weather satellite receiving kit in the 1990's. It could be something else, but this would be my best guess.

 

mike.

Edited August 6, 2008 by maniac

[srochford]

Wow! Those MCA scanners would have been expensive; I remember buying 1 about 15 years ago (maybe more?). For the time, it was really good and I still like the idea of just being able to "swipe" an image - much more compact than even the smallest flatbed scanner.

 

Pretty sure we've still got some 2Mbit radio equipment up on the roof but it's not in use.

 

Our policy is to replace at 3-4 years old for normal hardware and we generally keep to that but I do know that we have some hoarders who have old rubbish hanging around (better than my previous career as a chemistry teacher where the hoarders would take home bottles of chemicals which were no longer allowed in schools ...)

[Joedetic]

CRT Monitors probably...we have however got a Siemens Nixdorf computer on the stage that i believe was Win 3.1...don't know if it boots...I don't fancy trying it in case it blows up!

[yugo]

old tvs without scart

acorn sitting in my office waiting to be dumped.

seems to be alot of hoarders in this school!

[pete]

By the way, NTP on the back of that radio receiver box probably stands for 'Network Termination Point' as oppose to 'Network Time Protocol' so it's probably some sort of radio link to a remote network of some sort, possibly a weather satellite or simelar; a lot of schools got given weather satellite receiving kit in the 1990's. It could be something else, but this would be my best guess.

mike.

 

Hmm, geography did have a satellite dish at some point. Cheers.

[jcollings]

Our caretaker!

[Sylv3r]

Not quite ICT related - although if its got a plug.....

 

Our sound and lighting kit in our main hall is pretty old (30 year or thereabouts), this is due to be replaced in the next couple of months through a creative partnership grant however.

[steve]

The oldest kit we still have in use are 2 HP4000 laser printers.

 

Been running for about 8/9 years.

 

We do have a working Atari ST in the cupboard but we only bring that out on special occasions

[KarlGoddard]

Den, one of our techs is 62.... does that count / beat that if you can

[cookie_monster]

Our IT manager is 64 there you go

 

We have a P90 running in the food department approx 1993-4, the computer club recently got rid of an old Amiga.

Edited August 6, 2008 by cookie_monster

[Trapper]

I use an Acorn RISC PC PS2 keyboard on my service desk.

 

Circa 1994.

 

I've also got a BBC B 5.5" floppy disc of Repton, but it's stuck onto my wall

[KarlGoddard]

Our IT manager is 64 there you go

 

I NEVER win at ANYTHING

[tech-man]

Research Machines 380Z - We don't use it, however I think it will still works!

[dhicks]

Our IT manager is 64

 

A mere slip of a boy compared to a couple of our staff - we're a Catholic convent school, some of the nuns are still on active service at 80+...

 

--

David Hicks

[imiddleton25]

We have a kyocera fs-3800 thats been in daily use for 9 years this September its in one of our computer suites so get lots of use. Just got rid of a canon photocopier 6 years old and 2.5m pages still working.

We also have 2 old BBC computers that teacher wont let go of even though she does not use them.

 

Her rational is the software cost £2000 so we might need to use it ne day so keep the BBC in case.

 

I have given arguing this one its in their cupboard not my problem

[BaccyNet]

Not much old IT kit here anymore, we did a clear out a few years back: parallel CD-ROM drives, OMR reader with instruction manual & sheets, lots of acorn & BBC stuff although thinking about it, there is a BBC still in use at our college site...

 

The oldset kit in our building can be found in science though, boy do they have some crazy stuff:D

[cookie_monster]

A mere slip of a boy compared to a couple of our staff - we're a Catholic convent school, some of the nuns are still on active service at 80+...

 

That's just crazy

[Joedetic]

Your IT manager is more fun than a Nun though (I'm assuming you mean Morris...was that his name?)

[cookie_monster]

no it's Maurice hehehe no one ever spells it correctly (sales people take note if it's wrong it's in the bin) but yes he drinks beer and doesn't make me get up on sunday so i'd say more fun than a nun. (unless it's Whoopi goldberg disguised )