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From the Christian Science Monitor: a blow-by-blow account of a 90-year old typewriter repairman’s work day.

I sometimes use typewriters as an example of legacy hardware that may be obsolete but must be maintained.

Sometimes companies must give customers products that feel familiar in order to create a competitive advantage and fulfill existing key success factors. IBM typewriters were very popular in corporations. Users loved the keyboards!

For many years, the IBM PC keyboard used the same “clicky” keypress technology as IBM’s electric typewriters. Early versions of the IBM PC could be connected to an IBM Selectric typewriter to print high quality documents.

Photo courtesy of Selectric.org

Photo courtesy of PC Magazine.

From CNN: While many web sites are hosted on microcomputers, mainframe computers continue to be a popular choice for hosting large sites and Web services.

IBM has continued to sell mainframe computers to clients that use legacy applications written for older computers.

Mainframe computers are also appropriate for running virtual servers. A single mainframe computer can run multiple virtual servers, each of which emulates a smaller computer’s operations. A virtual server can be shut down and restarted quickly, and can be described in an image file that is loaded by the mainframe’s virtualization software. In some cases, companies have found that a mainframe can replace several hardware servers while improving system availability.

The New York Times had an article in today’s edition about a web site I’ve never heard of - Legacy.com. The Times and 300 other US newspapers pay the site to post obituaries, and the site found a profitable business model in the process. Mourners can pay a fee to make the “guest books” available for a longer period of time. A traditional guest book allows mourners to write their names and thoughts at a funerl ceremony. An online guest book, like those offered by Legacy.com, let anyone with Internet access post a comment.

The web site devotes 30% of its annual budget and 60% of its employees to reading and removing over 200,000 “inappropriate comments” from the online guest books. Examples from the article include the following comments, which we were all deleted by Legacy.com employees:

“Everyone gets their due,” a former client writes of an embezzling accountant. Or, “I sincerely hope the Lord has more mercy on him than he had on me during my years reporting to him at the Welfare Department.”

Others are subtler: “She never took the time to meet me, but I understand she was a wonderful grandmother to her other grandchildren.”

“Reading the obit, he sounds like he was a great father,” says another, which is signed, “His son Peter.”

Many of the other deleted postings are spam, adversting caskets, religions, and pharmaceuticals.

Another site called MyDeathSpace.com posts over 25 profiles a day for recently departed MySpace members.

From the Washington Post: Microsoft has finally ended Windows 98 product support in North America. Rob Pergoro of the Washington Post discusses some inexpensive, legal alternatives to a Windows XP upgrade.

Anyone who is still running Windows 98 needs a reality check. The first version of Windows 98 didn’t support USB, and this is a key reason many users have upgraded over the years.

Now that Microsoft has stopped issuing patches and security updates, any computer running Windows 98 is a potential entry point for viruses, worms, and Trojans.

One final reason: any computer that is running Windows 98 is likely to be several years old right now. On average, desktop computers seem to last a few years. Notebook computers have an even shorter life span. Yet according to this article, 3 percent of computers are still running this operating system.

Windows 98 is an example of legacy software that is more of a burden than a benefit in most organizations.

This article first appeared on my old blog at http://www.bloglines.com/blog/wsodeman?id=36

 http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,70946-0.html

What happens when your new computer can’t open an file you created or bought years ago?

In IT, we call this a “legacy” issue. See chapter 9 and pages 326-7 for a brief discussion of legacy issues and end user resistance.

I’ve used several different word processors since 1981.

During the first year of my MBA program, our university’s computer lab used Samna Word. Samna was ugly, but it worked. The software had one ridiculous feature - if you swapped the floppy disk while a document was open, Samna would overwrite the new floppy disk’s directory tracks with the old disk’s directory information. This was a fast, effective way to lose every file on both floppy disks.

Between my first and second years, our computer lab switched to WordPerfect, which had a commanding market share at the time. WP couldn’t open Samna documents easily, but we kept Samna around so that users could save their old documents to the WP format. The converted documents still required some cleanup, as Samna’s conversion wasn’t word perfect enough. (rimshot)

File conversion is a common legacy issue for IT departments. If I had to convert my old MBA files today, I’d use Google to find a conversion service like this one. They’ll even process a 5.25 inch floppy disk, which is what I used as an MBA student.

In 1997, such conversion services were difficult to find at a moment’s notice. While I was packing for a cross-country relocation, I gulped down hard, said “goodbye”… and tossed all of my 5.25 inch floppies into a dumpster.

I hadn’t owned a working 5.25 inch floppy drive in years. Those floppy disks were in bad shape, and I didn’t see the point in retaining them. I still have some digital and hard copies of my MBA work, but the original disks are sitting deep inside a landfill in Indiana.

Between 1987 and 1997, I used WordPerfect. I can still open and read the files I created, including my dissertation.

In 1997, I moved from academia to the corporate world, and I switched to Microsoft Word. I’ve been using Word ever since, even though it’s a bulky troll of an application when compared to WordPerfect. Most Windows computers don’t have WordPerfect installed these days.