Greg's Corner

Auto shop still using Commodore 64 computer

One of the most beloved and popular home computers of the 1980s was the Commodore 64. It was so popular that they were manufacturing units until 1994. For $600, at the time, you would get a system that had 64kb of RAM and 20kb of storage. However, for and additional cost you could add a 5 1/4″ floppy drive or a cassette player for additional storage. By today’s standards the Commodore 64 wouldn’t match the computing power of a low-end smartphone.

That’s not to say that the Commodore still doesn’t have a place in certain corners of the world. Supporting the old adage of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, an auto repair shop in Poland has been using a Commodore 64 for the past 25 years to balance driveshafts.

This really should come as no surprise as the Commodore and other appliances of the time were built to last. In today’s culture we see a lot of our tech devices as disposable. At one time, if your TV broke down you would call a TV repairman, and he would have to come to your house because most home TV’s at the time were too heavy and cumbersome to transport. Now, if a TV has a few dead pixels we’ll scrap it and just buy a new one. The same goes for computers and phones today. Most computers usually have a shelf life of about 4 years while smart phones are replaced even more frequently.

Does this make us more advanced or more wasteful?