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What do you do with your old hardware (computer, tablet, phone, etc.)?
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What do you do with your old hardware (computer, tablet, phone, etc.)?
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(1)
(1)
You have an unusual understanding of the problems of human relationships.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday December 20, @12:13AM (1 child)
Initially I upgrade my computers, I update the motherboards/CPU together and then try to repurpose them, either by upgrading an even older computer belonging to a family member or by donating them to someone who can find a good use for them. One popular use here which surprised me is the older generation. They often welcome a much larger screen and most can cope with the technology if they can cope with a modern day phone.
Power supplies get repurposed into, well, power supplies but now in a prettier case and they are put to use in my workshop and on various projects that I tinker with.
However, some finally get cannibalised before what is left gets delivered to the local recycling centre. So while I certainly cannot say that I do "all of the above", I can say that I go through various stages depending on the age of the parts that I am replacing.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday December 20, @01:19AM
My middle kid is using my previous computer, which I built in 2016. My youngest is using the previous, which has a case about 30 years old, and which I think I rebuilt in '12, but has had a few graphics cards since then.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20, @03:00AM
I have a vault...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday December 20, @03:26AM (3 children)
I spent quite a while playing with programming an IBM PC that my family had lying around ... in the mid-1990's. It could still do all the stuff it could do 10 years earlier, I could do what I wanted with very little fear of messing up anything important, so why not?
The idea that your old stuff is useless is put forward by hardware manufacturers. Upgrade when you want to, not when they tell you to.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2) by HeadlineEditor on Friday December 20, @10:38AM (2 children)
I hardly ever get rid of any tech equipment, for this reason. Once it's no longer front-line gear, it becomes a toy or an educational tool.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday December 20, @11:07AM (1 child)
I agree, but that is why my workshop is full to overflowing and I have a total of 18 computers! Sometimes I just have to get rid of some things....
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by HeadlineEditor on Friday December 20, @04:14PM
I also enjoy making things worse for myself. In addition to the Cobalt Raq4 that still has old customer data on it, my basement also stores my Cisco ASA 5540 that I bought on ebay just to teach myself IOS, and a Sunblade 150 that I bought just to learn Solaris. At one point I was looking to switch careers to being a Solaris admin because my customers had so much need for that skill, and those guys were pulling $250k/year in NYC 15 years ago! Then the Oracle thing happened and I changed my mind. Not sure it was the right thing.
Anyway, did I get rid of those things when I was done? No, of course not. I might need them someday!
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20, @10:57AM
How else will my beowulf cluster grow? Supercomputer power from otherwise free hardware. As a bonus, it keeps you warm in the winter.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Snotnose on Friday December 20, @10:35PM (1 child)
I tend to put them in a drawer/closet with plans to do "something" with them, then in 5-10 years I wonder why I kept them and into the trash they go.
I put a "Warning: Contains scenes that may be disturbing to some viewers" label on my bathroom mirror.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Monday December 23, @05:22AM
+1
I'm currently sitting on about 6 "backup drives" alone
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 21, @08:16AM
I almost always use items until they just no longer work, so there's no point in trying to eek out more use from them by giving them away. That said, when they have reached their end of life, I just throw them away.
Before you wail about the environment, please remember that much of the information we have about older civilizations comes from their trash heaps and middens. If we "recycle" everything, future archeologists will not have any such information sources about us after we fall back into the stone age. Won't someone think of the archeologists?
That's also why you should put strange items in your coffin when you're buried (if you go that route), to introduce anomalous data into their future knowledge base, so many archeologists can get their degrees via arguing uselessly about trade routes, and assuming they are religious items dedicated to household gods that never actually existed.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Rich on Saturday December 21, @12:29PM (3 children)
My desktop Linux box gets upgraded, it's an almost 20-year old Q6600 that still is well up to the job, and I have sold on a few machines when they still had value.
But most tend to just pile up. I even got a few computers primarily for that purpose. I guess I could start a veritable retro computing channel with my own gear if I felt like fixing those which don't work anymore in front of a camera. Highlights from the last millennium would be a II+ with serial in the 600ks, a //c with self-designed 320K expansion, 8 MHz Zip & Clock and OG monitor, Atari 600XL+800XL with track-indicating Rana Floppy, Atari ST, Amiga 500, IIgs Rev01, Quadra 700, BeBox Dual 133, iMac Rev B, plus a Newton, a Handspring Visor, a new-in-box Palm V, a Light Sixer 2600, a first gen Lynx, and a PS1. This millennium's stuff is rather boring, a cheesegrate G5 Quad, and stacks of Power/MacBooks and T/W/X-Series ThinkPads.
I also have a PowerBook 150 which always was on hand as a terminal emulator. Wanted to get it out for that purpose a few weeks ago, and it was beyond gone. Sad Mac sound on power up, and an awful delaminated display. I wonder what I should do with that. There are no schematics on the net, and its practical value isn't THAT high. Should I keep it for an advanced vintage restoration, or should I hollow it out and fit a Raspi with a new screen? It could have a boot option into MAME for Missile Command and Marble Madness with its built-in trackball. :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 21, @08:59PM (2 children)
the earlier of those items could probably go to a museum.
Like literally. They might be interested, and take things off your hands, if not buy them. There's more than one museum / place of interest, so don't check only one.
If you wait 10-20 more years, eBay users might take them off your hands, providing an entire inheritance.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 22, @11:52PM (1 child)
Most museums take donations but not purchases. However, I've seen museums play ball where they will give you a donation appraisal in line with auction/market prices. That way you get the biggest tax deduction possible without actually having to find the price or buyer yourself. You can also lend your equipment to many museums. They take care of security and insurance while you keep ownership. If prices skyrocket later or rarity increases, then you are able to entertain offers later.
(Score: 2) by Rich on Monday December 23, @04:11AM
I think none of this stuff is really something a museum is interested in, that's all been mass produced and every self-respecting nerd club already has a full line up of those. Maybe with the exception of the BeBox, but that's too fringe for a general museum. Among the stuff I sold on was a ZX80 (not 81) and an Amiga 1000, these might actually be in demand. I've got to find and fix all that gear somehow, some are in my parents' cellar or AWOL otherwise. Also, I don't really want to part with a good part of them. My house needs some improvement, too, a loose idea atm is to model one cellar room in 80s arcade style as resting area for sound recording next to it (that puts the synthesizers that have ALSO piled up to actual good use) and have all the computers there in some space-saving way, but ready to power on. Not sure if running one signature game of the consumer machines - which that will amount to - is really worth it, though. It's just the IIs which are fully decked out and have been truly useful in their days (and the Q700 of course, at 1152x864, with CodeWarrior, one could develop modern software on that).
(Score: 2) by The Vocal Minority on Monday December 30, @02:44PM
Store them in my junk room until I die.