Control-Alt-Recycle 334
klevin writes "Grist magazine's running an article on what to look for when the old PC's running out of gas and you want to avoid trashing the environment even further. Their suggestions include: upgrade instead of replacing, go for LCD monitors instead of CRTs and, if replacing, reuse the old one as an MP3 server on your home network."
There's also the Computer Recycling Center... (Score:5, Interesting)
Or, if you're on the other end, you can also apply for a used computer [crc.org].
goodwill does it too (Score:5, Informative)
Re:goodwill does it too (Score:3, Informative)
I put out a few old monitors, a few GUTTED 486 systems, and a ton of cables. they were all picked up by a metal salvage guy within a few hours.
apparently there's a fair amount of gold and copper in them thar boards if you know where to look.
the guy was going to essentially strip them down to scrap and sell the metals.
doesn't exactly deal with some of the other issues (all those parts he DOESN'T salvage...
but at least the guilt is off my back.
at least the guilt is off my back...? (Score:3, Insightful)
Did taking the useful parts make the safe disposal of the rest of these computers my responsibility?
By taking the memory and hard drives I turned two of
New Giant Fees! (Score:5, Funny)
Might I suggest that anyone seeking to purchase a computer in California after July 2004, to instead jump in the car and drive north to Oregon to make the purchase?
We have no idiot fees here and NO SALES TAX for anyone, on anything, at anytime. There are several well-stocked and knowledgeable PC stores in Medford just across the border. The trip is about 400 miles each way.
The drive from the Bay Area is beautiful on the Hwy 101 route (same highway number, but not the demon road of Silicon Valley) and goes through one of the most beautiful places on Earth, the Redwood National Park. There are interesting and inexpensive hostels to stay at in both Kalmath (1 mile north of Trees Of Mystery) and Ashland.
Even with high gasoline prices, the savings from not paying the idiot California sales tax and the new recycling fees make the trip worthwhile. Plus the beautiful scenery is rejuvenating experience for those who spend far too much time staring at symbols on a PC monitor.
Re:New Giant Fees! (Score:3, Interesting)
We have no idiot fees here and NO SALES TAX for anyone, on anything, at anytime. There are several well-stocked and knowledgeable PC stores in Medford just across the border. The trip is about 400 miles each way.
Yes, damn those Californians for trying to make us bear the cost of our actions (buying computers). Better to defer that cost 5 years down the road and refuse to pay for recycling then, too.
reusing (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:reusing (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd also like to know how upgrading an old machine is more environmentally friendly. For one, it's not practical as core components can only be upgraded so far before you reach the point of diminishing returns. Also, most of the problem is in the materials used in CRTs, so "upgrading" them means replacment anyway.
Re:reusing (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:reusing (Score:5, Insightful)
80% of home users can do just fine with that horribly old pentium III-800 (hell a 500 is just fine) running windows 98 or another efficient OS (no W2K and XP are NOT efficient in any way) running Office 97 (when OO.o is as fast as office 97 I'll reccomend it) and basic internet.
they are not using 60% of their computer.. Gamers? they think they need more.. where I found they need the video card (Ut2004 runs absolutely great with a new modern video card on a P-III-866 with all the goodies turned on) and rarely need the 4.6Ghz P4Extreme and the 2000Mhz FSB and quad DDR with load balancing and go fast fins as well a SATA 20,000rpm drives with 64meg cache and Ultra 900 bus....
most upgrades at home are in vain or for vanity reasons. you dont need a 2ghz machine to surf the web, write and read email and do taxes + the little bit of wordprocessing...
that said, I do enjoy all the 500mhz -> 1ghz machines I have been given as they were "throwing them out" after they got their new computer.
Re:reusing (Score:3, Insightful)
They don't crash, they have greater security than 98.
If a computer has enough RAM to run either without swapping, and it's going to be connected to the net at all, it should use 2k or XP. Or Linux.
Re:reusing (Score:5, Informative)
Computers as Electric Heaters (Score:4, Interesting)
True for your house, yes. But not necessarily for the total amount of energy. If you heat your house with oil, almost all chemical energy in the oil is used to heat the house.
Yeah... if you have an efficient furnace.
I'm currently in Ottawa, Canada - either the coldest or second coldest world capital. I'm renting, 'cause there ain't no way in hell that I plan on living here permanently. And the house I'm renting has a 35-year-old oil furnace.
Estimating its efficiency at 70%, I did some calculations based on my best oil quote. I looked up the BTUs of heat per gallon of heating oil, and compared it to the BTUs of heat per kWh of electricity. Since electricity here was fixed at 4.3 cents/kWh (up to 4.7 cents/kWh as of April 1), it was cheaper to heat by electricity. The situation would have been different if I were using a newer oil or gas furnace.
Remember, all electricity consumed inside the house, in one way or another, heats the house - the exceptions being the small amounts of light, sound and RF energy which escape. My roommates loved it - "Go ahead, leave the lights on, but close the blinds first!"
Therefore, I heated my house with electricity. I'd been planning on running a stack of Pentium-I class machines doing SETI@Home work units - at least the energy gets used for something productive on its way to becoming heat - but didn't have time to build the rack to hold all these machines, nor to duct them into the cold air return on the furnace. So instead I picked up a few $20 ceramic heaters and threw them into a big steel box ducted to the furnace and controlled by the thermostat. My electric bill from January to March was $425 - and that includes heating, lighting, the dryer, etc. - very impressively low!
But if you use electricity (be it through the computer or whatever), it takes much more energy to produce the same amount of (electric) energy, if it's produced in a fossile fuel power plant. A coal plant that only produces electricity has, what, 50% efficiency maximum(?). The rest of the energy is wasted in the process. If the electricity is produced in, say, a hydro plant, that's another storyVery true. Most people who think electric cars are a good idea, simply don't understand anything about electrical generation and distribution systems (like, how many coal and nuclear plants are gonna have to be built when 10,000,000 Los Angeles commuters start plugging in their electric cars every night?). It was even rampant in my electrical engineering courses in university!
In Eastern Ontario, given our proximity to Quebec, I'd assume that most of our energy is imported from their hydroelectric dams. But either way, my rationale is cost. Generally, saving money is the most powerful incentive to cut use of resources [glowingplate.com].
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
hmm (Score:5, Funny)
Re:hmm (Score:2)
Re:hmm (Score:2)
On a related note, this is something I've wanted to do for a while (I have an old P2 with a 10gig HD not doing anything). Can anyone show me an easy-to-setup MP3 streamer for Linux? I was able to cobble together a solution under Win98, but I want to use the machine as a combination PHP development box/MP3 jukebox. Open to suggestions, here.
Re:hmm (Score:4, Informative)
It doesn't really need a videocard either. Or a harddisk, if you already have a server for other purposes that can provide an NFS root filesystem. My MP3 (or rather OGG) server is a Pentium 75 with a fanless lightweigh PSU, an AWE 64 Gold soundcard, a network card and a floppy drive for the kernel (which I could replace by a boot ROM if I ever get to it). As a side note, the lower CPU requirement for OGG decoding (vs. MP3) really shows on this system (any background task causes MP3 playback to stutter, while OGG playback still goes fine).
Can anyone show me an easy-to-setup MP3 streamer for Linux?
I simply installed Debian Sarge with some useful player programs. I can't give you a complete HowTo, but once you've got the base system running it should be trivial to browse through the Debian "sound" section of programs and find whatever you need.
Re:hmm (Score:2)
Re:hmm (Score:4, Informative)
I wrote that software, cheers for the pimping! As a small note though you should use either the GNU Address [gnu.org], or the gnump3d.org [gnump3d.org] domain.
Since it became part of the GNU Project everything was migrated away from SourceForge.
The bottom line (Score:3, Insightful)
(hey, I can still use this case, etc etc)
Or... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Or... (Score:2)
I've got four bare bones systems, case, Motherboard and processor that I've had lying around for ages.
K7 and PIII boards, 200mhz to probably 600 for the fastest one.
All I know are geeks and I've run out of family members who need a PC.
So, want them?
Hell, anyone willing to come to the Boston area want them?
They were free from work, and the local charities I know about only take fully functional PCs, so one without a hard drive are not acceptable!
Not likely (Score:2)
I'm not going to keep a bunch of useless parts around.
Re:Not likely (Score:2, Funny)
You're going to regret saying that when ISA comes back. You have been warned.
-m
Re:Not likely (Score:2)
And you know what? I am.
sheesh (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:sheesh (Score:2)
Re:sheesh (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:sheesh (Score:2, Insightful)
Working at a state-department has a
Re:sheesh (Score:2, Insightful)
Often, it costs a terrible lot of money for the place your donating to to fix the thing up to make it usable. I've tried donating computers before, but had problems. They had had so many problems with computers needing various levels of help, it wasn't worth it.
An alternate solution is to not freaking upgrade everytime something faster comes out. I have
Re:sheesh (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:sheesh (Score:2, Interesting)
MP3 server on a home network? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:MP3 server on a home network? (Score:3, Insightful)
conservation (Score:2, Insightful)
Reuse a good option (Score:4, Informative)
Sure that machine's processor is only 750Mhz, but a laptop with no screen and a large hard drive makes a nice "blade server" sitting on the shelf and with a core operating system running the CPU load is never high.
John.
Re:Reuse a good option (Score:3, Insightful)
What world are you living in? 750Mhz is quite significant in my mind. Other than my Desktop machine (1.67GHz), I have no other PCs that are more than 233Mhz.
Help 'net security (Score:5, Interesting)
Seriously... I've recycled a bunch of old pentium-class machines that were headed for the landfill by setting up a "smoothie" and giving them away to ppl.
Doing my part to stamp out worms and viruses.
Re:Help 'net security (P-class) (Score:2)
Pentium systems are fantastic as firewalls. It is more processing power than you need, and they are quiet. Mine doesn't even have a CPU or case fan, just the power supply. The only disadvantage is that they are usually kind of big. Other than that, they are perfect. If you use a bootable firewall (or customize your own CD) then you can get rid of th
go ahead (Score:3, Informative)
Also, I'll wager the uber-cheap router you just purchased doesn't have any IDS capability (like Snort), or a cacheing proxy, or eye-candy graphs, or remote management via SSH, or any of the other nifty features that smoothwall offers.
Yes, your hardware might not last... but the point i
MP3 server (Score:3, Insightful)
I certainly don't have a better solution admitedly, but I'm pretty sure this needs some work.
Re:MP3 server (Score:2)
Re:MP3 server (Score:3, Informative)
what happened to the UPS program? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:what happened to the UPS program? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:what happened to the UPS program? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:what happened to the UPS program? (Score:2)
Re:what happened to the UPS program? (Score:2)
At any rate, these programs exist and are the easiest way to safely get rid of your crap.
In the UK... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:In the UK... (Score:3, Funny)
Out of curiousity, which council? Mine (Glasgow) ... oh, hell, my council's been called "Disnae Land" - the bin disnae get emptied, the streetlight disnae come on, etc. Recycling? Hell, that somethink to do with bi-cycles?
Cost of power usage per CPU? (Score:2)
It may even be a equally evil choice, more toxic trash in the dump if you chuck the 'puter, or more toxic crap in the air from using extra electricity.
what about the library? (Score:2)
One will become a new firewall... one a fileserver... the possibilities are endless.
I don't know about you, but most of my colleagues just throw old computers away... I rescued 3 or 4 out of a colleague's garage a few months ago. Most physicians are NOT computer saavy, and might be open to assistance from
Recycling? (Score:2, Insightful)
Question (Score:3, Insightful)
reuse the old one as an MP3 server on your home network
If your network is then compromised and your MP3 server becomes visible to the outside, even in a limited capacity, do you then get zapped for sharing your MP3s? That would suck if you didn't even know it was happening and suddenly you get a summons.
Re-use is best (Score:5, Interesting)
The big culprits, however, are CRTs. Manufacturing those things is awful. My father's company once contracted with (Sony, I think) a Singapore manufacturer to remove and purify all the water from their industrial runoff from CRT manufacturing. Dad's company had been working on an ultrapure water system for the Shuttle, so they knew they could do it. However, the final product (a sludge) was so toxic that it would have cost more to dispose of than just diluting the wastewater and
Re:Re-use is best (Score:3, Insightful)
First: I agree with you. LCD screens are getting to the point where they're almost OK for games, and they're better for text. However, two things come to mind that you really want a CRT monitor for. One is Graphics design. You can fine tune the color pallate on a CRT. But, no big deal, we could get over that.
The other is TV's.
That's the big hurdle here.
~Will
Re:Re-use is best (Score:2)
A few years ago I had to find an LCD manufacturer for a custom LCD. I was to find that there are virtually no LCD manufacturers in the EU because environmental legislation on all the hairy chemicals makes it too expensive. Apparentlly they are all made in "emerging economies".
Perhaps places like the EU should only allow inports of LCD from countries which implement the same environmental legislation.
local nonProfits (Score:5, Interesting)
I hate to see perfectly good equipment go to waste. (Especially just because I wanted the latest and greatest!)
K12LTSP (Score:3, Insightful)
FWIW
Right on... (Score:2, Funny)
Hell, i hooked up a USB cam w/ motion detect software (check sourceforge) to catch which one of our cats was crapping on the couch! Worked like a dream. Plenty of apps for those old beasts.
Donate that old computer LOCALLY... (Score:3, Insightful)
All of this is, of course, in theory... not that I've really done that yet. All my 'preciouses' are with me still...
Re:Donate that old computer LOCALLY... (Score:3, Funny)
My idea was to give my old PC to my 5 year old son so he is not always hogging my PC to play games.
Trouble is the games he gets off the corn flakes packet require more PC horsepower than my development environment.....so guess who gets left with the old one!
Too many computers. (Score:2)
But how many MP3 servers can one person use? I have a Mac II, 2 386s, 2 486s, 1 100 MHz, 1 133 MHz, 1 233 MHz, 1 Pentium 400 MHz, 1 Pentium 500 Mhz, and an Athlon 900 MHz all sitting around. I don't need 11 computers sitting around serving stuff up. I only have them all still because I haven't decided to throw some of them out in the trash yet (and I've been harvesting small components off of the older ones). Although I am using 1 as an OpenBSD router, and the 400, 500, and 900 machines are still good for
The Three R's (Score:4, Informative)
The recent announcment where Intel is building greener chips is an example of reduce...as is simplified packaging, reusable containers, using your own coffee mug instead of a disposable cup etc.
The next best thing is Reuse. I recently turned my old box into a file server for example. The downside is this machine is always on (i.e. I have two heaters in my basement instead of one). I can reduce my power consumption a bit by clocking it down...but not eliminate that electrical demand completely.
All in all I think a general awareness of the "Total Cost of Ownership" on a global scale will hopefully lead to more enlightened decision making. That some of the big players are taking part is a good sign.
New PC purchases (Score:4, Interesting)
Keeping old machines in service is fine, but I'm not so sure about finding new uses for them for the sake of not switching them off..
On a similar note, new PC purchases. The library at my Uni has got a whole bunch of new Pentium 4s with WinXP in the library, for running a web client for searching through book records... nearby, the bank of ~20 monocrhome Wyse text-mode dumb terminals are still ticking away after something like 15 years? Meanwhile I'm running simulations on sub-800MHz PIIIs in the labs!
Ahh bureaucracy...
- Paul
Sad... (Score:2)
Regions around Quebec, Canada.. (Score:3, Informative)
another form of reuse (Score:2)
I'd Like to see my old 17-inch monitor that is Officially Dead swimming with a few goldfish. The next time family comes to visit: "Wow, that screensaver keeps getting better and better!"
MP3 server (Score:3, Insightful)
to someone else who will use it...
and use the identical amount of energy...
Think hard.... (Score:3, Insightful)
You have a few scenarios:
1. You set up a new machine and trash the old one. You use one PC's worth of power, and it's more than enough to handle serving your mp3s while you do other things. Downside, you trashed the old one and released the toxic badness.
2. You set up a new machine and keep the old one for mp3s. Same as #1, but uses twice the power.
3. You set up a new machine and donate the old one to someone else who will use it. Same
Re:MP3 server (Score:2)
There's the whole "benefit of use" issue as well, but that's murky at best, and telling others how they should use (or not use) their own belongings on a "moral" or "ethical" basis is th
Like bashing your head against the wall (Score:3, Interesting)
But there must be some space out there for sites specialising in hardware re-use.....maybe offering e-stores for hard to get parts or "adapters".
Links anybody :-)
Re:Like bashing your head against the wall (Score:3, Funny)
LCDs have a fatal flaw though (Score:3, Interesting)
Also in my experience they are more fragile (owing possibly to their smaller size and weight) and prone to failure than CRTs. If you have to replace an LCD 3 times over a 6-year period vs a CRT's never, is it really a better choice for the environment to go with LCDs?
Re:LCDs have a fatal flaw though (Score:5, Insightful)
And these LCDs aren't exactly Llyama or Sony displays either - try cheap Acer/BenQ/LGe.
Then again, I'm not on the sales/warranty returns and LCD sales have only picked up in the last 18 months in my area so I may have yet to see all the caveats.
As far as developing faults are concerned, LCDs seem to either work fine or not work at all.
Cheap CRTs, on the other hand, especially large ones, love to get cracked PCBs or imploded tubes when moving house. Also, they run hotter with higher voltages, and the repairs seem to be more involved; HV circuitry collapses, power supplies die, OSDs go crazy, HO transistor dies, caps dry up, diodes go open circuit, dry joints cause intermittent faults, temperature related problems, picture becomes distorted/washed out/unfocused...
Cheap LCDs are a lot nicer to pack up and send back for repair. Packing up a cheap 19" CRT is quite costly compared to sending back a LCD, or motherboard or HDD...
As far as useability is concerned, it seems most offices we're fitting out would disagree with you. A cheap LCD is much better on the eyes IMHO than a cheap CRT. Cheap, nasty, half-working CRTs that some employess put up with are particulary worse than any LCD.
- Paul
Questionable... (Score:2)
I think this is questionable environmental (as well as economic) advice. A computer, even without a monitor, will probably be eating sixty watts or so, while using a docked iPod or similiar runs maybe five watts. That's 55*24*365 = 481 kWh per year of electricity, which in most cases comes from burning fossil fuels (that in turn needed to be explored, mined/drilled, transported), compared to the production of a new device.
I am far from convinced which is
more boxes, must have more... (Score:2, Interesting)
The constant utility uses of Linux never cease to amaze me.
CVB
LCDs vs. CRTs. (Score:2, Interesting)
For instance, my company did some downsizing in the past few years. This means they had extra CRTs that they were going to trash. I took some home.
Isn't it better that I use used CRTs that still have life rather than buying a new LCD?
Energy costs ARE factored in! (Score:5, Informative)
"... released a ... report on the environmental impact of computers, from production through USE and disposal." (emPHAsis mine)
A friend of mine just measured his power consumption on a 24/7 P166 MP3 server machine and concluded it costs 52.3 kwh/month ($6.14/month for him). Even if the monitor were constantly in use (~double the above numbers) he'd have to save $150 a year with NEW equipment (cost to make/buy + (cost to dispose x2) VS cost to run) to justify trashing the old. If he used a clever timer system so it was only on when needed, then he'd save lots more and REALLY have to work hard to justify new equipment.
The math seems very in favor of careful reutilization in most cases. You have to have something really sucky to justify getting a new thing and THROWING OUT the old thing. The materials almost always cost more to deal with than the energy consumed for use, apparently.
Re:Energy costs ARE factored in! (Score:3, Interesting)
you pay attention to these things when you generate your own power and switching from the 21 inch crt's to the LCD's cut my power bill in 1/2. (Yes I have solar, no I dont have any batteries, I generate electricity and back feed it to the city grid. at n
How best to implement an MP3 server? (Score:3, Interesting)
This can be problematic if I'm doing other network intensive stuff clogging the pipe.. or listening to raw
Is there MP3 server software with a client that supports streaming with cache or something similar to whats used over the web to even out the hiccups?
Re:How best to implement an MP3 server? (Score:3, Informative)
The whole recycling system needs to be built (Score:5, Informative)
As for donations, the schools in my area won't accept anything less than a Pentium III, so the whole "the only need an old P75" isn't going to work anymore.
Recycling never takes off until the law says it has to. Until real recycling is a requirement, it just is not profitable enough to build that infrastructure.
Re:The whole recycling system needs to be built (Score:2, Informative)
That's because school's are run as a bureaucracy, which always seem to think they need the latest/greatest to justify the budget they're given. They don't, of course, but there's no incentive for them not to. (I learned the same basic WP/spreadsheet skills on an Apple ][e that would probably still run if they hadn't thrown it out. You don't need a 3G
Re:The whole recycling system needs to be built (Score:4, Informative)
You are doing great work, but it only prevents those computers entering a landfill for another couple of years (or for Macs, make it 4 years).
I disagree with you about the school problem. First of all, not every school is run the same way. Also, why should they be taking my old junk? Since an Apple ][ is good enough, why do I replace my computers? Personally, I do it because newer ones use less power and accomplish more work, I need to run Final Cut Pro and Photoshop, and I want Mac OS X which won't run on my old dual PII.
The person buying a new machine, or his first machine, may only run e-mail, but he can't buy an old P75 easily, and he can get a new PC from Gateway for 400 USD. And, that old P75 will not run Windows XP. That is why I think the problem of toxins has to be dealt with on the supply side.
Re:The whole recycling system needs to be built (Score:3, Interesting)
Question: Better Economies Through Preprocessing? (Score:5, Interesting)
Recycling old computer equipment here at the mission is a huge problem. We have a growing pile of old monitors and other computer equipment. This stuff comes to us through donations to our thrift store.
Unfortunately, most of the computer equipment that comes to us is useless. We don't sell it through our thrift store: we've found that no matter what we say, people expect technical support after buying a computer. For the most part we don't use the computers ourselves. We could start declining donations of computer equipment, but even that can be difficult to enforce... stuff has a way of slipping in anyway.
So for the time being, the equipment, especially the monitors, just keeps piling up. I've worked hard to convince my coworkers that it's wrong to just dump the monitors in the trash. Happily, this is a place where ethical concerns do count.
One idea I've had is to strip out the electronics from all the equipment and ship just the electronics to a recycler. We would trash the plastic cases. The idea is that we would drastically reduce the volume and weight of the material, thereby reducing shipping costs to something that might be profitable. Labor would be free: the addiction recovery program includes working full time at an assignment in the mission, and most of the guys are plenty handy with screwdrivers and other tools.
Has anybody has any experience with something like this? I think I could sell the idea if we even just broke even. Is there any hope for Preprocessing for Fun and Profit (especially profit)?
That's moronic. (Score:3, Insightful)
if replacing, reuse the old one as an MP3 server on your home network
You're just postponing the eventual landfill anyway, and in the meantime, consuming 200W or so of electricity 24/7. Where I live, electricity comes from coal, which among other things, causes acid rain.
A much better idea would be to donate the PC to a school or a nonprofit charity.
CRTs vs. LCDs, Lifespan (Score:5, Insightful)
One issue I see with choosing LCD panels over CRT displays is that of lifespan. It's not uncommon for a CRT to outlive it's "useful" lifespan. I've acquired several older CRTs this way from my previous employer.
15" CRTs that were deemed too small for desktop use, old-skool 21" CRTs that had too much screen curvature and were simply too big compared to newer 19" and 21" CRTs (that were also a fraction of the cost). All of these CRTs are four to eight years old and still functioning.
Comparing this with what my experience has been with LCD panels is that they have failure rates higher than that of CRTs. I've seen this mostly with notebook screens. This comparision isn't entirely fair, as notebooks receive considerablly more abuse than a desktop+CRT. However, LCD panels have backlights (usually a miniature florescent bulb) that will burn out eventually. On notebooks, these backlights are integrated into the panel itself and are not replaceable parts by themselves. I don't know if this is the case with desktop LCD panels, but I suspect it is.
So the question is, how does using LCD panels vs. CRTs really impact the environment considering failure rates and manufacturing defects?
Ree - cy - cleeng? (Score:4, Funny)
Well maybe she should have thought of that when she was besetting us with droughts and floods and poison monkeys! Nature started the fight for survival, and now she wants to quit because she's losing.
Well I say, hard cheese.
http://www.internet-guide.co.uk/simpsons-quotes
re-use isn't an option for me (Score:2, Offtopic)
But, I used this to my advantage -- when the Linux server recently took up smoking as a new
PC Recycling (Score:2)
There is a whole pit full of monitors, arranged as if they were balls in a ball pit [google.com]. One of the guys there tried taking one out and ended up destroying a whole bunch of them when the whole stack collapsed. Oops. A lot of monitors also fail the day long soak test too.
At least we can get something useful out of old stuff. We have two boxes full of copper fr
mp3 server software (Score:4, Informative)
Portland's "Free Geek" Recycling Effort (Score:5, Informative)
http://freegeek.org/
They charge $5 to recycle a PC or monitor. If it has usable parts, they strip them out and use them to build Linux-loaded PCs for schools, nonprofits, and the like.
Labor comes from volunteers. They will give you a PC for every six you build / refurb.
Stefan
Linux-Ecology-HOWTO (TLDP) (Score:3, Informative)
Setting up an MP3 Server is a bad idea. (Score:3, Insightful)
There are places that you can take equipment to be disassembled and the metals, glass and plastics be extracted.
Donatations to Computer Recycling Center [crc.org] is one example of getting rid of an old PC. But if the parts are too old they will want money for disposal. There are many places like this. It is a far better solution than using old PCs as "servers".
Dinky MP3 Server (Score:3, Insightful)
You could take that old P75 with it's 300MB hard drive and... well... you could put like 5 or 6 CDs on it.
Ok, so you buy a new hard drive and video card to replace the ones you gutted out of it for your new PC, a network card since the old PC only had a modem, and by the time you've spent all that money your neighbor has an iPod one tenth the size that does the job way better!
I've got a PILE of old computer stuff I'd love to do something with, but it's so obsolete it's not worth it.
I just don't have the heart to throw away that old 300 baud modem!
Re:I've done this, but... (Score:2, Informative)
- Paul
Re:HOW STUPID: LCD INSTEAD OF CRT?! (Score:2)
I still use a 14" CRT monitor I bought back in '95. Does anyone seriously think a LCD could last that long?! I probably would have went through 4 LCDs during that same length of time.