Getting emotionally attached to hardware

[chiphead]

Have you ever felt bad throwing out perfectly funtional yet obsolete computer hardware, especially one that's been with you over the years? I'm not one to call my computer "Betsy" or anything but the other day while I was replacing my trusty Plextor 8x CDR burner (SCSI at that!) with an el cheapo Liteon 52x drive, I couldn't help but shed a tear that this old faithful was no longer be part of my life. It had outlived it's useful life and was now going to a landfill somewhere to deterioate to rust. The Plextor had been in my system over 4 years and aside from my floppy drive, it's probably the oldest piece of hw still in use today. It was still burning discs at a decent clip (10 minutes vs ~2 minutes for the 52x drive).

I guess you could call this an eulogy to the dearly departed. Goodbye my Plextor, you will be missed...

[jtan]

i missed my palm 3x when i sold it for US$18...

i used it everyday in school for more than 2 years. being with me when i travel out of town too.

[Ian]

I still have my TEAC 6x CD-R.

Not a CD-RW either.. a CD-R!!

[CDRecorder]

Yes, I have the same thoughts, chiphead. That's why I still have my 1993 Gateway 486 computer that runs at 66 MHz. It's 10 years old, and it still runs great (although its original 425-MB HDD died a couple years ago, and it now has a 4-GB Maxtor). I even still have the 2x CD-ROM drive that came with that computer (later replaced with a 32x Samsung).

[UALOneKPlus]

I agree. I have a HP 2X2X6 CDRW that I can't just up and toss away. I wish there was someway I could donate it to someone who could find it useful

Of course this builds to the clutter I have in my spare bedroom, so I need to figure out how to get rid of it without wasting it...

[TheWizard]

Are you kidding? I feel bad throwing anything out that I have owned for a while! Computer hardware, phones, books, shoes, underwear, you name it!

[socheat]

I've never actually thrown any computers or components out. Parts either get handed down to friends and family, and computers are either handed down or converted into servers and put to work. I tell everybody I've ever met to never throw out a computer, just give it to me.

Of course this builds to the clutter I have in my spare bedroom, so I need to figure out how to get rid of it without wasting it...

You might want to check your city's recycling policy. Where I live now, we can recycle computers, but it costs us $5 a computer. In my parents hometown, recycling computers is free. I did have some really, really old computer cases (leftover from when I scrapped it for parts) that I took to their recycling center.

Socheat

[Turkeyscore.com]

though some computers you just want to shoot....

and others, well I assume that most of you have seen this www.turkeyscore.com/lan.htm

[Action Jackson]

I can't really throw out any of my hardware [or software for that matter].

The Wizard, ummmm..... you gotta throw out the underwear at least.......

[TheWizard]

The Wizard, ummmm..... you gotta throw out the underwear at least.......

When the elastic is totally worn out and there are multiple holes, then it is time for the garbage can. I get the most out of my goods.

[David]

I still have a 420MB tape backup drive which connects to the floppy drive cable. Works under MS-Dos 3.1 PC-Dos 3.1 or Windows 3.1 or higher.

[manni]

I'm addicted to ISA SoundBlasters, I have SB AWE64 Gold on my Duron based system and SB AWE64 on older PC. And I'm still using 10 years old HP DeskJet 310 printer, I don't have any reason to replace it with new one.

[BillyG]

My father is the worst - he still uses a 386 33mhz in his office to do spreadsheets (Lotus 1-2-3!!) on. He uses a big Okidata printer thats around the same age. Im amazed its still working and he can still get ribbons for it.

He has used Lotus since the late 1980's and knows every feature by heart, he still has trouble figuring out Excel (or even using a mouse) even though he's taken classes at the local community college. And he has a decent Pentium II (I think its a 700, OK for office apps) in the same room but his 386 gets more work. The place he works at (a small town bank) has many older computers (Gateway, Dell).

I still have Zip 100 internal drives in all my PC's - even though I hardly use them anymore. I have most of my Zip disks copied to CD so I should yank them out and put in a removable hard drive or something. I do feel affection for my STB Velocity 440 (Nvidia TNT). It was the first great videocard I ever bought and It's in a AMD K-6 500 box I built for a backup.

[MediumRare]

I still have a HP DeskJet 500 (12 years old) sitting around. I replaced it with a Canon i850 a couple of months ago mainly because the original ink was so expensive and my 3rd-party source dried up. It still works if fed decently, but my wife is bugging me to make room, so it will have to go

He has used Lotus since the late 1980's and knows every feature by heart

Don't you ever wish to dominate your tools like that instead of them (mostly M$ stuff) wagging you?

G