Computers
aka "This thing cost £5000 (once), there is no way I can skip it." Especially because, as anyone who reads Slashdot (kill me now) will know, you can justify keeping any random piece of old hardware on the grounds it'll be useful in a Beowulf cluster.

So. Employer throwing out computers? I'll look after them. Local school throwing out computers? I can do something with that. Is that a computer in the skip over there? Shame if it were to go to waste.

That worked as a justification right up to the point I worked out exactly how powerful a Beowulf cluster of 20 Mac Classics/SEs, two Sinclair Spectrums, a Viglen 286 and a BBC Micro Model A would be. Not very.

It was the announcement of the $25 Raspberry Pi that was the final straw. Even I had to admit that this one tiny computer was (a) more powerful and (b) took up less space in the loft. So they're now all in the local tip. But I have a secret hope that someone came along half an hour later and thought "hey, I could build a really good Beowulf cluster out of those"...
(Guy Debord cette mauvaise réputation..., Thu 3 May 2012, 14:06, 6 replies)

Aargh
A Micro A?

What tip?
( Ungersven would support SpankyHanky's patreon, Thu 3 May 2012, 14:49, closed)

John Titor
Wants to speak to you urgently.
(Gru being trolled since 1998, Thu 3 May 2012, 15:14, closed)

Fuck, yeah.
Every so often I have a clear-out of old boxen that have been dumped/donated. Last summer I ditched about a dozen old machines after making the decision to trash anything that was AMD XP32 or older.

I now have about six complete machines sat in the computer room, again stuff that has been dumped / donated, but is relatively modern kit and I wouldn't feel right about trashing it. Yet I don't have a use for it. Best option is if someone wants a cheap bollocksing-around machine and is prepared to offer a few pints for it.

N.b. Of the live systems I have hooked up to the network, there is the games rig (a Phenom-based machine), an Opteron-based server, a couple of Acer Aspire Revo 3700s set up as XBMC clients, a HP Core Duo machine for twatting around on BSD on, a Fujitsu laptop, and an Acer netbook. Apart from the cats, I live alone. I may have a problem.

Ninja'd. Yes, I also have a raspi on order.
(_(_(_(_(_(_(_(_(_ =o.o=, Fri 4 May 2012, 15:49, closed)

boxen?
*clicks*
(Xpic needs a kick up the arse., Sat 5 May 2012, 11:44, closed)

The annoying thing about this is
that because these are seen as well beyond end of life, and "not very powerful" they are being chucked out by the hundreds.

Future history going in a skip.
(Captain Skippy pooed in a bag and left it on your doorstep, Fri 4 May 2012, 18:46, closed)

I inherited the IT cache about a year ago
Have spent many hours sorting it, for the sheer satisfaction of keeping them out of the tip for another generation of use (what is that, about 3 months now? Maybe a year...?).

I Freecycled a lot although the hipster IT-wannabe insisted it was outdated and useless, and should be binned. What a waste! I met several WONDERFUL geeky, nerdy, IT types, from engineers to amazingly resourceful plain old handy techies, who have been happy to take this for useful purposes.

One pile of server equipment went to an engineer who gleefully rubbed his hands together and nearly cackled, "I can finish my home LAN!"

I have twice given piles of 512MB RAM-or-less Pentium PCs to a handicapped techie who volunteers with some area elementary schools. She puts them together, loads software, and deploys them in classrooms. She has request lists from the teachers, and fills a lot of them with our cast-offs.

A stack of old laptops went to a volunteer who refurbishes them, installs software, and puts them in villages when he goes on techie missions (I think I like that better than the religious ones).

I spent part of the last week sorting the cache of PDAs. Apparently they've been hoarded for a few years (an engineer helping me clear out stuff drily commented, "yeah, because they increase in value that way"). I had a workbench covered with obsolete equipment, and I enjoyed it. I'm data wiping and doing hard resets and testing, trying to ensure none of our data is recoverable before we eBay or Freecycle this stuff.

Oh, hipster techie wannabe? I did an easy "restore last backup" on his castoff pda, and got all of his data back. So now I've got to meet with his supervisor and report this, and remind them of proper procedure in Dept of Defense-level data wiping before releasing any equipment, just to convince them that they actually do need to send the equipment to me for proper processing and disposal. Bollocks.
( kila is reading clocks upside-down as usual, Sat 5 May 2012, 22:24, closed)