DieselTech

Hillbilly How-to: Practical uses for your old computer pieces

Sep 15th 2008 11:21AM Great advice, gsnoorky!

I would like to point out that disposability is more of a cultural thing than an absolute rule nowadays. A hundred years ago, people kept things that could be either reused, repaired, etc.; in today's world not so much - people just "get a new one" - mostly because it's easier, or (perceived to be) cheaper than repairing what they have, or because the item is "old, outdated, and no longer useful". Hogwash.

The laptop that I am using to write this reply is almost 4 years old (Sony VAIO, 10.6" XVGA, 1.1 Ghz Pentium M, 512Mb RAM, 40 Gb HDD, DVD/RW Drive), and has been thoroughly abused (been to the desert while in the Army, and recently blasted with water when a pipe broke upstairs and leaked onto my desk downstairs), and it's still working just fine. My main "home" computer is an old Celeron 500Mhz/Toshiba Mobo/512Mb RAM running WinXP - and though it is noticeably slower than my laptop, works just fine as a wireless print server/internet browser/NAS device/word processor.

Just because it's old and doesn't run the latest software doesn't make it useless. Besides, sometimes the newer software sucks anyway. =)

Dare to be different - "Old Skool Rules!"