Old Hardware

[vodhner at cox.net]

---- Alex Dean <alex at crackpot.org> wrote: 
> Well, I saw the darker side of it once.  ... They went about a mile
> across the border and went straight into the ground.

I asked a guy at Data Doctors about AzSTRUT, which accepts
any kind of old electronics.  He said STRUT has someone who
really does "the right thing" with the waste stuff.  I didn't pursue
it, but he sounded really sure that that was part of STRUT's
mission and they took it seriously.

> In another vein, even better than recycling is reducing what
> you consume.  Do you really NEED that new machine, ... ?

Interesting thought.  I have this nice PC that runs all the time,
sounding like a vacuum cleaner.  My wife has a more efficient
one that also runs all the time.

It's controversial whether desktop disks last longer if you
shut them down or let them run all the time; I've stuck with
the keep-em-running principle and that has worked for me.
We turned my wife's system off for a week when we took a
trip last year, and doggone if I didn't have to rebuild it with
a new power supply when we got back.  The software was
corrupted and I lost two weeks of evenings setting all the
apps back up.

I definitely have enough computing power to last a long
time, but I would like to move on to something radically more
power efficient (and quieter).  I have an 86 GB and a 130 GB
hard drive in service, so that's going to suck some power
regardless.  In another few years the hybrids will be saving
us gobs of power.

So, if I should be able to downsize from 450W to 60W for my
PC, the old PC would go out to suck juice somewhere else.
Ya think maybe it could semi-retire, and run fewer hours per
week?

:-)

Vic