On Thu, 2005-12-22 at 16:42 -0700, Jeff Garland wrote:
> Wow, why would people have these good old processors in the closet?  I still
> have a K6-2/450 and an AthlonXP 1700+ in running machines here.  The kids play
> games and surf the net on the K6-2/450 -- it's not fast, but really, the
> neopets website isn't improved by a faster processor.  Of course my intel 486
> dx2 is in the closet -- waiting for an optimal moment to go on Ebay ;-)

When I was in Calgary, did computer sales/repairs/networking/etc on
evenings and weekends. A lot of the people that would get me to do work
for them would have a closet with two or three old systems sitting in
them.

Since many of those people were capable of the Windows point and click
thing and not a whole lot else, they were mystified with the notion of
using an older system for a file or print server. So when they picked up
something new, the older equipment would get set aside in the closet and
forgotten.

I took many of those systems off the their hands, cleaned them up and
gave them to people in my church or used them to rebuild dead parts in
my other computers.

A similar example - on a larger scale - that I saw just before I moved
south was when an oil company in Calgary went under and was bought out
by a competitor (happens all the time). Their office systems were picked
over by the IT guys and the rest were sent to the recycler/dump. There
was 150 to 200 full, working systems that were trashed (PC clones, with
slot 1 PII 450's and 500's, 256 - 512 MB RAM, 30 gig HDD's, 10/100, with
15 and 17" monitors, keyboards, mice, and Windows NT4 or 2000 OSs.)
Since they did not meet the new owner's minimum standards, they weren't
needed anymore and they went in the big green bin.

Another example - My father was a professor at a Canadian university and
he had three older systems that were closeted and one that he was using
when he retired. The IT guys at the university begged him not to bring
the systems back as they had rooms full of old systems and didn't want
any more. Don't ask me why they didn't clean them up and sell them on
ebay. They just didn't. Perhaps its less work to stick them in an unused
room and forget about them.

For a variety of reasons, a lot of people look at an older system as
essentially useless, so they get closeted and forgotten.

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