OT: Disposing of even LESS useful stuff (was Re: Disposing of an old computer securely)

[Shawn T. Rutledge]

On Tue, May 22, 2001 at 07:28:13PM -0700, Bob George wrote:
> Unlike Stephen, I've got a bunch of mosty-useless stuff to get rid of. An
> old 286, various 8 bit cards and such. Some of this was new in 1984 or so.
> Most of it works, but just isn't useful anymore, and I could use the space.
> Would anyone on this list want stuff THAT old? I'd feel guilty donating it.

Unfortunately I have a small pile of 286 and XT-class machines too.
But I might take a few of the cards if you don't otherwise get rid of
them.  The serial/parallel type cards are pretty useful in modern
machines too.  There have been cases when a good old-fashioned 40-pin
UART has worked better for me than the modern ones built onto the 
motherboard.  I'm still using such a card to run my X-10 controller,
for example... it uses the port in a weird way and just doesn't work
with some ports.  And also anything unusual like video cards with 
composite outputs etc.  (But I have a few of those I'm not using
already...)  I could use a couple of 16-bit soundblasters too.

As for donating I have still seen such machines in thrift stores.
But some charities are more overloaded than others.  My dad worked at
a DAV store for a while (fixing TV's for them to sell) and he said
they were throwing out 486's!  Shame on them.

-- 
  _______                   Shawn T. Rutledge / KB7PWD  ecloud@bigfoot.com
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