Ask Slashdot: Projects For a Heap of Tech Junk? 210
Posted
by
Soulskill
from the build-a-robot-army-and-send-it-to-texas dept.
from the build-a-robot-army-and-send-it-to-texas dept.
yenrabbit writes "A friend has just told me he has 80 CRT TVs, a stack of DVD players and hundreds of VCR machines, all broken and all mine free of charge. I can already think of a few awesome components I can extract (flyback transformers for high voltage contraptions and so on) and have a few ideas, such as DVD lasers, that I can build. But what else can be made from such a treasure-trove of components, and how would one go about processing such a large volume of stuff with the least amount of effort? Also, I don't have access to online shopping so I'd also like a pain free way of salvaging many simpler parts such as resistors as well."
Another reader sent in a similar question: "The other day I went down to my University's property disposition center for the first time. In addition to mundane things like chairs and desks, it also had a wealth of technological devices, from old PCs and monitors to obscure medical and chemistry equipment. Honestly, I was a bit overwhelmed. I just don't know what I'd do with a old gene sequencing machine or a broken oscilloscope. Any ideas for fun projects? Or better yet, suggestions on how I can figure out which machines (or their components) are worth playing with?"
Sometimes "free" is still too expensive! (Score:5, Insightful)
Are you sure it isn't going to cost you a fortune later to get rid of the stuff you don't salvage?
Re:Time machine (Score:5, Insightful)
At worst...maybe make one and only one pass through to see if anything is genuinely useful. But one thing I've found is...quit just gathering stuff that *might* be useful some day for *some* project.
That type of thinking lands you where I once was, and to where a number of my friends are, namely they have workshops, garages and even spreading into their very HOUSES just heaps of junk. Stuff piling up everywhere.
I've basically given myself a new mode of action. I have about 2-3 projects, things I can and will realistically get to in the next few months. I will collect things for those, buy them, or otherwise attain them.
Anything else, I pass on.
I've made up my mind, that I will not move a ton of useless, outdated shit around any more.
I'm still going through my stuff after the last one.
I found books, tons of stuff, tech stuff that was outdated. Into the trash.
I had a number of CRT monitors, I kept only the ones I needed for computers I have that do not yet have flat screens. The rest of them...in the trash.
Old SGI workstations? In the trash.
Old network cards, old ram, keyboards I didn't need, etc....in the trash.
I'm actually once again starting to have a home office where I can find stuff I actually need to do the things I'm actually working on.
I still have a ways to go, but I'm unloading. I make enough money these days to where I can buy new or used stuff WHEN I NEED it for something I'm currently working on.
This also keeps me from getting into too many projects at once....and never having time to finish one. I have one friend, that bless his heart, he is like a cat and a laser pointer, always seeing something 'new' to start on, yet rarely finishing the last interesting project last month and way beyond, and yet, still accumulating stuff for all of them.
I know people like this...they have rooms that look like an audition for the tv show "Hoarders", and while I don't think it is so much a mental problem for them, it is the MO of always seeing possible treasure in a pile of shit, harvesting it, but never getting to it.
I figured out, the garbageman is my friend. I find something I've not used in awhile, it simply goes into the trash can, and they haul it away for me.
Re:Components (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Time machine (Score:5, Insightful)
Why don't you put things up on freecycle instead, maybe someone can find a use for them rather than making more e-waste.
Re:Time machine (Score:2, Insightful)
Couldn't have said it better.. the only thing I would add is find your local recycling center (most county/city gov offices have them in some capacity) and drop it off there, rather than directly to the trash.
Re:Time machine (Score:2, Insightful)
Of course, that's what rock quarries were made for: What you can't throw in the dump goes there.
Re:Leave the sequencer... (Score:4, Insightful)
If you don't have access to a way to purify your DNA for it, forget about it
you mean like ordering it online?
No, not like ordering online. How do you expect to order your own DNA online if you want to sequence one of your own genes? And if you're going to send some of your cells to someone to purify your DNA, you might as well pay them to sequence it for you as they will have access to better instrumentation that will do it faster, cheaper, and more accurately.
by not attempting to do it yourself
Booooooo. I would rather try learn and fail.
The problem is there isn't a whole lot to learn from doing this. Methods and instruments have changed dramatically. What you would learn from an old sequencer would not be useful for a new one because the methods and results are so dramatically different.
To put it into a computer analogy, it would be similar to trying to learn computer animation by purchasing an old SGI Octane (after all, they used SGIs for Jurassic Park!) and spending a ton of money on old IRIX software, only to then realize that nobody uses it any more and you would have been better off financially and time-wise to buy a powerful PC and learn Blender.
Hence if your goal is to learn the old method just to learn the old method, then go for it. Your results will likely be garbage and your chance of getting anything useful out of it are very slim (after all, someone did get rid of the old sequencer). If, on the other hand, you want to learn how it is done today, and get meaningful results, stay away from it and talk to someone with a sequencer from this decade.
Re:Out on the street with a FREE sign (Score:2, Insightful)
Never put a "free" sign on anything if you want said items to go away. Put a sign on it with a viable price, and it will probably disappear (read: "be stolen by local tweekers") within a week.