Homeless Wires? 118
BladesP9 asks: "I'm in the process of moving. As such, I have stumbled upon no less than five boxes of wires and various parts. Everything from PS2, SCSI, FireWire, USB and God knows what. Having forgotten all about this stuff I know I will never be needing any of this again as long as I live. Not to mention the roughly 100 boxes of 10 pack 5.25 inch floppy discs. I could just throw all this stuff away, but I am feeling somewhat guilty about that. Is there anywhere I should look to donating this stuff? It doesn't seem like the kind of thing 'Goodwill' would really get use of, but I hate to throw away perfectly good hardware and media if someone could make use of it. I'm looking for suggestions. My wife has given me until the end of the week to find a home for it or I have to take it to the dump."
Extra stuff? (Score:3, Funny)
I'll take it.
Re:Extra stuff? (Score:2)
Re:Extra stuff? (Score:4, Interesting)
Only having use for about 10 (older machines +a few spares), I gave the rest to the local LUG. They were greatly appriciated because they had several older machinces still in need of parts.
More like, gar*b*age sale... (Score:1)
Re:Extra stuff? (Score:5, Informative)
Local "antique" computer clubs (Score:4, Insightful)
I advertised twice on austin.general with large lots of "junk", and within hours had several people wanting to come haul it off. One guy traded me a SCSI card and some install help for one of the lots, because he wanted to do something for it.
Sounds like... (Score:5, Insightful)
A bulk-buy on eBay. Charge shipping + $1.00. Sort by cable type.
Re:Sounds like... (Score:2)
Re:Sounds like... (Score:2)
Hah! I hadn't read my sig like that. It does sound like one of those trick logic questions, doesn't it?
So far I've got the The Falkirk Wheel [thefalkirkwheel.co.uk], in addition to the usual Scotch Distillery tours for my two Scotchophile harem girl companions.
Edinburgh (Score:2)
- Curry at King's Balti (it's BYOB so a case of beer should do three of you)
- For a decent pub in that area try the Abbey
- For something trendier my wife and I love Bar Kohl on George 4th Bridge, not very scottish but they have an impressive vodka selection.
- Obviously the castle is a must-do if you are into that kind of thing (not so exciting for a native)
For more traditional food (depending on your wealth) I can happily recommend the Witchery. For somethin
Re:Edinburgh (Score:2)
Thank you very much! We are very much into seeing true Scotland, not the same touristy junk you see everywhere. We want to learn about the people and culture, so as a start in that direction we're only staying in B&Bs except for the night of our arrival.
My wife wants to see the valley of Tweed and the highlands (naturally at opposite end of the country!). We have one of those 'own a square foot of Scotland' things thru a nature conservancy - for laughs we'd like to see what shopping mall its under. (Act
Re:Edinburgh (Score:2)
As far as the highlands go, i'd recommend skipping Aviemore. My opinion is that the west coast is far more beautiful. The island of Skye (you can drive there) is probably an excellent choice. The scenery is spectacular and it's enough off the beaten track that it's not horribly touristy.
My email is graha dot ms at graha dot ms if you want to have
Re:Sounds like... (Score:1)
Take a trip over to Skye, going over the bridge on to Skye them come off on the ferry at the southern end of the isle, so you can really go over the sea to skye.
Have fun and enjoy the whisky.
Re:Sounds like... (Score:1)
http://brightbytes.com/cosite/2edinb.html [brightbytes.com]
A Modest Proposal... (Score:1)
2. Find hardware/media
3. Sign in to EBay
4. ???
5. Profit!
While you're at it. (Score:5, Funny)
While you're at it, why don't you take your testicles, too? You don't seem to be using them. You should be ashamed of yourself for admitting such a thing in public. You don't bring home money? You don't run your own house? I bet she made you give up all your cool rock band tee-shirts after she moved in, too?
What a tool.
Re:While you're at it. (Score:1)
but it was a cool shirt though.
Re:While you're at it. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:While you're at it. (Score:1)
A woman will try to make you her bitch, but no woman wants to be fucked by her bitch.
-Peter
Re:While you're at it. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:While you're at it. (Score:2)
Re:While you're at it. (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:While you're at it. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:While you're at it. (Score:2)
And BTW - I'm wearing my Slipknot tee now.... so NYAH!
People will take it (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:People will take it (Score:2)
Re:People will take it (Score:3, Interesting)
By the way, nice sig
Re:People will take it (Score:3, Insightful)
In high school, the director of technology let my friends and I clean out an entire room being used for parts storage. What we didn't throw out we got to take home. Trust me, schools don't want your old shit - they have plenty of their own to deal with.
Re:People will take it (Score:1)
Re:People will take it (Score:1)
The school district has to be fair across the entire district, and they have decided that donations like that would make the situation unfair because the donations to the rich neighbourhood school would in effect make the funding per student to be higher than the poor neigh
Re:People will take it (Score:1)
This just cuts their noses to spite their faces. Instead of the school district the donator is in getting something, nobody gets anything.
After all, people still pay taxes and my taxes still go to whatever the district likes.
Re:People will take it (Score:2)
By donating to one school, the kids in that school will benefit. In the rich areas the kids in the school would probably benefit a lot. Including the ones who's parents didn't donate anything. Why should these children get these benefits when children in other schools won't?
I guess it comes down to your motivation for donating in the first place. If you want to improve your child'
Ha! (Score:2)
OTOH, a lot of local *students* might be interested. Check with school computer clubs, or try finding where the local geek kids hang out.
Re:Ha! (Score:2)
Buying 100 new identical name-brands with a warranty through their education program is far more economical than accepting people's POS old computers for free. When one dies, it becomes parts for the others. When an old POS dies, it becomes landfill.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Ha! (Score:2)
They'll either be able to use this stuff ? (Score:2)
Hmm. Nuns with 5.25" floppies. They cant go too far with that.
While youre at it, send them BNC ethernet cables, tokenring cards, EGA video cards and those giant Soundblaster ISA cards. They'll wonder why www.vatican.ca doesnt come up on Netscape 3.0 running on Windows 95. And why the heck doesnt USB work.
I've seen countless Pentium1 PCs under the rain out in driveways around here. Check their prices on eBay. In most cases the s
Re: They'll either be able to use this stuff ? (Score:1)
Well, that explains why the new pope kept on saying, "eh" during his coronation.
Try Craigslist. (Score:5, Interesting)
Post on Craigslist and get some local geeks to come pick it up.
Re:Try Craigslist. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Try Craigslist. (Score:3, Insightful)
So meet in a public place. Duh.
Re:Try Craigslist. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Try Craigslist. (Score:2, Funny)
AND converse!
Re:Try Craigslist. (Score:3, Funny)
I'm the half-assed kind. A full-assed geek wouldn't go outside, right.
Re:Try Craigslist. (Score:1)
That's because a full-assed geek wouldn't fit through the door...
Re:Try Craigslist. (Score:2)
Re:Try Craigslist. (Score:1)
I'd disagree:
1) "Worth" is in the eye of the beholder. I just eBayed a BROKEN camera lens that I thought was worthless. Went for $26.
2) Even if it goes for $0.99, charge actual shipping plus $2 for the box, etc. Someone who is willing to pay for it is more likely to use it than a free deal.
Good Will Computer Works. (Score:2, Informative)
Well ... (Score:3, Funny)
Tell them you saw The Virgin Mary or whatever in it and Golden Palace will pay you thousands.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record (Score:5, Informative)
If you're not near any of the places listed, please consider shipping your stuff to one of them. Most are nonprofits, which means you can compensate for some of your cost with a tax deduction, and you can feel good about knowing that your old crap is either being given to people who wouldn't otherwise have access to it, or is being taken apart and disposed of properly, rather than taking up space in a landfill and potentially leaching nasty chemicals (mmm, heavy metals).
Re:At the risk of sounding like a broken record (Score:1)
Freecycle... (Score:3, Informative)
First off (Score:1)
Whip it. (Score:2)
<audio src="whipcrack.wav"/>
Do what David Clark Did... (Score:5, Interesting)
A few places (Score:5, Informative)
Craig's List [craigslist.org]
FreeCycle [freecycle.org]
eBay [ebay.com]
Freecycle ROCKS! (Score:2)
Definately consider Freecycle.
Same here! (Score:2)
Now that I am moving I am finding that I need very little of it.
Still it hurts to throw it out.
My advice:
- Email techie buddys, you never know
- Free buy and see magazine?
- Dump
Thanks
Jay
I want it (Score:2)
Freecycle? (Score:1)
http://freecycle.org/ [freecycle.org]
Try Freecycle (Score:2, Informative)
Kind of like Ebay! Except you get a warm, fuzzy feeling instead of money =)
keep it (Score:1)
Tile your garage wall (Score:1)
Association for Computing Machinery (Score:1, Interesting)
Dear Slashdot (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:Dear Slashdot (Score:2)
Divide by 2 if you want them to pick it up.
Probably could get $200 from them for that stuff.
Art (Score:3, Interesting)
If you don't get rid of them by the end of week... (Score:2)
Or take her to the dump.
Hopefully, you were kidding about her giving you a deadline. If not, well you should definitely give her a piece of your
the dump may not be such a bad idea (Score:4, Informative)
Good Will should take it (Score:1)
Don't write off Goodwill (Score:2)
Here in Pittsburgh, Goodwill has a store specifically for used computer hardware. I've been there a couple of times for one thing or antoher, or just to browse. Given what I've seen, they certainly wouldn't have any compunctions about taking in a load of random computer hardware and connectors, so long as the stuff wasn't obviously dama
What I do (Score:4, Funny)
Or my other option is to smuggle it into work and put it in / on an empty desk, especially right after someone leaves the company. Problem solved.
Homeless wires! (Score:1)
Let's create a free museum for computers (Score:2)
It could be worse.. (Score:2)
Re:It could be worse.. (Score:1)
Re:It could be worse.. (Score:2)
Re:It could be worse.. (Score:1)
You need a continuity tester or an ohm-meter. It would be very easy to test the cables to see which (if any) had a short between hot and ground.
Re:It could be worse.. (Score:2)
Re:It could be worse.. (Score:2)
Re:It could be worse.. (Score:1)
Re:It could be worse.. (Score:2)
Re:It could be worse.. (Score:2)
Freecycle (Score:2)
Lots of wire... (Score:1)
Sometimes... just sometimes the wife is right. (Score:4, Funny)
Consider that maybe, just maybe, she is right.
My wife has been after me for 12 years and three homes to throw out some old boxes of "important stuff." I put my foot down and refused to do it.
12 years later I finally got around to opening those dusty museums of a ME I'd rather forget!
Bell bottoms? Check.
Sleevless velour "muscle shirt", size extra-small? Check.
300+ floppy disks of Apple II games that I swapped for at fairs, but never actually played. Not once. Check.
Mouldy hammock. Check.
100+ pounds of wires, integrated circuits, resistors and capacitors scavenged from an ancient mainframe being throw out by my university that I was sure to use someday for some project. Check.
One precious copy of Playboy with the one and only Nancy Drew, Pamela Sue Martin? Check.
Re:Sometimes... just sometimes the wife is right. (Score:2)
That box must've been well worth the copy of Playboy alone. WELL worth it.
College? (Score:2)
It doesn't even have to be the CS or similar department. You could donate it to the art department. I'm sure they would love to have such odd materials.
Freecycle (Score:2)
C64 scene wants your 360k disks (Score:2)
Make sure to take pictures of it (Score:2)
Before you dispose of them (however you decide), take pictures and send it to a website that archives these pictures. Especially if you have a lot of old hardware or obscure cabling, pictures of these may be a little hard to find, for people who're looking for some exact shape or model of old cabling.
VGMusic.com's Gallery [vgmusic.com] is an example of such a website. (though with a slant toward gaming consoles). For example, if you're looking for a
Re:Make sure to take pictures of it (Score:2)
i don't need to know what a male 9 pin serial to male telephone cable looks like... it's a male 9 pin serial, a piece of wire, and an RJ-11 jack
recycle dead media (Score:1)
The Local Hamfest (Score:3, Informative)
let me read you a page out of... (Score:2)
If you are not currently using it, dispose of it.
Help out a fellow slashdotter... (Score:1)
(I could really use a bluetooth adapter that anyone has. I recently lost mine and am very heartbroken. I've been looking all over but can't find it. It's the only communication that my iBook and Nokia 3650 phone had with each other. They dearly miss each other and hope
Another Option (Score:1)
*ducks*
craigslist.org (Score:2)
What I did was... (Score:2)
What I did was to separate it into three smaller boxes, and then drove down to the goodwill dropoff late at night and skillfully slid each box into the night drop-off slot.
There, I GAVE it away.
It's not my problem if they throw it out because they don't know what to do with a SCSI-1 to SCSI-1 cable, or boxes of 5-1/4 disks.
What's fair is fair (Score:2)
Make a deal with your wife, you throw out 10lbs of junk, and she does the same.
That's fair, right?