god bless the dump...

[Chris_MacMahon]

In the town where i used to live (cape elizabeth) there is a spot in the dump called the swap shop.....'one man's trash is another treasure'...Cape is on the coast and the average house price is 300k...so it's got money (i don't)....I have found the following items at the swap shop.

A bunk bed (full sixe bottom twin top, 6 mo's old)
70 gallon fish tank (stand, hood and tank all in one peice)
20 gallon tank
apple 7200 w/moniter
moniters, keyboards, tv's, microwave, humidifiers...
and my latest find a pentium 266 64 ram, 10 gig hd, modem, nic, nvidia riva 128, sound blaster and a 50 speed cd-rom...IN working order (someone forgot to delete the hard drive), aopen psu, aopen mobo...
anyways' point of the post (2 fold actually)
what's the best find, free or paid for (not for payment) that you have recived....

and what should i do with the aopen computer....i have a domain name, and am thinking about mandrake 9.1, PDC/email server for home network (4 computers less then ten email accounts....) or fix it up and as it's only a 266, is it good enough for a family w/out for internet access, wp, email.....

[Radical Dreamer]

Clean it up and donate it, thats what I do, I just donated 4 366mhz machines to "less fortunate" families. They may not seem like much to you, but to a family without one, its a big deal.

[Guts3d]

Originally posted by Radical Dreamer
Clean it up and donate it, thats what I do, I just donated 4 366mhz machines to "less fortunate" families. They may not seem like much to you, but to a family without one, its a big deal.

Kudos! I do the same thing with older machines myself, and the smiles on their faces means more to me than having an extra $100 in my pocket, that's for sure!

[ilovetheusers]

I clean up slower machines and give them to others I know personally. Either those who can't afford it or those who wouldn't normally buy a PC but likes them and thinks the price is well beyond their reach. Makes a lovely birthday gift for those who don't have a PC.

[meatwad]

I've been to Cape Elizabeth. They'd throw away money if it looks old and dirty.

[Chris_MacMahon]

actually saw someone there with a new audi TT, fighting with an old lady about some kids toys....swap shop...



alright so then i donate it...

but what os do i put on...

mandrake (it's free and i don't get killed by the m$ maffia)
upgrade the ram, make it win xp HE, with works, grisoft avg.

[Radical Dreamer]

Originally posted by Chris_MacMahon
actually saw someone there with a new audi TT, fighting with an old lady about some kids toys....swap shop...



alright so then i donate it...

but what os do i put on...

mandrake (it's free and i don't get killed by the m$ maffia)
upgrade the ram, make it win xp HE, with works, grisoft avg.

If ya have a copy, throw on XP.

[FatalException0E]

Originally posted by Radical Dreamer
If ya have a copy, throw on XP.

On a 266 with 64MB RAM.....is that wise?

[ilovetheusers]

Gonna get flamed but what the hell. ME works really well on old systems like this. Picks up all the hardware off the bat (most of it) and runs really fast and stable as long as the person using it doesn't crap it up with 2 tons of crapware. It's also nice if they have you to fix it when it does get hosed. Back to fast - I have 2 laptops - one 166mhz running ME and another 233mhz running 98se and the ME machine is just as fast but not as up to date. Using it for decent applications and not loading it up with games and internet crapware to screw it up it gives me no problems.

Anyway - if you want to donate it and you put linux on it the people you give it to will look at it not have a clue what to do with it and nobody they know will be able to do a thing with it either. However if you put an M$ OS on it you will have to shell out more $$ than the whole system is worth.

Interesting connundrum.

[kato2274]

Originally posted by FatalException0E
On a 266 with 64MB RAM.....is that wise?

no. . . . .. . but with another 64MB of ram (minimum, 128MB additional woudl be nicer) and a slight overclock to 300 or 333, XP home would run well enough.