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That's a good idea. In fact, that's what's going to happen to my PC once I stop using it to dual-boot with Windows (i.e., when I make the Mac the dual-boot computer instead

I don't know what I'll do with my old PC which I got in 2000. I won't trash it, so it's either upgrade or donate it. Upgrading will cost more than I'm willing to pay though as well as cost more to do than I spent on the new Linux box. The motherboard needs to be replaced, but because it's made with ethernet, sound, and video built on I'd have to get a card for each. Then I'd have to replace the harddisk drives as well as get new ram. Just getting a new PC is cheaper, which I did, so I'll try to see if I can find some place, maybe Freecycle, that will take it as a donation. Now the new Linux box I may setup as a dualboot PC, Linspire which was preinstalled, and Ubuntu. Maybe I could test various Linux distros. But mostly I want to use it for storage and maybe a server. With the Macbook Pro, I was thinking of dualbooting with Linux but with BSD under the hood installing X Windows I'd think I should be able to install some if not most Linux software without needing Linux.

Or FreeCycle them. If they no longer meet your needs there's bound to be someone else whose needs they do meet.

I saw mentions of Freegeek so I thought I'd mention Freecycle too. If you don't own a Dell computer (or even if you do) you might want to consider it. I've never participated, but my mother is absolutely fanatical about it. She's given and picked up tons of stuff from participants.

How about going the opposite direction? Since corporations are having so much trouble capitalizing off this growing phenomenon, we should take advantage of their unpreparedness and interject a non-monetary goal before it's too late and a potentially Good Thing becomes commodified trash like almost everything else the machine grinds up and spits out.

What social networks represent to me is people reaching out and sharing values without a middleman. On the popular social networks, they're sharing their values in arts, entertainment, and ego ornamentation. On employment networks, they're sharing their industrial values. On care2.com, they're sharing their values in human dignity and bettering society.

Money is a symbolic unit of value, i.e. it's supposed to represent the things we value. Now that we can share values without mediation, can't we gradually phase out money by communicating our values and wishes on these networks? Imagine craigslist.org or freecycle.org but with the accountability of eBay/Amazon feedback, Myspace testimonials/comments, and listing of mutual friends to use as references. Goods, services, knowledge, and other things of value can be offered as free gifts on your profile page. Givers screen solicitors by looking at their profile, friends, comments, etc. Wishes can also be posted.

On Global Ideas Bank, I've heard of this gift social network working successfully in a poor neighborhood in NY using computers available to the public. A form of social networking also worked in Katrina, hooking up the flood victims with people offering temporary housing. Let's expand this to the national scale and maybe the global scale when it's ready. I also recently found givegetnation.net, exactly the idea I was looking for, but it's in such a primitive state right now, so I contacted the founder volunteering to help develop. C'mon, let's change the world. Who's with me?

nonzero(at)gmail

Sure, it's likely that in a fully DRM-free Internet age that musicians won't be mega-millionaires, but I consider that a good thing.

It will likely even lead to better music- art is always better when there is suffering involved for the artist. That's why modern RAP music has lost so much of it's edge- you can't sing about poverty if you have enough gold around your neck to feed a small third world nation.

Having said that- it's within the realm of possibility that an economic system based on scarcity (which is what the original article is really talking about) will become outdated within our lifetimes. The answer is that we need a new economic system- one that isn't based on scarcity. http://www.freecycle.org/ has the right idea- but we need to expand it.

Dunno whether it applies to bulk medical supplies so much, but in general this sort of problem ("I have item X that I don't need and can't profitably sell, but it's still perfectly useful if only I could find the person who could use it") is a search/discovery problem. 99% of the time, the person who could use the item is out there, if only there was a way for you to find them (or them to find you).

The Internet is a great mechanism for solving this sort of problem -- if you haven't checked out services like FreeCycle, I highly recommend them -- it's an excellent way to get (or get rid of) all kinds of useful things. The giver gets his junk removed for free (no storage, shipping, or dumping fees to pay), the recipient gets free stuff, and the useful stuff stays out of the landfills.

I have zero experience with this, but I've heard good things about freecycle.org. Either your stuff ends up in the hands of another packrat (+1 for you) or ends up in the hands of someone who *needs* it (+1 for you). Give it a look-see, the end result looks good either way.

To make the internet work on a physical level requires really good understanding of theoretical physics, because when you pipe huge amounts of information around the planet, or bounce it off satellites, you need to account for relativistic effects.

And I think we can agree that the internet is extremely helpful in making the world a better place: distributing free information, reducing the energy spent communicating, and even promoting recycling through eBay, Freecycle et cetera.

Part of the problem is that we junk our old computers or 'recycle' them. There are plenty of individuals and organisations that don't want or need a brand-new computer and would happily take our old machine. When I was a graduate student, I used to buy second-hand computers from my department every couple of years. I passed on my old machine to my 88-year-old neighbour and slapped Debian Woody on it (it works fine, by the way, and she now uses it constantly for keeping in contact with her family and for genealogy).

These days, if I wanted an old machine, I'd probably use Freecycle. This is simply a Yahoo forum for people who want to give away (or get for free!) unneeded items.

Freecycle lets you give or get free stuff in your community with minimal effort.

It's very important that each Freecycle node is geographically localized, e.g. one city, so that you're offering/accepting only to/from people for whom the offer is geographically practical. For this application, the internet does not annihilate geography, it only minimizes other transaction costs of offering/accepting free stuff ... but that's plenty of benefit!

Example: Seattle-area uses http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freecycleseattle/

You're not paranoid enough. The phone's serial number (the IMEI) is transmitted with the call. So even though you've changed your number, it can be associated with the old one because the IMEI hasn't changed.

"I think you're overlooking the fact that people who hold garage sales generally sell the items for LESS than they would declare their value for charitable deduction purposes. At least, that's what I would do"

Not at all. In fact, the whole point of what I was saying is that you *could* sell your stuff for far less than the "fair market value" and still break even or even come out ahead. AND, you wouldn't have to hassle with filling out IRS forms detailing every item you were donating. That's assuming you are willing to roll the dice and hope your neighbors don't turn you in for not declaring your massive windfall on your taxes.

Granted, if you have a few, more expensive items, then it would generally make sense to go the tax deduction route. But for lots of lower priced items, I say "go on, take the money and run"

And as a follow up to a comment someone else made, when I had a garage sale earlier this summer (ok, we call 'em "tag sales" in my neck of the woods), everything that wasn't sold at the end of the day was listed on my local Freecycle groups or donated to the Salvation Army (no tax deduction taken).

http://www.freecycle.org/ -- basically a local free exchange of stuff that you would otherwise throw away

I found that via an old entry on http://www.makezine.org/blog/.

There have times where I wished I had some older memory to fill out an old liquidated machine I was resurrecting, but I've always had spares of the smaller sized memory cards while wishing I had the larger capacity cards. That is and abundance of 128 MB cards that I would like to trade ALL for just one 256 MB card. The low end stuff of any generation of memory cards is basically useless in my experience.

Anybody want some 128 MB PC100 cards?

You should anyway. The telco is required by law to activate, at no cost, your line for 911-only dialing if your house is occupied and you choose not to pay for service. Buy a cheap unpowered phone, or get one from your local Freecycle. No sense spending extra seconds or minutes in an emergency pounding on the neighbor's door when you can get 911 service for free.

Or find the freecycle list in your area.

Philly has several large ones.

Or find the freecycle list in your area.

Philly has several large ones.

Check out Freecycle.org - Leave your computer at the curb, post a freecycle entry - a needy technophile will find a loving home for it before dawn. Forget the dumpster! Freecycle!

Exactly. Nobody should have to run on 8-year-old hardware. I just picked up two identical Gateway 1.4GHz AMD systems, one with a bad power supply, one with a bad stick of RAM, both with 75GB hard drives, for free from my local Freecycle site. They both have W2K Pro COAs attached to the side panels (though I'm going to run FC4 on mine. The other will run W2K for my wife, who has a 450MHz system that will then go back on Freecycle.) You just have to know where to look.

Freecycle them

that is all.

http://www.freecycle.org/ or the Library

It may not solve the disposal problem, but services such as FreeCycle helps old, but usable, items find new homes. The longer people can use an item, the fewer items per year that need to be disposed.

Check out Freecycle and see if there's something in your area to facilitate this.

If it's at all recent, I can almost guarantee that stuff'd get snatched up on Freecycle. Go there and quit asking silly questions on Slashdot.

Join freecycle and offer to give it away.

http://freecycle.org/

Kind of like Ebay! Except you get a warm, fuzzy feeling instead of money =)

http://freecycle.org/

DIY Parts
Craig's List
FreeCycle
eBay

On a tangent, but if you're looking to get rid of stuff just Freecycle it.

Instead of keeping all your stuff, you could just post it on you local Freecycle mailing list, and give it away to somebody who can use it.

Freecycling is a great way to get rid of an old computer that you don't want. Check out http://www.freecycle.org/ for a group in your area.

Freecycle is a neat community giveaway-fest run through localized Yahoo groups. I live in a town of 100,000 and the Freecycle group has 700 members. I've given away old monitors, tables, couches, even a car. I got a nice little dual-proc server. Right now I'm paring down what I have for an upcoming move, but it's a great place to get free stuff. I see bedframes, dressers, computers, bikes, clothes, it makes dumpster-diving obsolete.

A better recycling tool if you don't want to hassle with getting $$ for something, paying fees, shipping, etc:

http://www.freecycle.org/

Lots of charities hang out there, too. It's the same good feeling but with a lot less hassle and no money involved :-)

Index of 4000+ local yahoo freecycle groups. All groups are ways of getting stuff for free, and getting rid of your own stuff easily. I got a 27" TV for my bedroom and a free router.

like cheapo computer speakers. People, I'm all for the recycling bit, but take that shit to the RECYCLING CENTER, don't waste anyone's time putting it up for sale for $5. Round trip subway fare costs at least half that...

I think that freecycle deserves a mention to help people dispose of stuff that has too little monetary value to hassle a price with it, but yet want to keep it out of the dumpster. Also, it is helping people out.

We all buy way more stuff than we really need, and it just ends up cluttering your house.

Get it for free instead! Don't throw out your unused junk, give it to someone who can use it! Join FreeCycle!

--Rob

If we're going to start plugging things, then I'll seize the opportunity and throw in a plug for FreeCycle. FreeCycle is a great way to get a good used computer (or anything else) for zero cost, and also an easy way to clear out all your old junk by giving it away to local people who find it useful. No packing or shipping hassle, since the recipient typically will come by to pick it up, and you'll earn more karma that way then you ever will posting to Slashdot. :^)

Want to get rid of something for free?

Maybe try this. Also good for non-computer stuff.

The Worldwide (!) Freecycle Network is open to all cities and to all individuals who want to "recycle" that special something rather than throw it away. Whether it's a chair, a fax machine, piano or an old door, feel free to post it. Or maybe you're looking to acquire something yourself! One constraint: everything posted must be free.

The site is organized by cities and most of the chapters seem to be yahoo groups, so you can't do online browsing (now there's an idea for Ebay: a "free to a good home" service for nonprofits [subject to verification and limited so as not to dent their cash flow, of course]). Still, it's a neat alternative to the landfill.