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Scrounging for Fun and Profit

Posted by michael on from the five-finger-discount dept.

Guinnessy writes: "According to Toni Feder on Physics Today, scrounging used equipment is worthwhile if you can avoid the pitfalls of wasting time and compromising scientific goals. Feder interviews experimenters who have dug up everything from dewars to nuclear reactors."

1 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. Supercomputer made of old diapers by Chris+Y+Taylor · · Score: 2, Redundant

    "Computers are the most useless--they are right up there with disposable diapers in landfill."

    One of the scientists in the article claims (and a lot of commenters seem to agree) that old computers are as useless as disposable diapers. The researchers at Oak Ridge, TN would probably not agree. There was an article in the latest issue of Scientific American describing the Stone SouperComputer that was built at Oak Ridge National Labs because they needed a supercomputer to model environmental regions, but they couldn't afford one. They cobbled together a Beowulf cluster out of a bunch of obsolete surplus PCs that the lab had laying around.

    The article can be found online at: www.sciam.com/2001/0801issue/0801hargrove.html

    The photos that accompany the article are great.

    Not bad for a bunch of "disposable diapers."