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Computer Hardware That Can Pull Double-Duty?
MicklePickle asks: "It's been raining very heavily here in Sydney Oz, and as usual when we, (the SysAdmins), come in to work we take off our very wet shoes and socks and place them on one of the two hefty UPSs to dry out. They dry out very quickly on the hot fan. We even have a couple of 'toast racks', (a metal frame for housing an HP web console), to lay the shoes and socks out on. Does anyone else make use of computer hardware in a manner for which it was not intended?"
The one I used as a seat, anyway.
Pretty bad ergonomics for the price, but it atleast had castors.
Anyone who considers arithmetical methods of producing random numbers is, of course, in a state of sin.-John von Neumann
I'm sure that when all our bosses bought us these computers, they weren't intending for us to post comments to Slashdot all day long, but that is exactly what a lot of us are using them for.
300w ATX is all the computer needs... But I needed 400 for my cigarette lighter mod.
Then again, do any of us use computers for what their original purpose was? I do not think Alan Turing had surfing for pr0n in mind when he thought of logic gates.
And buying Alpha EV67's just to bust seti work units is pretty weird. 3.5 years worth of seti work has been done by EV67s, and they were all done by the same person over the last 2.5 years, so someone bought 2 EV67s @ $22,000 a piece minimum primarily to crunch Seti. Could it have been Compaq themselves? Perhaps - But I expect they could hardly afford it.
Are computers for games? Sure. Games are an 8 billion dollar a year industry. They drive users to seek greater performance machines. Moores law would probably have failed years ago if all we ever needed was a good office suite.
Do I use my 12 by p166 cluster to heat my house? yes. Is there any other reason to have 12 p166s? I never run it in the summer so the primary reason to run it must be for heat. If I was actually using it for production, I would certainly have faster/more machines.
Do I leave the machine in my room while I'm sleeping? No, but I like the white noise it's fans generate to keep me from waking up for every bump in the night.
Do I really need a PC based PBX? no, but it is nice to have a convoluted voicemail script that includes "If you are a telemarketer or if you are placing an unsolicited telephone call, you MUST press 4"
Has anyone else taken apart an old ps2 mouse and hung a piece of paper from one of the rollers to create a clap on monitor (the slightest breeze or moderately loud sound turns my monitor on... I use a usb mouse for actual work).
Can you all reboot your stupid dsl router through power over Ethernet/DC relay?
Anyone else buy 100' of that thick orange cable at home depot with the 2 fibers, 4 CAT5e and a Cable TV coax then use the fiber with a cheap roto rooter sewer pipe inspection camera to spy on other rooms?...
OK, I'm a little weird... but at least I have dead man switched degaussing rings under all my boxes so when the black helicopters come for me, all the incriminating evidence will be erased.
If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.
I have a Mac SE holding open my office door at work.
At the cafeteria they sell chelsea buns and give you free butter, but the butter comes in little tubs and its rock hard. I sit the tub on the back of my monitor for ten minutes and it's nice and soft.
I also have a friend who reckons the back of a monitor is great for drying weed.
We had an old Mac running a clock program (full screen) as our wall clock.
We had removed (and subsequently lost) the keyboard and mouse, and it ran quite happily doing nothing else for about 6 month when it mysteriously crashed. Without the keyboard there wasn`t much we could do about it.
CJC
"Server - Australian for sock dryer"
I'm sorry, I had to.
my sig is so witty and fun - it tickles almost everyone who reads it.
...we take off our very wet shoes and socks and place them on one of the two hefty UPSs to dry out.
"Excuse Calendar" *flip-flip*: Ah, yes. The UPSes seem to have suffered from electro-chemical ionisation of a dihydrogen-monoxide current pulse across the positive-negative poles. Please hold this cable in your teeth, so we can test humistatic differential levels between black and red.
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"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.