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Problems in Computer Conservation

sobachatina writes "The Computer museum at The University of Amsterdam has an interesting page with examples of the problems that they run into maintaining 20+ year old hardware such as rubber rollers from card readers melting or mold growing inside CRT terminals.I hate it when I get mold growing inside my monitor!"

25 of 256 comments (clear)

  1. No moldy monitors @home by tcd004 · · Score: 4, Funny

    This has never been a problem for the folks down at Not@Home cable internet servce.

    Just check out their state-of-the-art equipment!

    tcd004

    1. Re:No moldy monitors @home by einhverfr · · Score: 2, Funny

      This has never been a problem for the folks down at Not@Home cable internet servce. [lostbrain.com]

      Wow you have 20+ year old monitors? Wow. May I borrow your punch card reader for a while? And I suppose your account maintenance software is written in ALGOL as well.

      ALGOL? What a horrid name! The name Al'Gol translates from Arabic as "The Ghoul" (and is the name of a star in the constellation Perseus).

      --

      LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
    2. Re:No moldy monitors @home by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      ALGOL? What a horrid name! The name Al'Gol translates from Arabic as "The Ghoul" (and is the name of a star in the constellation Perseus).

      Only terrorists use programming languages ;-) And Programming supports terrorist. Ban all programming languages.

  2. Mold? That's nothing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I work as tech support, and the other day I opened up a computer case. I thought the dust bunny in there the size of my fist was a rat at first and figured it was about to jump out and bite me.

  3. And with all the porn people look at today... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The problems for future computers are going to be worse! Ewwwww!

    1. Re:And with all the porn people look at today... by JDWTopGuy · · Score: 1, Funny

      Look at this great PII I picked up... hey, the keyboard's all sticky, I better clean it. (Opens keyboard) Did somebody spill glue on this thing?

      --
      Ron Paul 2012
    2. Re:And with all the porn people look at today... by iggymanz · · Score: 4, Funny

      and 10,000 years from now, they'll be able to clone ugly fat smart male nerds from DNA residue found in keyboards, mice, mouse pads, and the underside of workstation desks.

  4. Mold, nothin'! by Satan's+Minion+666 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm fairly certain that enough particles have wafted in for some really nice little pot trees to be growing in my CPU by now...

    --
    I am Law! You are Crime!
    1. Re:Mold, nothin'! by tetuth · · Score: 1, Funny

      You should know that this will be affecting your computer's (short term) memory, but it's your call.

      Watch where you blow your hits.

  5. Maybe... by craenor · · Score: 4, Funny

    They should stop running their webservers on the antique computers. Then they would last longer...and maybe they wouldn't be /.'d already.

  6. Now they they have some new hardware to "maintain" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Maybe the slashdotting has blown all the cobwebs off their equipment (as well as warming up the spiders a little) ;-)

  7. hrm by pummer · · Score: 2, Funny

    I hate it when I get mold growing inside my monitor!

    That's when you know it's time to buy an lcd.

  8. You think mold is a problem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    My boss brought in his laptop.

    There was an ant crawling around INSIDE the lcd. You could see him running around ... eventually he left the lcd, and never saw him again. Either he found his way out of the laptop, or got electrocuted.

    1. Re:You think mold is a problem? by ObviousGuy · · Score: 5, Funny

      I've heard that some laptops are buggy.

      *commence rotten tomato barrage*

      --
      I have been pwned because my /. password was too easy to guess.
    2. Re:You think mold is a problem? by Pharmboy · · Score: 2, Funny

      I had a whole bunch of cockroaches in my monitor once. The folks in the next cubicles thought it was very funny.

      actually, its so common its sickning. I ran several pawn shops that dealt mainly in electronics when I lived in TX. omg. we saw roaches in TVs, stereos, VCR's. One TV had a hole in the casing at the top. it appears they used it to put chicken bones (I swear to living God). Had a few chickens worth, and a huge nest of very happy roaches.

      On a funnier note, you would be surprised how many people bring in a VCR to borrow money, and when you hook it up to test it, it has porn in it. Thats not the funny part. The funny part is how they try to act like they don't know how that got in there. Everytime.

      --
      Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
  9. Keyboards by big_groo · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've solved my 'dirty keyboard' syndrome by purchasing black ones.

    I used to put 'em through the dishwasher.

    Works like a charm.

    (just remember to remove the circuitry, m'kay?)

    1. Re:Keyboards by ObviousGuy · · Score: 3, Funny

      Bah. You're just picky.

      Just keep using it until a dull gray sheen covers the keys.

      One speck of dust is easily spotted. Multiply that by a million and it just looks like the natural color of the keyboard.

      Also applicable to cars and geeks.

      --
      I have been pwned because my /. password was too easy to guess.
  10. computer execution by circletimessquare · · Score: 2, Funny

    how about the opposite?

    plug the thing up the net, pay some cobol programmer to write a server, then put a wish fulfillment story on slashdot to the effect of "proven: microsoft stole source code from linus" or "proven: mp3 pirating good for the economy" and then watch the poor old decrepit things melt or explode. ;-P

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  11. Re:Heh by antistuff · · Score: 3, Funny

    Ummm...no. Nobody read it that way.

    Lay off the crack pipe.

  12. Re:Hermetically sealed vacuum containers by Phexro · · Score: 4, Funny

    Then, seal the display case inside a solid block of concrete, and bury it no less than three miles under the surface of the earth. With these precautions, you can overcome the risk of exposing the equipment to harmful substances, including water, air, light, or observation.

    Since there is no conclusive evidence that exposing decrepit hardware to large quantities of dark is harmful in any way, the systems should last for a few million years, easy. Just don't bury them near the edge of a continental plate.

  13. Re:Yet another reason... by Chester+K · · Score: 2, Funny

    Build it out of wood. I hear that works pretty good for houses.

    --

    NO CARRIER
  14. Re:Mold? That's nothing. by ejaw5 · · Score: 4, Funny

    sounds like the hampster powering the computer fell off it's wheel.

    --

    $cat /dev/random > Sig
  15. New Moderation Category by dotgain · · Score: 2, Funny
    "Misread Headline for something completely different"

    I mean, really. Your nick is only different to "Anonymous Coward" by one character, and I still didn't misread that.

    This deserves to be modded, but not +Funny. Did anyone else read that as -1, Dummy?

  16. Inside the Electronics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    It's not quite a computer, but in my ham radio days a
    few roaches made a nest inside my transmitter. You
    could see them as they crawled across the frequency
    display window. Once in a while one would try to cross
    the tuning capacitor and get fried. The odor was unique.

  17. Mold by b1t+r0t · · Score: 1, Funny
    I've got an ADM3A terminal with a moldy monitor. I'm also allergic to penicillin and get hay fever symptoms when the mold count is high. The night I found it, I had a light ear infection. The next morning my ear was fine, but I had hives all over. Apparently the mold in the monitor was related to penicillin and I got an antibotic reaction from it! Later messing with it didn't give me an allergic reaction, though.

    Unfortunately the ADM3A doesn't work. It's got raster, but those hundreds of TTL chips just don't want to do anything other than display the cursor. But the first two kinds of terminals I ever used were ADM3A's and DecWriter II's, so I still want to hold on to it for now.

    --

    --
    "Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
    "Open source is evil." - Microsoft