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Creative Recycling: Dumpster Diving

Posted by michael on from the finders-keepers dept.

gnewton writes "One angle of Open Source software that perhaps has not been emphasised enough is how the lower cost of software and operating systems as compared to proprietary/commercial solutions can allow for greater creativity and actually open up markets and solutions that were previously unavailable, in the area of Recycling. This article talks about a new startup which recycles old LCDs into cool and fun digital picture frames."

6 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. Okay by Quasar1999 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That's neat... really, I would love an alternative to buying the LCD picture frames on sale at Thinkgeek.com for more than the cost of a brand new LCD monitor of equal or larger size...

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    Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
  2. Recycling into something useful by RobertB-DC · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So far, the best thing I've gotten from the article is the link to RetroBox.com, an outfit that buys old equipment from companies, wipes the HD, and resells them.

    My company used to have an annual old equipment sale for employees. It was so popular, you actually had a lottery drawing for line position -- like a rock concert. But when we got bought by the Faceless International Corporation Ltd, that was just one of the personal touches we lost.

    Hard to beat a $70 laptop... even if it does have a dark spot on the screen!

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    Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
  3. Re:Dumpster Diving SCO by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    not what you'd expect. Lots of legal papers, a few filing cabinets, and maybe a couple of XP machines.

    What, you don't STILL believe they're a software company, do you?

  4. Need more information by bigjnsa500 · · Score: 2, Insightful
    I would like to RTFA, but as usual its /.'ed. Anyway, this the primary reason I keep around all my old unused computers and monitors. I don't want to take them to a landfil because of the chemicals in the chips, resins in the case, etc.. because it goes back into the ground.

    I remember seeing an short story on Discovery Channel about some place in Asia that is the dumping ground for all of the worlds digital equipment. It was quite scary seeing young kids waddling around in lord knows WHAT chemicals trying to get to the gold in monitors.

    A company could make a killing recycling computers. But into what?

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    This is a test. This is a test of the emergency sig system. This has been only a test.
  5. READ before you blow $ on an old lcd screen by nxs212 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    http://www.eio.com/lcdconnect.htm
    You can't simply connect VGA or NTSC signal to an LCD panel. Click on the link above to read why and whether it's worth the effort.

    IMHO, Wallflower could have done the same with a small business loan. (and avoided wasting time buying junk from ebay, taking apart laptops,etc)
    LCDs can be bought from China for very little $, if you place a large order. (Thus the SBL)
    http://www.china-tft.com

  6. Re:No, but have fun trying :) by herrvinny · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yeah, I wanted to do the same thing as the grandparent post, but I never got around to researching it... Too bad.

    Once you get down to it, though, all these people basically did is rip the components out of a laptop, discard the laptop case, and shove everything inside a picture frame, copy Linux and a webserver, and call it a digital picture frame.