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Rehabilitating Damaged Laptops
Rollie Hawk writes "It breaks my heart to see a computer in need of a good home. For years, I've driven my wife crazy with all the 'strays' I've brought home with me. After all, the last thing my house needs is a few more cubic feet devoted to kenneling old and abused computers. That being said, laptops present very unique opportunities. No matter what caused you or someone else to ditch that old laptop, there still may be some way to integrate it back into society. For every kind of laptop lemon, I've found that there's plenty of lemonade to be made."
Once you have finished making lemonade, be certain not to spill it on your newly-refurbished laptop.
Damaged Display
Install Linux on it and make it into a server!
Tiny or Dead Hard Drive
Yep! Boot it from a CD and use it as a server!
Low Memory
A low memory server!
Dead Battery
plug it into a wall outlet and use it as a server!
Busted Keyboard or Touch Pad
Hook up a external keyboard and use it as a server!
Low Resolution Display
Servers dont need a display!
All of The Above?
Can you see where im going with this?
Conclusion
With a little imagination, just about any old piece of junk laptop can be a server!
what a crap article. his answer to all the problems is make it into a server - yeah thanks captain obvious. dosshell and edit for a word processor - kill me now!
Unfortunately, no one can be told what my sig is...
And we can ALWAYS use more of us
Socially maladjusted elitsts? Oh yes I whole-heartedly agree.
I've got it built into a custom plywood case with a 19" LCD, 4 drive RAID, tape backup and 100 disc CDR changer. I'm working on installing the 3 day battery backup and generator this week.
Now, could someone come help me? My legs are pinnned and crushed and I can't reach the remote.
One of my pet projects now is to turn a laptop, a cuecat and a webcam into a fridge computer that will allow me to inventory my refridgerator as well as take a snapshot whenever I open the door. Imagine using a WAP-enabled phone to check what I have in the fridge at home. No more "do I have milk?".
:(
You know what else works great for that?... a girlfriend. Yeah, I know, I don't have one either.
None of them are particularly speedy, and half of them have cracked LCDs, but for what I'm using them for, they're fine
A table?
Be fair, Alioth, your parents didn't get really upset with you until you decided to find out how your little brother worked....
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
> I'm not really using them for any kind of processing. ...
>
> putting the old hardware to good use
You mean, wasting power idling for no purpose at all? Brilliant!
I myself have a "Beowulf cluster" of lightbulbs I keep running in my lower desk drawer; it was a real pain to set up enough ventilation to prevent my desk from catching on fire.
"I tell him I have it"
Oooohh - rookie mistake.
Proper response:"Laptop? Oh yeah; I played with it a lot but it never really got working properly, so I disposed of it."
Please note that, in the Clintonesque sense, you haven't told a lie: "Working properly" means 100%, and it's still missing keys; "Disposed of" literally means "to make a disposition," and its disposition is that it is good enough for you.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
My house is off-grid (solar power and generator backup.)
Citizen 523887 please report immediately to Consumer Re-education Camp Alpha2 for an "adjustment" to your resource consumption motivation.
Speak truth to power.