A Different Way To Recycle Old PCs

Anonymous Coward writes "Glasgow based artist Sandy Smith has some slightly different suggestions for what to do with those outdated PCs and Apple Macs -- build your home out of them! Photographs of his work; rooms and structures made out of up to 100 (switched-on) computers and other equipment can be seen at computersforart.org/create/; these should be of interest to anyone who has a habit of collecting old (working) computers, or just hates the thought of throwing out their old 486 friend."

Comments

Lain

[tricops]

After looking at the "Untitled (The Sky is Blue)" pictures, I have this strange urge to watch Lain again.... For artwork it's pretty neat, but I can't help thinking "mmmm, radiation".

Re:You wouldn't need a heater...

[dncsky1530]

Funny as it may be, the parent as a point, with the worlds store of oil depleading, and the ozone layer getting worse by the day, projects like this aren't helping the problem. This may only be one case, however many more people keep old, old computers running for no reason, using up alot of electricity that doesn't need to be used.

Re:You wouldn't need a heater...

[wwwillem]

Here in (also cold) Canada, I visited a customer recently to discuss a thin-client solution. One of their comments was that when all those PCs would disappear from the desktop they could be having a heating problem. They had a rather new building and when the heating system for that office was dimensioned, the amount of heat produced by the PCs was calculated in. Which resulted in a smaller furnice.

Re:Any Custom Programming?

[anubi]

I have been doing that for years!

I have some old DOS "slideshow" programs.

I load up an old hard drive with DOS, the slideshow program, and a diskful of .jpg's and let it fly.

These go in minimal security places, like shopping malls. Ok, if someone gets malicious and vandalizes or steals the whole shebang, its not really any worse than if the trashman did it.

I mean, what he got was an old '286 with a 40MB 5.25" MFM HD and an old VGA monitor. Good enough to show photos of what's in the food court.

I just arrange things so that the still operational machines continue to work as designed until the bitter end.

I still have a couple of crates of old 40MB 5.25" MFM HD's and a couple dozen controllers still laying around I am slowly getting rid of this way.

I may get into designing a driver board for those large incandescent bulb-matrix displays one sees in front of many businesses, as I constantly see them not working proprely... it kinda pains me to see so much expensive hardware out there that does not function properly because the latest state-of-the-art computer systems don't run all that long before hanging up on something or other.

Its not at all like those old days I went through when I would get an embedded system going and expect it to go for years without any deviation at all. Much as one would design a motor and expect the same. There's nothing magic about sequencing the bulbs on a sign so they spell text, just as there is nothing magic about designing rotating magnetic fields in a motor so the shaft turns. We don't have to constantly maintain our fans either, unless they made them with badly designed bearings.

I still enjoy the breeze from 20 year old fans.

Why is it that the output of older computers is so neglected? Its paid for, and will continue to work for you as long as you give it some power.