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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Coward writes "Glasgow based artist Sandy Smith has some slightly different suggestions for what to do with those outdated PCs and Apple Macs -- build your home out of them!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."

14 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. Hmm. by The+Amazing+Fish+Boy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Glasgow based artist Sandy Smith has some slightly different suggestions for what to do with those outdated PCs and Apple Macs -- build your home out of them!

    I'll have to ask my mom if I can build a house in her basement.

    Aw, she says I have to bathe first.


    BTW, Coral cache mirror, MirrorDot mirror

  2. You wouldn't need a heater... by Mikito · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...if you had a house built of running PCs.

    That would be quite an electric bill, though.

    --
    Anakin Simpson: If you're not with me, then you're my enemy--ooh, donuts!
    1. Re:You wouldn't need a heater... by dncsky1530 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

    2. Re:You wouldn't need a heater... by wwwillem · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

      --
      Browsers shouldn't have a back button!! It's all about going forward...
  3. Looks like my garage .. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    .. or the study when something's cooking.

    But seriously - what to people consider art ? This looks like someone who just piles computers up and plugs them in. Kind of like kindergarten but with stuff only adults can lift.

  4. When laid off, build your shelter out of your pc. by ABeowulfCluster · · Score: 4, Funny

    Looks at old 486... "And this is my living room"

  5. Lain by tricops · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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".

    --
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    This is the cute vorpal bunny virus, copy to your sig or runaway, runaway in fear!
  6. Queer eye for the... by merpal · · Score: 5, Funny

    basement-dwelling nerd who has saved every system he's owned since 1980. :)

    http://www.computersforart.org/create/blue/big/san dy_smith_07.jpg

  7. What defines art? No, it's 'WHO' defines art by Jerry+Smith · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Definitions of art:
    http://www.google.nl/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q= define%3Aart
    That's a lot of definitions. Art is art when 'articians' say it is so.
    Authoritarial justification.
    Even extreme things, like burning crosses or crossdressed foetusses can be considered art. And before modding me down for this: I do not agree with the examples I just gave.

    --
    All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
    1. Re:What defines art? No, it's 'WHO' defines art by datafr0g · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I disagree...
      Art is "art" to an observer whenever they think something has the qualities of art.
      Errm, in other words:
      Anything at all is art (to the observer) when the observer thinks it is because of a (artistic) quality or meaning percieved...

      If I find a 5 1/4 inch floppy disk artful, then it is to me because I think it is.
      It is arrogant (and unfortunatly common) though to force a perception of art upon others.... that's what pisses people off about the "what defines art" question.

      --
      "Who says nothing is impossible? Some people do it every day!" - Alfred E. Neuman
  8. Pretty? Scary? Sad? by The+Amazing+Fish+Boy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't know if it's supposed to be pretty or scary.

    Pictures like these remind me of how eery a society we live in. It's actually kind of depressing or even scary.

    (In an I'm-in-front-of-my-computer-at-4:45AM kind of way)

  9. Re:Pretty? Scary? Sad? by xstonedogx · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't know if it's supposed to be pretty or scary.

    It's okay. Those things in the picture are called "girls". What you're feeling is natural.

    In any case, you're posting on Slashdot at (apparently) 4:45 your time, so they're nothing you'll ever have to worry about.

  10. Re:Pretty? Scary? Sad? by The+Amazing+Fish+Boy · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's okay. Those things in the picture are called "girls". What you're feeling is natural.

    Pfft. Dude, I think I know what girls look like. I do see my mother every once in a while so she can cut my hair.

  11. Re:Any Custom Programming? by anubi · · Score: 4, Interesting
    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.

    --
    "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]