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What To Do With Old Laptops?
An anonymous reader writes "I've recently acquired a few old P2/P3 laptops. Most either work properly but are slow, or have various problems with power supplies and/or batteries. Attempting to sell them would probably earn less than the cost of shipping, so that's out of the question. I was hoping the Slashdot crowd could give me some ideas on what to do with these old computers. As somebody who already has ~10 computers lying around the house there is certainly no need for an additional computer to 'experiment' with, so I was hoping for some more creative suggestions."
at craigslist.org? Offer the whole lot for a small charge (or not so small charge - I would think you could get at least $50 for a P3 laptop, if not more).
...I'd taken an old P2 200, flipped the screen around, threw a wireless card in it, and made a digital picture frame for my grandmother for Mother's Day two years ago. Been meaning to revisit that project. Another option is just as a heads-up display. I've got an old Compaq Presario hanging off my wall which does nothing but shell outputs of the status of my network, as well as a buffer for the latest SNMP traps. It blinks in big red text if anything goes particularly sideways (fatal trap). Took a fair bit of scripting, but it was fun.
Informatus Technologicus
Fix em up if you can and give em to a kids. I'm sure you could get at least a couple goin out of the pile, no?
I've put win2k on them and they seem to be fine for this purpose.
I'm not anti-social, I'm anti-idiot.
I use old laptops for things like serving up web pages, running an FTP site, portable web-cam host, print server, file server, repeater, router or whatever other services where a power efficient, portable computer can be used. If you have it set up to run a single service or two, then performance is not going to be that big of an issue.
For a web server, for example. I install a low-overhead Linux distro with Apache, ssh and maybe vnc and copy my www directory to it. BAM! Web server! It uses less power than any of my PC's, and it allows me to reboot my "real" machine without taking the web page down.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
I use a Kurobox (266MHz PowerPC w/ 128MB RAM) running TorrentFlux as a Bittorrent server; it functions remarkably well. I'm sure those laptops are at least as powerful as that.
Agreed. Also, if they can support wireless why not 'network' your music? Setup a media server and allow the laptops access, so you can play whatever music you have wherever you want in the house - assuming you have enough speakers and the soundcards are somewhat bearable.
They CAN be useful. My P2/350mhz/256 ram/ runs Debian, everything works, and goes with my while on the road. I have a wireless card, and it browses the internet, plays audio, and Galaga well. What more could you ask for? Who in the world would swipe it out of your hotel room? I leave it at the command prompt login, run no login window manager, the cleaning lady will be baffled beyond belief if she opened it to look. It is a great traveling companion. If it goes missing, no big investment either.
And it was fun to get working! How many people get the IBM Thinkpad 600e sound working? That was a real challenge, but it is working!
Most laptops fit easily in racks, and can be used either as consoles or VNC terminals. They can basically function as the poor man's rack KVM and display & I/O tray. Another thing more relevant to the first use is that OLD laptops still mostly have real serial ports and all, whereas those are getting harder and harder to find on new laptops.
Autoconfig, extended range wireless adaptors, bittorrent 24x7 from every network you can get connected to; you know, for the children.
on a more serious note, I used to work at a place where we were required to take "retired" laptops to the dumpster, somehow they ended up in the trunk of my car more often than not...
NaNoWriMo (national novel writing month) runs a laptop loaner program, where people without regular access to a computer can borrow one for a month for free in order to write a novel. It isn't exactly charity, but self-motivated intellectual persuits need all the support they can muster in our society. Most of the laptop loaners work fine but the batteries are shot (aka most used laptops).
I have "fixed up" (clean install with no bricking garbage on it) several and given them to family members at various times.
I have installed one with win2k+remote desktop client and NOTHING else so I could VPN + Remote in to our wintel machines at work without having to worry about work's big brother software locking me out because I have skype installed...
Finally, you could work on some decorative case mods, such as a Steampunk Laptop
Thin clients. Install a wifi card and mount one to the wall or cabinets in your kitchen. No battery necessary. Install LTSP or similar on a server and bammo! Instant kitchen terminal.
My blog
Use them as control terminals (one for each room, maybe in the wall somewhere) and servers for your houses living controls: thermostat, phone, tv, music, lighting, and maybe some web-cams and other security features, to name the big ones I'd want.
Install Freenet 0.7, give it a small bandwidth allotment and a huge datastore, hook it up to your router, and keep it running. You'll be helping people all over the world to communicate securely and anonymously.
I found an old Powebook 3400C in the trash that still works (battery is shot), and I proped it up on it's side and use it as a bedside e-book reader. It's neat because when I fall asleep, it will turn off it's screen automatically; I don't need to worry about closing the book and putting it on the side... :)
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Ok, just kidding... Well sort of. I don't know if it helps you out or not, but I know what I would do if I had an extra laptop or two lying around. I would repurpose one of them into a laptop for my 4 year old. He loves using the computer for TuxPaint and other games. I have an old computer that I set up for him, but my house's layout keeps it from being in a convenient spot for him to use. A laptop could be used by him on the couch, on the floor, in the car (while the battery lasted at least), or anywhere else. If you have any young nieces/nephews or if you have friends with young children, you could see if they want a laptop with Edubuntu installed. And speaking of Linux....
;-)
After having a laptop for my son, I would install Linux on a second spare laptop to play around with/learn Linux. Again, I'm not sure if this applies to you or not. I run Windows on all of my machines. I've wanted to try Linux out and have run a few LiveCDs (both boot-to-CD and inside VMWare), but it would be nice to have a whole system boot into Linux to try out. My two laptops are right now my work laptop (they probably wouldn't like it if I messed something up during my Linux install) and my wife's laptop (she definitely wouldn't like it if I messed something up during the Linux install). With an extra laptop, I could mess up and not really care about anything going wrong. From what I've heard, Linux shouldn't have a problem with the older systems (though I could be horribly wrong... I'm sure other users could clarify this point). So you could use one laptop as a test bed for various purposes. Get a nice system setup going, make an image of it, play around until the system is messed up, restore the image, play around some more, repeat.
Of course, if you seriously consider sending out old laptops to folks here, can I be the first in line?
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
But why not build an image wall placing them side by side and play something using X-Windows.
Just install Linux with X11 on each and you have a multi-screen solution!
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
I put Ubuntu on P3 laptops with WIFI cards and keep them in different rooms in the house to create "information at your fingertips" environment. They usually have google start page by default. So just type whatever question* you want answered, it gives you that. Best approximation to Omniscience that can ever be. e.g. maps, phone directory, calculator... Alternately, you can donate this configuration (plus openoffice) to a needy student who can use it quite well.
Something I've been wanting to try for a while. I've learned from past /. posts (sorry, I don't have the link) that you can build your own projector. I think it only costs about $300 and the lite bulbs will be a lot cheaper and last longer.
/. fan friend of mine and he laughed me out of the room - the case is made of wood. Personally, I think it's one of the coolest things I've seen. And Bob, the price IS RIGHT on that one.
Anyways, from my reading, I believe the most expensive part was an LCD screen, which is over $100. I'll bet you could remove the back off one of these laptops (the light has to shine thru LCD screen, I think) and use it.
I showed this website (http://www.lumenlab.com/) to a non
However, my time and money is not mine anymore (married with children), so I haven't tried it yet.
Also, MAKE magazine has some cool articles on borking your electronic stuff - such as attaching an old pda to a laptop screen and a keyboard. Etc...
7. Load some obscure OS on it and do automated smoke tests for Perl or another software project that's trying to maintain portability across platforms.
Haiku, JNode, FreeVMS, eComStation (commercial afterlife of OS/2, which runs damn snappily on a P2 or P3), ReactOS, Hurd, SkyOS, and more can always use more reports themselves, and lots of software packages would love bug reports (and even moreso -- patches!) for these OSes.
I'll pay for shipping for anything running or that fits my needs for parts for my old laptops. The newest laptop I've got that still runs is a 386, so I'd go crazy with a P3.
They would work great as a thin client.
You could also use them in a public area like a library is a Kiosk machine. Lots of ways to do this. Opera has a built in kiosk mode (where it basically disables windows hotkeys and locks the browser full-screen). There's also a good Kiosk tool for KDE, which allows you to lock down the desktop environment.
Gee, tons of other options. A good hardened router/firewall, with an external hard drive in hand a NAS, a simple LAMP server for a blog, any number of things.
Hehe, having run over stuff with a D9, I can attest to how much fun this is. (FYI everybody, D6 and D9 are models of Caterpillar crawlers)
KDE (and other window managers) makes inverting the screen trivial. mount the laptop upside down under the cabinet like one of those Bose CD players. The screen flips down like in a minivan DVD player.
Add a wireless keyboard and (as you said) bammo!
I'd rather have someone respond than be modded up.
I am putting together a charity to ship old computers to African schools.
Please contact me if interested. AlexZavatone(spamblock)@gmail.com
http://web.mac.com/zav/iWeb/Zav-O-Matic/Off%20to%20Africa.html
http://web.mac.com/zav/iWeb/Zav-O-Matic/Namibia%202008/D3A0AB87-8276-4741-8F1B-9225C7F23CF7.html
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
I'm surprised no one has mentioned helping out the /. community. Find a half dozen good ideas from the Securing Your Notebook Against US Customs thread and try them on each laptop. When you cross customs with a backpack full of laptops I'm sure you'll get a chance to see which encryption scheme works!
I look forward to hearing the results in a few months, IF you are ever let out of holding...
Take the circuit boards out, make your own computer cases out of wood, with dovetail joints and glossy finish, and sell them sans batteries as kitchen-table web browsing terminals.
Hasan
ie, airport security.
;)
totally randomize the drive that's in there, and either install an os or not (your choice).
but give them to random people (that, itself, is a problem on its own) and then have them go thru the checkpoints with their new laptops.
what this does is burden down the actors in our favorite Security Theater(tm). a little civil disobedience, if you will?
if you need to feel better about it, install an ubuntu or some fave distro of yours. I guess that's better than dd if=/dev/random across the whole disk. but my point is to get as many people as possible SLOWING DOWN THE SYSTEM so that people who make/own these stupid decisions will finally see that it accomplishes nothing and that a 'forced frisking' at the border for simply daring to bring a laptop or media across the border is AGAINST THE WILL AND FREEDOM of We, The People.
ok, I admit this isn't going to happen in any large scale. but imagine if it could. if we could get enough people to do their part to show those in control that this current state of 'security' is not acceptable and that it accomplishes nothing but to add more fear to the populace.
so that's my idea. dd random stuff to their drives or install an os; but give them away and get people to go thru customs with these. soon, they would grow tired of having to 'decode' random disk patterns and maybe they'll shift to ACTUAL detective work instead of dragneting anyone who crosses a border.
oh, and if customs needs to 'seize' that laptop, well, so what! who cares. it will cost them more in manpower and storage (physical place to hold 'evidence') than the random broken lappie is worth! so there's that, at least
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
I've been thinking I'll use old laptops as slideshow displays (explanations) for science projects at Maker Faire. Better than lugging around desktops. Only problem is the prices seem to be either inflated or so low no one will sell them because the shipping exceeds the cost..
Not sure that this applies to you or not, but if you're a member of any organizations that do public exhibitions it's worth looking into.
the picture frame would be a nice toy. I wouldn't want to do more than one though.
Have you thought about donating them to your local ARES/RACES group? Old laptop can sometimes mean they use less power. this is ideal when the laptop is being used as a terminal to a Packet TNC.
The groups are volunteers so they welcome equipment donations. Contact your county EOC to find out who's in charge.
Yep, I never spell check.
More incorrect spellings can be found he
Attach some wooden legs to them and use them as end tables. I have made many a nice furniture piece using old computers. Including a coffee table, night stands, and even a fish tank. The last one isn't finished yet because of leak issues.
Somewhere in a dark place you will find:
www.m1
Bad choice -- Clay pigeons don't spray plastic shards and toxic chemicals everywhere.
When I have shot up laptops or other electronics, I've pulled the batteries and screens, and then set up a tarp underneath where they were hanging so I could clean up easily.
Laptops only make good targets because of the keys -- try stripping them off one at a time from 200 yards. But I can just as easily use a $10 keyboard for that. The one time I did set up a laptop to shoot at, we put it with the targets for people with pistols -- I got maybe 3 shots at it before someone took a 12ga to it.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
No one has suggested it yet, but I recommend you try building a Beowulf cluster. Just for fun. And for added fun, make it a DOS Beowulf. Follow the step-by-step at building your own low-cost supercomputing cluster. If you have two or more old machines, the cost can probably be kept under $10. The machines don't need a lot of memory, but they must have a working parallel port.
Any laptop with a real serial port will be treated like gold and gladly put to good use at any research lab as a data logging tool connecting to some oddball piece of scientific equipment. Computers age much faster than instruments, and so often the interface software needs some old out of date OS and hardware to run. Try giving a call to the research focused department of your choice at your local university- and try and talk to the lab folk doing research, not the IT support who deal with student & email issues.
~.~
I'm a peripheral visionary.
I always wanted to turn an old laptop, preferably with broken case, into an Ambient Scouting Device For Looking Around The Net.
Imagine a digital picture frame, enhanced with the capability to tell you what interesting things happen around you - Mails you receive, Posts on your favourite Blogs, News from several sources, what stars are out on the current night... whatever. Now, what is "interesing" for the user is, of course, hard to determine. This is an area where you can get creative with software: From simple filtering of RSS feeds to sending agents out into the WorldWideWilderness, this should be the interesting part for hackers.
Hardware-wise, I thought of replacing the hard drive with some solid-state-memory and mounting the necessary components into a nice wooden frame. Turn off all unneccessary parts in order to save energy, and you get a nice info display.
I have an old PII/266 which runs DSL (Damn Small Linux) very nicely. I put XMMS on it, and hooked the speaker out to one of the alternate audio inputs on my stereo. It's not phenomenally high quality stereo, but at least better than most FM reception, and you've got hundreds (thousands?) of online radio stations to pick from.
DSL has some problems, such as shutting down the system if I close the lid on the laptop, and then not recovering the ethernet connection when I open it up again, but for the most part, it's better than tossing out the laptop. It's a lot smaller and cleaner looking than trying to get a full blown system with a monitor and keyboard to do the same thing.
Your Servant, B. Baggins
The one reason that older Laptops retain value after their life expectancy have run out is that they are complete compact computers that comes with screen, keyboard, storage ready to use right there and now.
...yes..it's more compatible with my old style centronic port rather than those windowsy modern equivalents that absolutely wants to control all the hardware by itself... this old unit has full "dos" control and can run old "protel" software to create those Nice Direct-to-plotter pcb layouts that make the life of a nerd a bit easier and cheaper.
What do I use them for?
I've refurbished one of the smallest laptops in the world (3010ct) from Toshiba (Weighs around 1.2 kg) as a lightweight practical surfing machine that I can take with me anywhere (take THAT pricey Macbook AIR!) cost me 15 dollars plus 10 bucks for the wireless CF card + adapter - downloaded some russian win 98 usb hack to give it usb powers + some wifi cf hack to give it wifi...voila...it's a fantastic Wireless surfer.
I've got a couple of nice IBM 600's that I've turned into portable Commodore 64's! Thanks to FRODO it instantly boots into a Commodore 64 within 10 seconds (take THAT you SLOW SLOOOW booting modern pcs that take 1-2 minutes to boot win xp!) This one can play all the cool games of our past years...and provide a nice prototyping platform to quickly try out some programming theories...
I've turned my Olivetti Echos 100E into a super-Eprom-Programming station! Yes - Todays modern PCs'doesnt come with Parallel or Serial ports (sure...usb is some sort of ultra fast serial port..but it doesnt work...and converterboards suck in general so...) I use this one to burn EPROMS with those nice 80-90's eprom programmers!
I've turned my other laptop into a Plotting Machine to make PCB's (Printed Circuit boards)
So yes - There's life in them old lappies still! I love'em!
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
db
I am literally 3000 tokens away from the chaotic crossbow --Stephen
Make a cheap car-puter/dvd player for your kids. You could mount it almost anywhere, or even recess it into the dash...
... and if you were really keen, you could use a 3G connection card to triangulate your position as a poor man's GPS.
You could set it up for war-driving, wire it into your sound system, add an external drive that you could plug in (and use for transfers)
... or you could set it up and pretend to be a cop...
I recently heard from someone who manages a mailroom in a large firm that _none_ of her staff knew how to type, so they were really unable to apply to move up to any other job in the organization.
They were locked into the low end job slot.
I got an old laptop, erased Windows from its tiny old hard drive, set it up to boot DOS (FreeDOS, I think) and installed an autoexec file to run an old copy of Typing Tutor III -- which is still probably the best thing going to learn the home row then slowly add keys and build speed and sequences.
You can still find it for sale, look around.
No eye candy, no other programs, no mouse, nothing to fiddle with.
It remembers different people so they all are using it -- and now they're competing with each other to get faster and better.
Typing Tutor was an incredible simple DOS program.
Enter your name. It remembers where you left off and what you need next.
And it has a lovely little Letter Invaders game -- falling letters, lower case and upper case, that's tied to your current level of keyboard experience.
Put headphones on the laptop so nobody bothers the student because of the music it plays.
There's _no_garbage_ on this setup. I pulled out the floppy/CD drive modules.
All it does is -- teach people to type.
Show them just the home row ASDF JKL; and tell them where to put their fingers at the start.
That's all you need.
** I know it seems incredible but there are a _lot_ of adults still who never learned to use a keyboard. Poor family. Poor schools with no tech at all. No tools, no teachers.
Help someone out with your old laptops. Set one up so you know it works as needed and then shop it around.
Figure it's a throwaway -- tie it down maybe, but make clear it's a doorstop, tell people they can borrow it, take it home, it's not worth stealing.
All it can do is teach.