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True Tales of Tech Hoarding
Recently some member of my household forced me to watch several episodes of A&E's Hoarders. This led to several *ahem* discussions about hoarding tendencies and the closet of cables, wires, boxes and parts in my basement. But I'm not doing bad compared to some of these tech hoarders. My favorite is the guy using a stack of 9 VA rack machines as an end table.
Only one closet full? Pfft, lightweight. Come back when you have a real collection!
It would be interesting to find out if the reason why some of us are so attached to old hardware just might be that it was not long ago that that hardware was mind boggingly expensive. My brother sometimes took a IBM model 5155 home and let me play nethack on it. At that time you could buy a nice car for that money instead of such a beast.
More than 10 years later I got my hands on one of these, but sadly parted with it under the influence of my wife at the time. (Yup, we divorced.). Seeing a picture of it still fills me with awe thinking how expensive this machine once was. Maybe that awe combined with a but-it-still-works attitude makes us think twice about throwing such stuff away?
Wenn ist das Nunstueck git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput.
NO! I can't throw away my old Token Ring cards and cables! What happens when the world goes post apocalyptic and I have to connect to a legacy system to save the world from Skynet? I need all my old devices it is our only hope!
The first sign of trouble is when you said/thought, at least I am not as bad as X. oh goodness.
The second sign: an intervention by way of watching a tv show devoted to your disease.
Take it from a former hoarder: just throw everything away (donate, trash, etc). There are way
more important things in life than, well, "things". Once you start spending as much time, energy,
and care for the people in and around your life, I doubt you will ever hoard again.
-sent from my cray-
jp
applies in this case. It states that an item's usefullness increases ten-fold as soon as it is thrown away. Hoarding is only natural.
In my electronics box I found:
* Disk labels for an Apple ][e
* PC/XT to PS/2 keyboard converters
* PS/2 to USB keyboard converters
* A 14.4k modem
* A chip extractor tool
* A laplink cable
Archaic, but small enough to overlook for another decade. I put it all back of course.
Futurist Traditionalism
Considering that much of tech gadgets contain toxic waste, usually in the form of heavy metals, reusing them as furniture isn't a bad idea. It beats dumping them into a landfill or paying for recycling.
The tech industry is a filthy industry. Esp. when you factor in the planned obsolescence.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
Thank you, I try and keep my collection neat and organized. I like to keep as many systems as I can out so I can play around with then when the mood takes me. What computers and systems I keep out tends to be in a constant state of flux, but it's always organized. I do indeed know where everything is at all times.
:)
I also don't keep extras of anything, just one of each. I simply don't have the room for backups and spares. Eventually my goal is to have everything setup like a museum of sorts.
>>Strangely, I don't imagine any chicks hanging around.
I think my wife would disagree with that statement.
Fe2O3+2Al
Given that my significant other is moving in with me, some "adjustments" have been made to my single-Engineer lifestyle..
This past week I delivered unto the philistine clutches of the local Electronics Recycler:
Six Amiga 1200 Computers; [14 MHz MC68EC020/2MB/120MB EIDE HDD]
Four Amiga 3000 Computers; [16 and 25 MHz MC68030/18MB/105 to 400 MB SCSI HDD's]
Two Amiga 4000 Computers; [25 MHz MC68040/18MB/250MB SCSI HDD's]
Five Amiga 4000T PCBA's;
Two VideoToasters;
1 Moniterm Monitor;
Are you bragging or trying to piss people off? I have an empty shelf in my hoarding room just crying for an A4000 and 1200. I can't even win one on eBay and you're tossing them out....
It a cost-benefit thing.
Keeping a few things that you might need is sensible. Keeping everything you've ever had isn't.
Is 1563649 a prime number?
Why... why would you do this? The recycler? Hell, I've sold things like "grab-bag of untested PC cables i found in my garage" on ebay for money. Functional Amigas could have at least earned you several good dinners out with the wife if you hadn't just dumped 'em... and selling to somebody who will use the gear is ALWAYS a better option than recycling, which should be your option of last resort. People on ebay will buy ANYTHING, and pay you to ship it to them.
Start in on your video game collection next. It's just a waste, sitting there unplayed-- people will pay you to play those games. Your easiest option is probably a swap service like goozex.com-- just get on and list your collection, and requests will start to roll in. It's taken most of a year for my old games to gradually disappear, since the older ones are not requested frequently-- but it's pretty low-effort.