What is Digg?85 Comments
- irishjays, on 09/15/2008, -3/+109For Digg users: Put it in the basement, there will serve you as a historically accurate porn time capsule.
- doctechnical, on 09/15/2008, -5/+79It took four pages to list 15 things? Buried.
- str3ama, on 09/15/2008, -1/+536. Use it as a television
Instead of buying the hardware they recommend try out http://www.freetube.us.tc or download http://www.tvunetworks.com and then play around with the tv channels on both. Or you can use it to download shows and movies through torrents with http://www.thepiratebay.org. - skelliewag, on 09/16/2008, -4/+48So instead of binning an old comp we can save the environment by continuing to run it on electricity we wouldn't have used otherwise.
??? - eigenweasel, on 09/17/2008, -0/+40On the same page...
More from TechRadar:
(1) Why you shouldn't buy a plasma TV
(2) Editor's Choice: Top six plasma TVs
:/ - Obelia, on 09/17/2008, -0/+32Multi-page summary:
1. Use it as a video recorder
2. Help find a cure for cancer
3. Make some money from it
4. Assist a silver surfer
5. Recycle it responsibly
6. Use it as a television
7. Deter thieves
8. Make a jukebox
9. Give it to charity
10. Make a games server
11. Set up a home security system
12. Convert it into a test machine
13. Play classic games
14. Use it as a backup device
15. Turn it into a firewall
A lot of charities won't take old PCs any more, because the market is flooded. Sometimes it's better to try to sell them quickly. - noPCtoday, on 09/16/2008, -3/+30if your computer is more than 6 years old, there is really no point of re-using it other than recycle it. Call me a nut if you want, but old computers had different energy standard as we have now. If you keep the box running / sell it on ebay, the electricity bill would probably cost more than just buy a 90$ second hand newer computer. AND its bad for the enviroment as it wastes energy.
- protogenxl, on 09/17/2008, -1/+19Well if you have a mac with a handle you can wrap a chain around it and use it as a Boat Anchor.
- honesttussey, on 09/17/2008, -0/+12Why not just buy a WRT54GL and put 3rd party firmware on it? It would save on the power consumption.
- khaavren, on 09/15/2008, -3/+13oh i remember when THAT one was my favorite..... sure why not, once more for old time's sake.
- fakeid781, on 09/17/2008, -1/+107. Deter thieves
A ten-year-old, coffee-splattered beige PC with a 486 sticker, placed in a highly visible spot in your home, will appear so valueless that thieves won't think you have a computer worth nicking… Just make sure that the real one's kept out of sight of prying eyes.
Apparently the writer has not seen it takes a thief on Discovery channel. thieves are not detoured by an old PC they would just trash the whole place looking for anything of value. - inactive, on 09/16/2008, -2/+11They also make great barbecues.
http://www.arellanes.com/archives/cooking-pc-thumb ... - M4tchstickM4n, on 09/17/2008, -0/+8Buried for being a rubbish article, needlessly spread over four pages.
- bratterscain, on 09/17/2008, -1/+9My thoughts too. Most of those uses you can use your own PC to do those things. You can also run a vm on today's PC's and probably use less power than what an old inefficient behemoth could. I'd rather have one fast PC for space and energy savings. My 333mhz PSP could run a webserver or play my mp3's if need be and use a lot less electricity.
- FUR10N, on 09/17/2008, -0/+8I used two old Dell cases as end tables to a couch, then my dad threw them away b/c he said it looked stupid. Now where am I supposed to put my drink!?
- sunnydayz, on 09/17/2008, -0/+7Holly ***** a tech article on digg, must be something about lipstick in there somewhere.
- phatfiend, on 09/17/2008, -1/+8Recycle it. There is no reason to keep an old power hog under performing PC in use. it is a stupid drain on the power grid and hurts the environment.
- bratterscain, on 09/17/2008, -0/+7Don't expect your fish to live long. AFAIK, the inside of CRT's can be toxic.
- trogdor282, on 09/17/2008, -0/+7If you have a nice old laptop (Pentium 3 or M maybe) it probably only draws 10 or 20 watts with the lid closed. Makes a great server if you add a USB hard drive. An old xbox makes a great media center, it draws about 60 watts but it's instant-on so you can turn it off most of the time. Just slap in a bigger HD or stream from your pc's samba/nfs.
If you're running folding@home on an old computer you're probably CAUSING cancer due to the coal being burned to run it. - kevdotbadger, on 09/17/2008, -3/+9If you own a g3 iMac, why not turn it into a fish tank?
This guy makes and sells them (http://www.jakeharms.com/), but I'm sure it would not be a hard project - tonyscha, on 09/16/2008, -0/+6Try out a new linux distribution, web server, or make it a oversized hardware router?
- jkbrowne, on 09/17/2008, -0/+6Very true. Keep that in mind before you decide you want to use that old Compaq as a firewall. A Linksys WRT54G with dd-wrt or openwrt is a much better choice.
- DeFex, on 09/17/2008, -0/+6Your new super duper quad core can do those things without even noticing.
dont waste power on these old things. - Unyoked, on 09/17/2008, -0/+5They completely glossed over Myth TV a Linux OS to handle TV recording.
- tablatronix, on 09/17/2008, -2/+7New pcs use more wattage when they are idle than all the 386s in my house.
- Azselendor, on 09/17/2008, -0/+5Not even a hint of using them as trebuchet ammo either.
- solidwhetstone, on 09/16/2008, -2/+7Woah digg up for you my friend.
- Balk2K, on 09/17/2008, -2/+7Hey, how about MythTV? http://www.mythtv.org/
- kevyn, on 09/17/2008, -0/+5I always seem to find some random use for old PCs, although having a laptop attached to the back of the toilet door may seem like a waste to some people...
- RoboDonut, on 09/17/2008, -3/+8They talk about using it as a DVR, but they don't mention MythTV. What's up with that?
- tendonut, on 09/17/2008, -0/+5My 1GHz PIII w/ 1GB of RAM has been a dedicated file/web/game server running Fedora for the past 5 years or so. It started with Fedora 1, now it's at like Fedora 6 or 7, can't remember.
I also have a 300MHz Athlon w/ 128MB of RAM acting as my Smoothwall Firewall/Gateway and that has been in place and running strong for 3 years or so. So yeah, I love my older machines - Elranzer, on 09/17/2008, -0/+4Maybe in the UK. The UK is tiny.
- smart100, on 09/17/2008, -1/+5I was thinking of converting my old monitor into a fish tank.
RL screensaver - mrgeekguy, on 09/17/2008, -0/+3What? No Thermonuclear Doomsday device?
- inactive, on 09/17/2008, -1/+4That looks *totally* nontoxic!
- inactive, on 09/17/2008, -5/+8I'm not your buddy, guy!
- aj3289, on 09/18/2008, -0/+2MythTV is not a Linux OS, or even a Linux distribution -- It's a program that runs on Linux.
There is at least one MythTV-specific distribution called KnoppMyth (www.mysettopbox.tv)
I've used it for years and it works great - InsaneMachine, on 09/17/2008, -0/+2If thieves enter your house, i think you have bigger problems than making sure they won't take your computer.
- zosimov21, on 09/17/2008, -1/+3goodwill takes old pc's so you don't have to dump them in the trash
- bradhart2, on 09/17/2008, -0/+21) ->you can run a brothel in your old PC????? Damn I missed the boat on that when all these years. I think I need to hit up some garage sales this weekend.
- netdroid9, on 09/17/2008, -0/+2I don't know about that. We do have much more energy-efficient technologies now, but they're usually found in laptops. Desktops seem to have gone up in energy consumption, considering that in 2001 a kilowatt PPU would've probably been considered overkill for even the most advanced consumer PCs. Laptops are definitely the way to go for cheap low-power PCs, from memory they suck up about 15 watts on average compared to like a couple hundred for an idling desktop.
- killdeer03, on 09/17/2008, -0/+2Can it hippie!
Why can't we just be nerds.... - Balthasar, on 09/17/2008, -0/+2Yeah it can also cost you 50+ bucks a year in electricity to have the thing on 24/7. Most (if not all) of the stuff can be done on the new computer.
- DarkNemesis618, on 09/17/2008, -0/+2Turn it into a file server...it'll save some disk space on your new machine
- bradhart2, on 09/17/2008, -0/+2Many of them still do, but it is actually against their corporate policy to take a PC and has been for about 4 years.
- turpialito, on 09/22/2008, -0/+2tablatronics is right. Just check out the wattage a quad core needs, versus the power supply on a Pentium III. Now, suppose you change the CRT on a 6 YO computer to a LCD and you're looking at a FAR more energy-efficient computer than today's power-hungry monsters. Not to mention today's power-hungry video cards.
- ParanoydAndroid, on 09/17/2008, -1/+3They also forgot all the things you can do with it physically, like
1.) Cat house
2.) sweet Aquarium
3.) ???
4.) profit
... Yeah I ran out of ideas after two. - Premier, on 09/16/2008, -6/+8I am not your friend buddy
- Takfam, on 09/17/2008, -0/+2In SoCal (pasadena area), there is a computer parts fair where vendors sell stuff for cheap. If you bring in 2 pieces of E-Waste, they give you free parking. I've seen other such incentive programs to recycle old computers (discount coupons for electronics stores, movie passes, etc). Many companies even have a pick-up service so you don't have to haul your clunker to their warehouse. There really is no excuse anymore not to deal with your computer waste properly.
- MattBD, on 09/17/2008, -0/+2How about as a torrent box. Install a lightweight Linux distro and add a BitTorrent client (ideally one with a web UI, which I think Deluge has), and just have it running all the time. I'd consider doing this if I had an old desktop machine handy.
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