I’ve always been a fan of old computers. New ones too, but there’s something about old computers that I think we all see talent and ability in them all. The Baz Lurhmann song ‘Sunscreen’ has a nice line which I use to describe what I do sometimes with old machines: “… fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.” Bax of course was talking about advice. I on the other hand am talking about resurrecting old computers.
This started for me many years ago when I bought and sold computers for minor profits. I once drove cross-country to a university to invest €50 in 4 iMac G3 and G4s which I duly sold on later. In the time I had them though, I explored their potential and what their limitations were. And that’s I think what’s great about old computers in the beginning. They have limitations. If you think about what the limitations are, and know where the boundary lies, then you explore more of what is in front of you to make sure you’re getting the value out of them. I think this is what makes our lives more interesting in some respects, because we know that the inevitable is upon us at some point and we’re not to stray beyond that willingly unless we’ve lost all hope and that appears as if it’s the only course of action.
To date I’ve resuscitated many many computers from their dire straits. Be it that they were running slow, or had parts missing or whatever. Resurrection of technology is easy – adoption of same is now. For example, I’m getting ready for a 3 week holiday in the USA. I’m bringing a laptop with me, but one which is portable, light and which is not massively valuable. So I’ve chosen my mother’s old Latitude X300 from Dell. A fiesty little devil, the X300 (on which I’m writing this blog very comfortably!) is a 12″ notebook which at the time was slim and light. It suffered from a terrible processor, limited RAM and a brutal battery life. But today, I’ve rejuvinated its life with more RAM, a set of new hinges for the LCD, a fresh installation sans the crap and a massive new battery. And I’m proud to say it’s holding its own so far. I’m interested to see how it fares off in USA on the holiday so I’ll report on that when I’m there.
So today’s project for anyone who’s interested – is find a piece of old tech in the closet somewhere and spend a few hours breathing life back into it. You can never have too many computers as far as I’m concerned. Even if some of them are PCs!
diarmy
