[Noisebridge-discuss] New donations!

Jean-Luc Picard atari2600a at gmail.com
Sat Nov 23 22:24:28 UTC 2013


Actually I was gonna list problems on the machines themselves, but there 
was no more painters tape lying around.  I know I can buy a roll myself 
& bring it over, but I had to prepare for a 3-hours-imminent 28hr 
lock-in in a hotel room where the downstairs staff can't know I'm 
staying in my girls room while she's out.  The people at NB were 
actually pretty helpful in helping me plan out what calorie-dense food 
to buy under the limitations at hand. Anyways, I was on a tight budget 
so personal expenses came before the collective good.

On 11/23/2013 02:00 PM, Al Sweigart wrote:
> Thanks Jordan, I think you get the idea. I just want to clarify: It is 
> useful to have spare parts around. It is not useful to have junk around.
>
> A big problem is when people externalize the work needed to identify 
> working/broken things to the community at large. If a laptop doesn't 
> work but some components do, do the work of pulling off the working 
> stuff and then label it as what it is, that it is working, and the 
> date that it was donated (just so if it goes unused for years we know 
> to toss it). Having your contact info on the part would be good too, 
> so people know who to direct questions to. (Also, write this info on 
> masking tape or a tag and attach it, don't write directly on the 
> parts.) If a computer mostly works, write down specifically what needs 
> to be done to make it work again.
>
> This seems like a lot of work, but a big problem at Noisebridge is 
> people finding stuff and thinking, "Does this work? What is this 
> exactly?" This discourages people from both using stuff and throwing 
> it away, leading to the large clutter problem we have.
>
>
>
> On Sat, Nov 23, 2013 at 1:53 PM, Jean-Luc Picard <atari2600a at gmail.com 
> <mailto:atari2600a at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Just the fan;  the HDD's still there.  They said they had no
>     confidential data on the machine & I was all whatevs.  All it
>     needs is one of those a-little-larger-than-atx-screw-on fans that
>     goes in the Dell(TM) PowerFunnel(R) & maybe a rubber bushing since
>     I broke one on parts removal, but scotch tape would suffice just
>     as well.
>
>     There's a possibility the mobo is the reason the fan isn't
>     spinning but I find this unlikely.
>
>     Also, the laptops have useful optical drives, SO-DIMMS, screens,
>     but okay, I'll gut before donation next time a client brings me a
>     totalled machine for donation.  The reflow laptop would be great
>     surface-mount soldering practice for NB anyways!  We have the heat
>     gun, we just need one of those surface solder kits & some sets of
>     balls!  The towel trick might even work but good luck getting it
>     to work more than 1 reboot.
>     On 11/23/2013 10:55 AM, John Ellis wrote:
>>     Hi Al,
>>
>>     I think your a little off-base here although I do think e-waste
>>     at Noisebridge can be a problem. Dropping unusable stuff like
>>     busted CRT monitors to make them NBs recycling burden would be
>>     pushing it.
>>
>>     The Dell desktop could probably be repaired with parts laying
>>     around. HDD and replacement fan, good to go. Headless PCs can
>>     still be useful.
>>
>>     The laptops, depending on age, may be useful for a staving hacker
>>     to use for parts to repair their existing laptop. This actually
>>     can reduce overall ewaste. Isn't there a group at NB that does
>>     electronic strip-down and re-use of electronics? Ideally, re-use
>>     not recycle is better for the ewaste situation and environment in
>>     general.
>>
>>     Another idea which may be semi-practical is creating LCD
>>     drivers/controllers so old LCDs can be reused as working
>>     displays. I've seen various suppliers make LCD testers which do
>>     a vaguely similar function. Power up an LCD and confirm it
>>     displays properly, away from the host laptop setup.
>>
>>     Also, wasn't Jim involved in actually removing ewaste to recycling.
>>
>>     Regards,
>>     John
>>
>>     PS. Jean-Luc, if the Dell Desktop is still available and unwanted
>>     at NB, I'll take it off your hands to use as a dev/test box.
>>
>>
>>
>>     On Sat, Nov 23, 2013 at 3:15 AM, Al Sweigart <asweigart at gmail.com
>>     <mailto:asweigart at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>         We appreciate your intent, but if the computers don't turn
>>         on, then they'll just sit around for months until we throw
>>         them away (and e-waste disposal is not free). Please don't
>>         donate broken stuff.
>>
>>
>>         On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 4:49 PM, Jean-Luc Picard
>>         <atari2600a at gmail.com <mailto:atari2600a at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>             As usual, I'm attempting to pay an equivalent of an
>>             associate membership fee w/ donations from home or work.
>>              This is actually the first time I've announced that I do
>>             this at all on the lists but here I am doing it anyway.
>>
>>             Dell desktop -- runs XP, needs new CPU fan but should
>>             boot right up otherwise.  Do the Administrator trick or
>>             run ophcrack to get in.
>>             Dell laptop -- annoying as hell to get to the internals.
>>              Needs new HDD, chips reflowed.
>>             Compaq laptop -- Won't turn on.  I tried popping both
>>             batteries & draining the caps.  Afterwards I tore out the
>>             HDD for a secure destruction of the data as instructed by
>>             my client.
>>
>>             All this should come out to about $20 in salvageable
>>             parts (DIMMS, fans, HDD's, etc).   Expect to hear from me
>>             in another month, when I'll probably have more stuff to
>>             donate.
>>
>>             FYI:  my past donations have been more functional;
>>              mostly SO-DIMMS, broken ipods w/ guttable HDD's, etc.
>>              You know, things that don't last a week in Noisebridge.
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>>
>>
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>>
>
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