I can't speak for GP, but for my home computer, NVidia drivers, VMWare, Flash and the fragile sound system are the worst offenders. On every kernel / core libraries update, there is a good chance some of these will break. So I'm sometimes reluctant about updating, too.

Yes, I was fooled by the slashdot summary (yeah, yeah), which said "EU bans the trade of used technology to Africa".

Some sources for those interested in the actual legislation:

Summaries of legislation: Waste electrical and electronic equipment
"The European Union (EU) is taking measures to prevent the generation of electrical and electronic waste and to promote reuse, recycling and other forms of recovery in order to reduce the quantity of such waste to be eliminated, whilst also improving the environmental performance of economic operators involved in its management."

Business Link: Exporting WEEE
"You should export waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) only if you are sure that it will be recovered or recycled safely in the receiving country."

So yes, exporting old hardware for reuse is okay. My apologies to EU.

Used hardware is excellent value when you are on a shoestring budget. I think a lot of school kids and students in Africa would find it attractive. Yes, there are new tablets and notebooks available today starting near $100. But even that is a lot of money to some, and used tech can often be had for free, or the cost of shipping. Also, arguably you can often get much better used hardware for the same money. And tinkering with it also trains people to be hackers and know their hardware well. So, overall I think such reuse is good.

A huge disadvantage is the environment damage when that hardware finally gets thrown away. Normal western schemes like including recycling in the price and handling it through dealers and agencies is hardly applicable here. There has to be direct financial incentive for both the old hardware owner and the recycling center to handle this properly. So maybe if EU really wants to help, they should try to organize a network of recycling shops. But this is probably more difficult than simply banning the export officially and ignoring the black market.

You can try http://www.google.com/m - not exactly what you want, but might be useful in some cases, like old computers or slow connection perhaps.

"Excuse me, mister, but I'm a mister, too -
And you're giving "Mister" a bad name, misters like you!
So I'm taking that "Mister" part out of your name,
'Cause it's misters like you who put the rest of us to shame."
(Ben Harper)

Phones, anyone? Display is one of the most power-hungry components in a mobile phone, where battery life is absolutely critical. Oddly enough, I have seen only one phone with e-paper display, and that one was really lame.

Japanese scientists successfully made stem cells from wisdom teeth back in 2008.

They used wisdom teeth that had been frozen for three years after being removed from a 10-year-old girl.

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