lyle_hanson's Journal: I Love What Other People Throw Away!!

This is great! I got a used-but-functional 17" IBM G40 monitor, free except for the calories I burned carrying it from the curb up to my third floor apartment.

It's been a great month for trashpicking. Classes are over for most students and it seems like lots of people are moving. And moving means throwing perfectly good stuff away simply because somebody doesn't want to take it with.

A month ago it was two barebones boxes left at the curb. Both with CPUs, mobos, NICs, etc. Just need some memory and they seem to boot fine. Wonder what project I'll use those for.

Now I found a monitor by the curb the other day. Same house I got those other boxes from, I think. Initial testing shows brightness is a bit off, and some slightly visible shadowing, but that might be the result of not-quite-compatible X settings. Even if the picture isn't perfect, I've been needing another monitor to use on a couple of other boxes that are headless most of the time anyway, and this monitor works fine in for console-only setups.

I also found a different pile of junk at the curb maybe a half mile from my place. I saw an old 486 or 586 and a couple keyboards in a box. I had my small messenger bag with me (I was on my bike) so I made a mental note to come back later, for the keyboards anyway. I've accumulated enough 'puter stuff so that lugging a 486 box that far may not be worth my effort. So I show up there that night and find a guy in a truck loading stuff up! I wait my turn and show up to find an empty DSL modem box, a power cable, and an old PS2 2-button mouse. I grab the mouse and the cable (which I could use since I have an abundance of boxen without power cables!). I didn't get the score I expected, but still gained some useful items.

Can't wait 'till garbage day!