• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

interesting story

M

Mike Chambers

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2006
Messages
2,621
i just posted this in the vintage computer speeds thread, but i thought i'd start a new topic about it too since i thought it was a cool little post. so here... i'll just copy and paste it as it was in the other thread:

---------------------------

cool Flack, i just set my old 486 dx4/100 up too actually. it's an IBM machine with built-in video card. i don't remember the model number offhand. i would greatly reccommend you installing NT4 workstation on it rather than 98.

interesting story behind how i got that thing. back in march i went downtown with a couple friends for a st. patrick's day party at some guys house. a few houses up the street from him, somebody had two computers and a dot matrix printer out by the curb for the garbage pick up.

since seeing old systems get trashed like that makes baby Jesus cry, i thought i'd give that stuff a loving home. turns out they were both 486's. i took the IBM machine and one of my friend's took the other one, which was actually some custom built machine. (also, my other friend grabbed the epson dot matrix printer and smashed it on the street. i almost killed him!)

my friend turned his 486 into a debian box running in console mode to act as some sort of server (i forget what he's actually serving with it)

in the end, i had gotten the better of the two. his was an sx 33 lol. :D

but yeah, both of our machines run flawlessly and mine even had 64 MB of RAM installed in it. scandisk reports no errors on it's 256 MB IBM hard disk after a surface scan. (it's an H3256-A3 model drive as i recall)

i need to go dumpster diving more often :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
 
Dumpster diving: My key to success! I've found a TI-99/4A & an IBM clone, & a half-wired home-built cocktail arcade machine while dumpster diving! (CRT died when I accidentally left it out in the rain, & I stripped the cabinet of parts)

Every year I await Neighborhood Cleanup so that I can dumpster dive even more!
 
Hmmmn...Curb Store: While re-arranging my mini-storage unit (yesterday), my kid found an ol' mini-tower that I'd picked up at daCurbStore a couple of years ago, then completely forgot about. He dragged it on home, and discovered that it was a mostly-functional Pentium II @ 500MHz, which had a failed installation of Win98. After properly installing the OS, everything has been working fine ever since.

--T
 
"Dumpster diving: My key to success! I've found a TI-99/4A & an IBM clone, & a half-wired home-built cocktail arcade machine while dumpster diving! (CRT died when I accidentally left it out in the rain, & I stripped the cabinet of parts)

Every year I await Neighborhood Cleanup so that I can dumpster dive even more!"

'S why it must be the coolest to live near the Valley. Dumpster diving in the industrial parks on Long Island and other places could be eh ok though I guess...

Rain ain't gonna hurt electronics (unless of course you don't wait for it to dry off before you plug it in!!!!! Icarumba!). If it's left out for months maybe, but water itself won't hurt anything (99% of the time anyway).
 
I have never had any success Dumpster or 'Skip Diving'. Mind you, the area I live in, why would I? Salford is a typical Mancunian and in the majority a not too well off area, and I dont think there has ever been an abundance of computers. Anything left on the kerb would dissapear in minutes, probably to be smashed on the road shortly after, so I don't get a look in.
 
Terry Yager said:
Hmmmn...Curb Store: While re-arranging my mini-storage unit (yesterday), my kid found an ol' mini-tower that I'd picked up at daCurbStore a couple of years ago, then completely forgot about. He dragged it on home, and discovered that it was a mostly-functional Pentium II @ 500MHz, which had a failed installation of Win98. After properly installing the OS, everything has been working fine ever since.

--T
Click to expand...

haha. yeah, most people are so clueless about computers. if their windows install is broken they just call the whole computer "broken" and want to get a new one.
 
Mike Chambers said:
haha. yeah, most people are so clueless about computers. if their windows install is broken they just call the whole computer "broken" and want to get a new one.
Click to expand...

Heh! I just bought a 400MHz laptop from eBay the other day, for $11.50 + shipping. The listing said that a techie had looked at it and declared that the mainboard was 'going bad'. I don't know how to determine that a board is going bad, it either works or it doesn't. I figgered that the techie was fulla sh!t, as they often are. That laptop has been running 24/7 for 3 days now, without a sign of trouble.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...50031453330&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWN:IT&rd=1

--T
 
Last edited:
Best specced machine ...Midi tower, 900Mhz PIII with half a gig of ram, no HDD though (boo sucks) just left at the side of the road near my work in london and that was about 2 years ago, when a machine of that spec, was still considered worthwhile. can't remember who got that, with a 6 gig HDD installed, and a loss of half the memory (better spec than the machine I'm using at the moment, apart from the memory!)
People just don't look around them half the time, and the other half feel too embarassed to go rooting. The hair helps, people consider me to be halfway to the gutter, even in a smart suit. Rooting in skips is my place in life!
 
nige the hippy said:
The hair helps, people consider me to be halfway to the gutter, even in a smart suit. Rooting in skips is my place in life!
Click to expand...

I've had no problem so far, blending in with the street people in daQuarter of NOLA. (Course, I have lived on daStreet for a few years myself, so that prolly gives me an air of authenticity).

--T
 
we appear to be one post out of sync... I live in "da avenue"


Speaking of in da road finds (and trying to stay on-topic) did you get my PM about bits from computer hell (regarding anything else sirius)??

Edit...
And the handle for the P2000

And... was that really your 4500th post, or does the software round to the nearest 100 for a superuser
 
Last edited:
must quit myself, it's AM here and there's a duvet waiting.

catch you later...

P.s. moderate this post, just saying goodnight is robably OT!
 
Alabama was better for Diving than Seattle is, but Seattle's thrift stores more than make up for that.

Back in Alabama, there was some house a few blocks from mine just dumping TONS of computer related gear off. Out of it, I managed to swag 2 non-working Macintosh SE systems, an IBM Model "F" XT keyboard, a couple clone keyboards including a Leading Edge XT keyboard, 2 IBM 5151 Monochrome displays, and a bunch of other little odd's n' ends. They had a whole 70's computer chassis out there about 7 feet high laying on it's side in the dirt. That was like a goldmine, it's a shame I had limited shed space, because I would have taken it all if I could have.

You'd find Packard Bells a few blocks in the other direction at the trailer park on a regular basis. My first attempts at building a computer used parts from over there (I was going to modify an LPX chassis to fit the ZEOS AT motherboard a family friend gave me).

Then there's how it is up here. They just opened a new Goodwill down the street from me, and I went in yesterday and snapped up a 300 MHz IBM Thinkpad for $4.99. Of course, it needs a keyboard, hard disk + caddy, and battery, but most of it (except the keyboard) seems gett-a-ble on E-bay.

On top of that, there were at least 14 machines, all PII-PIII level, sitting on a shelf, most of them in In-Win chassis. They also had a Dell, an HP, and a few others. It was nuts. Even a huge Server enclosure for WTX form factor boards. I mean I was in heaven there.
 
Everyone's Goodwill has a ton of good stuff, why does mine have to suck so bad? We don't even get TV's or anything, just a bunch of garbage.....
 
Yeah, put me down in the sux category. Goodwill 'round here used to be a great place to troll for vintage computer equipment, but it seems like a couple of yearz since I found anything really good there.

--T
 
I'm not sure where you are but my goodwill won't even take a complete computer, only keyboards and scanners (peripherals)

Never once seen a PC sitting at goodwill in probably 5 years or more.

Too bad I guess, I don't have a source of truly old stuff or good deals anymore, even our auctions have bit the big one lately.
 
Mike Chambers said:
i just posted this in the vintage computer speeds thread, but i thought i'd start a new topic about it too since i thought it was a cool little post. so here... i'll just copy and paste it as it was in the other thread:

---------------------------

cool Flack, i just set my old 486 dx4/100 up too actually. it's an IBM machine with built-in video card. i don't remember the model number offhand. i would greatly reccommend you installing NT4 workstation on it rather than 98.

interesting story behind how i got that thing. back in march i went downtown with a couple friends for a st. patrick's day party at some guys house. a few houses up the street from him, somebody had two computers and a dot matrix printer out by the curb for the garbage pick up.

since seeing old systems get trashed like that makes baby Jesus cry, i thought i'd give that stuff a loving home. turns out they were both 486's. i took the IBM machine and one of my friend's took the other one, which was actually some custom built machine. (also, my other friend grabbed the epson dot matrix printer and smashed it on the street. i almost killed him!)

my friend turned his 486 into a debian box running in console mode to act as some sort of server (i forget what he's actually serving with it)

in the end, i had gotten the better of the two. his was an sx 33 lol. :D

but yeah, both of our machines run flawlessly and mine even had 64 MB of RAM installed in it. scandisk reports no errors on it's 256 MB IBM hard disk after a surface scan. (it's an H3256-A3 model drive as i recall)

i need to go dumpster diving more often :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
Click to expand...

dude I like ur site! I might log onto leeIRC sometime when its done and chat with someone :cool:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top