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It's a worry...

Electronics recycling is big here. Before 2006 you could find a wide variety of vintage computers but since these bi-annual recyclers came into town (drive a transport truck and go from city to city) there has been nothing. The landfill (I have to climb over the fence to get in and out of) finds a P1 or a 486 from time to time but everything else has long since vanished. My last source for stuff is now the trash pile outside the tech labs at the university and even there you won't find much that is special.
The bastards are aggressive too. There are two different companies who I think have put me on a "call the cops" list as every time I try and persuade them to give me something that someone freely drops off they tell me to leave before they call the cops on me. Didn't believe them until last year when one tried to nail me for harassment.
I know of a recycler down in Vancouver called FreeGeek who at least sells some of the stuff that comes in but it's all overpriced and the real gems are either taken by the staff or put on shelves marked "NOT FOR SALE".
 
NeXT said:
... The bastards are aggressive too. There are two different companies who I think have put me on a "call the cops" list as every time I try and persuade them to give me something that someone freely drops off they tell me to leave before they call the cops on me. Didn't believe them until last year when one tried to nail me for harassment. ...
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Just a few years ago I used to do the rounds at the University of BC just beside where I lived, and there were some pretty juicy bins. The RCMP would sometimes stop us but we always took my friend's cadillac and we're both older, so they just told us we couldn't do it and left. However, it got so the stuff started going to recyclers before we got there.

At dumpsters around town and places like that, people often get agressive. I enjoy that situation because I'm polite, don't argue with them, and just smile while continuing to do what I'm doing as if they were crazy or something. I love to see their impotent rage burning them up inside, thus proving what I was thinking. :) What are they going to do? They don't want to get into a fight, and if they call the cops, by the time they get there I will have leisurely left with my stuff.
 
We've got a lot more recycling going on here as well - the SARCAN bottle/can recycling depots have been taking electronics for a couple years now. As most people seem to be seeing, the stuff we all consider really vintage or valuable is long gone, but the occasional item sneaks through :) I put up local posters sometimes in the spring when people are cleaning and might decide to call with their castoffs. I've also started doing the recycling run for the local Computers for Kids program - in return for helping out, they shuffle unusual or vintage items to me when they come in. Not very often these days, though there is the odd item that comes through.
My wife tells me 'you can't save them all!', but I can try :) As some others have said, it just bugs me that we so casually discard anything and everything these days. Things are going to hit a wall sooner or later in the future, if not for us then for our kids...
Plus the old systems are just more unique as Druid6900 said - more colour, more personality. It was the beginning of the computer era.
 
Ole Juul said:
At dumpsters around town and places like that, people often get agressive. I enjoy that situation because I'm polite, don't argue with them, and just smile while continuing to do what I'm doing as if they were crazy or something. I love to see their impotent rage burning them up inside, thus proving what I was thinking. :) What are they going to do? They don't want to get into a fight, and if they call the cops, by the time they get there I will have leisurely left with my stuff.
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It's all about money now though. They will defend what they have, even if I'm only asking for something that only has $5-$20 worth of precious metals in it. No matter polite I seem to ask they will not loosen up.
 
patscc said:
Society seems, at least to me, to be loosing its soul, its uniqueness, so why should the tools we use not follow suite ?

patscc
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Society is, by definition, people striving to be as much like everyone else as possible. It's no wonder most folks want their toys to be like everyone else's.

Good thing not many of the cookie-cutter people show up around here, amongst 'us' anti-social nutcases. They want no part of us, which suits me just fine, cause I don't much care for 'them' either.

--T
 
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