[u-u] Kit recycling

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: arocker at Vex.Net
| 
| Apologies. In case anyone else is moved to reply, note the date:

| >> On Thu, 29 Nov 2012, arocker at Vex.Net wrote:

Yes, but it provokes a topic I find interesting.

| From: Giles Orr <gilesorr at gmail.com>

| If the term "garbage picking" bothers anyone, mentally transpose it to
| "saving the environment" because it really does (if only in a small
| way).  And it saves you money too.  Or possibly makes your significant
| other mad at you.  But it's all good.

Yes.

The City's Environment Days (a good idea) accept electronics "junk".
Some of it quite fine.  As far as I know, it only gets salvaged for
materials.

When I go (to drop of stuff), I cannot resist trying to catch a
computer or two.  But if the staff gets their hands on it, they must
not let go.  In fact, if a member of the public puts it down on the
table, it must never leave their clutches.

If you are interested in intercepting junk, you must hustle people
before they get to the counter.

I've always thought that it would be great to have a little clinic and
swap meet co-located.  One problem: no AC power.  "Reuse" is better
than "Recycle".

I've spoken to a couple of city councillors about this but it seems to
be hard to change.

I admit that my sense of the value of computers and the value of my
time formed years ago.  Now computers are inexpensive enough to buy
and expensive enough to repair that they really are disposable.

If we really were being honest, for most people, it would be more
valuable to help them rescue their working system configuration rather
than their working hardware.  After all, learning about a system and
making it work for you is a large investment.

| From: David Gilbert <uu at dclg.ca>

| It's not "being dumped" but factory direct often has machines that work
| in the $50 to $100 range.  As a bonus, they probably come with an XP or
| Vista license :).  I often use them as a source for customer premise
| routers (need 3 ethernet cards minimum).

Factory Direct has been much less interesting to me over recent years.

- Their inexpensive computers are that way for a good reason: they are
  all too often Pentium 4-based.

- they seem to "fully price" very many things.  I've often found
  "refurbished" things advertised as sale prices and yet being priced
  higher than I have actually paid for new.

- they're notion of "refurbishing" is pretty uneven.

A year or so back, I bought an Ott-lite from them at a good price.
The switch was extremely stiff to operate.  It turns out that all the
ones in the store had the same problem.  Probably why they were able
to source them at a good price, but this was not disclosed in the ad
or in-store.  They still sell them, last I looked.