trip down memory lane

found during house cleaning

[LifeinAsia]

In the midst of doing a serious house cleaning and came across some old computer hardware:
- fax/modem PCMCIA cards for old notebooks (including a "modern" 56K one!)
- a couple of 10M hubs
- 250M Zip drive (going through about 2 dozen disks to make sure there's no sensitive info on them- at least the drive has a "modern" USB cable)
- two 1G Jaz drives (unfortunately, need a desktop computer with an external SCSI connection, so can't see if there's anything on the disks)
- 20G tape backup
- several 3 1/2 " floppies (and external floppy drive)

Not to mention several old analog phones, several hundred feet of telephone wire, a mobile phone without a camera, a Handspring Visor (like a Palm Pilot, but has a slot for connecting external equipment, like a GPS device, camera, etc.).

[edited by: LifeinAsia at 12:46 am (utc) on Jul 5, 2020]

[LifeinAsia]

Holy crap- also came across an old Sony Vaio laptop with the slot for the fax/modem cards. I also found an old SCSI adapter card that fit the slot. Firing it up to see if it will recognize the drive (I seem to remember I had a lot of problems with the SCSI card).

Haha- Windows 98! It booted, and even remembered the password on the first try.

Got a message that the virus definitions are out of date. Ya think?!

[tangor]

Chudkles! Been there, done that, finally got rid of nearly ALL the last time I changed residences... and still find the occasional piece of gear that just won't go away!

Have fun on your new adventure!

[lucy24]

The other day when my son was visiting we ventured into the garage so his girlfriend could admire his childhood chess trophies. Normally I don’t go poking around much, but this time I was struck by the sheer number of assorted cables piling up in every corner. I’m afraid to throw them away lest one might turn out to be something I need one day. Not that I can really envision much use for a 50-foot ethernet cable, legacy of a past apartment where our computers were at extreme opposite ends of a long narrow building.

The next day, entering the same garage for the everyday purpose of getting out my bicycle, I came face to face with a large box containing several portfolios of old paintings on paper. Not by me--in fact I think at least one of the artists has since died, and it isn’t the kind of work whose value leaps up when the artist dies. I swear I have never seen this box before in my life, or ever knew that any paintings were stored in my garage. As it happens, I'm seeing the studio director on Monday, so then I can ask her to refresh my memory.

And then there are the several boxes of hamster tunnels, the mismatched aquariums, the clothes I haven’t worn since 1997 ...

[londrum]

I went to the science museum in London last year and they actually had some of my old computers on display as exhibits. they had an old Amiga up there. They even had a boxed-up copy of Windows 95 and I thought surely that’s not considered a museum exhibit already - that made me feel old

[tangor]

My lone surviving 486 is graced with Win3x for Workgroups running on a 2mb memory platform.. I use it to play the original Solitaire. Also kept because it was my first dual boot, either Win or OS2 (remember that?). For near 10 years it was my host for an internet listserve over a dialup 57k modem out of my back bedroom. Historical... and hysterical at the same time.

Those were the days when everything was shiny bright like a new penny.

[engine]

I work on the basis of it being useable, or donate it to museums, or into the official recycling. At least they can recover precious metals with the recycling.

I rarely trade-in my old phones, primally because they have faults and i've been unable to wipe them. More an more these days there is so much information on the phones that i'm very reluctant to trade them in. It's not exactly becoming a problem as there's only one or two that could use trading in or recycling.

Some time back I did find an old zip drive and a stack of disks all marked with their contents. The zip drive wouldn't work, so I took the zip disks apart and destroyed the disk inside, and recylced the metal and plastic.

Cables, yes, that's a problem. I have to have a clear-out of those. Our local recycling will take cable and wire so it'll be a trip there at some point.

I wonder what else i'll uncover in the next investigation of "that box" i've been avoiding.

[LifeinAsia]

Luckily for us, the local Goodwill takes just about anything. They'll take almost anything electrical (working or not) if it has a plug. I don't know whether they try to fix them up or cannibalize them for parts.

On the downside, because of recent virus issues, they currently aren't accepting furniture or large items. So still looking for a way to get an old bike out of the house...

BTW, never did get the SCSI card working again. Also came across the receipt for that particular laptop- $2K in 2000.

[lucy24]

never did get the SCSI card working again

Just as well. It saves arguing about whether it’s to be pronounced “S.C.S.I.” or “scuzzy”.

[Scarlett]

Had the same experience a few months back and it was such an amazing moment for me. I was analyzing all the old stuff with such excitement and even then, I refused to get rid of them. I am surely keeping my old phone and floppies forever.

[Mark_A]

I found an old Dell notebook which has a small and very nice keyboard. I used to use it with a PCMCIA card for internet and network access.

It would be ideal for typing so I have to check if it has any other connectivity. IIRC it doesn't even have a CD drive :-(