Look what my dad got me from work! (link to pic)

[mikey pizano]

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h255/ ... CN1221.jpg

They were going to throw it out!

[killer]

That was a good spot by your dad. It is amazing what some people throw into the dustbin.

[A31]

They were going to throw it out!

My A31 was going to be thrown out, and my dad bought it home from work...

[mikey pizano]

Yeah if you pay attention you can get good stuff!

[crashnburn]

I wonder why cant corporates do FREE DONATION DAYS! when they want to throw stuff out. I hear several food chains (even starbucks) throw food at night.. which could be donated to homeless etc.

[emeraldgirl08]

I wonder why cant corporates do FREE DONATION DAYS! when they want to throw stuff out. I hear several food chains (even starbucks) throw food at night.. which could be donated to homeless etc.

Once long ago in an alternate time continuum I worked at Mickey D's and BK where we threw out food that was 10 minutes old. There was an atmosphere of shock among my friends and I as we thought the same thing... What a waste!

[Temetka]

I worked at McDonald's as a teenager waaaay back in the day.

If I recall correctly the 10 minute limitation on the food was that after that time the bacteria would begin to grow and under FDA guidelines they were no longer able to sell it. I do remember my particular store would give the "old" food to homeless people if they asked for it but they could only get 1 free meal per day.

[mikey pizano]

Where my dad works, he said something with throwing out the food can't really be done since it is specific stuff. He works for a place that delivers to places like Perkins, and Five Guys. If its expired, it can be sold to employees cheap if the customer allows it otherwise it must be tossed.

[j-dawg]

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h255/ ... CN1221.jpg

They were going to throw it out!

After the corporate trash pile, the best place for things like this is the Salvation Army. I recently bragged about my $15 Timbuk2 bag, but I've also got a Coach messenger that I picked up for $10 and foolishly decided not to get an LL Bean messenger for $4 one time.

I have a thing for man-bags....

[mikey pizano]

I personally prefer backpacks but hey its a THINKPAD BRANDED BAG!

[Norway Pad]

That was a good spot by your dad. It is amazing what some people throw into the dustbin.

It sure is. Earlier this summer I found 2 unused T60 advanced mini docks, one T30 Advanced dock, unused nice keyboards, powered USB hubs, and one T60 9 cell battery (Still in green) in my company's electronic recycle bin. I later found out that this was a part of their TPM (Total Production Management) effort, and that everything that isn't used, is red-tagged and then disposed of.. Good for us.

[mikey pizano]

If you ever get the urge to throw out an old computer, perhaps a 486, I will pay shipping...

[Radioguy]

I got my first ever ThinkPad this way. It was a stripped 760XD that I built back up to it's former glory until the the mobo eventually gave up the ghost. I certainly don't consider myself a dumpster diver, but my eyes occasionally wander when I walk down a street (Well, not on a date!), and if I see a tower case, I do stop to see if it's something that could be salvaged. I've run across a couple I built up and donated to worthwhile organizations, or gave to friends and family who couldn't otherwise afford any kind of PC.

One time I ran across a dumpster of Xeon based servers, but there was no way I could even carry one off!

Tragically, I could be passing oodles of tossed ThinkPads since they would be bagged, but exposed desktops seem worth investigating while retaining some dignity.

After the corporate trash pile, the best place for things like this is the Salvation Army. I recently bragged about my $15 Timbuk2 bag, but I've also got a Coach messenger that I picked up for $10 and foolishly decided not to get an LL Bean messenger for $4 one time.

I have a thing for man-bags....

Equally tragic, is that the main thrift chains have been "gotten to" by companies like Dell or HP who offer compensation if they don't sell any computers they get as donations, but simply send them to the company for recycling. I'm sorry to say this, but I'm beginning to hate these stores. Either the staff keeps the good tech, or they send it off so a company can kill off another form of sales competition. It used to be that a struggling student or kid could find an older cheap PC there, or something they could fix up, but never again.

Now, the only way to get a used TP is here, eBay or a garage sale. All places where you will generally find sellers who know the value of what they're selling (Good for them, of course).

I need to stop dreaming about that perfect T510 for $20 at Goodwill because the power cord was bad.

[mikey pizano]

Yeah Radio, I checked the Salvation Army here looking for a 486 and no computers at all.

[Radioguy]

Why would you want such a thing? Just dying to try Win 3.1?

[ParatoOptimal]

The five star hotels in my region used to allow bread banks to come by to pick-up food they were going to dispose of.
Aside from the GREAT food they have, every hotel throws away tons of bread everyday.
It got to be a legal liability. What if someone got sick? Who was liable? The hotels' position was it was good when it left their hotel. The soup kitchens didn't have the skilled people or time or whatever to look it over before serving it. So, the hotels went back to throwing all their extra food and left overs away. These were reputable hotels with amazing chefs who weren't looking to get a tax right-off nor looking to reduce their trash removal bill by dumping spoiled garbage off on the soup kitchens. Such a waste! The TV news covered it. The food was better than most people enjoy.

Mind you, the hotels weren't providing food near or past expiration or anywhere near going bad. This was food prepared and ready to serve the day it was given to the shelters. If a hotel guest had placed an order a minute before it hit the truck, that patron would have eaten it and paid $50 for it. It couldn't go bad in the time it took to truck it across town. They also wrapped and packaged it well to travel.

[Radioguy]

The five star hotels in my region used to allow bread banks to come by to pick-up food they were going to dispose of.
Aside from the GREAT food they have, every hotel throws away tons of bread everyday.
It got to be a legal liability. What if someone go sick. Who was liable. The hotels' position was it was good when it left their hotel. The soup kitchens didn't have the skilled people or time or whatever to look it over before serving it. So, the hotels went back to throwing all their extra food and left overs away. These were reputable hotels with amazing chefs who weren't looking to get a tax right-off nor looking to reduce their trash removal bill by dumping spoiled garbage off on the soup kitchens. Such a waste! The TV news covered it. The food was better than most people enjoy.

It's still common everywhere.

I live around the corner from a supermarket that tosses out bread daily. There are some individuals who come to pick some up, and I suppose they dispose of it with this in mind. However, there are organizations like City Harvest they could donate it to that would see it gets to the same demographic, and provide a tax write-off, or at least good PR. They just won't go for it. Apparently doing that that isn't 100% liability-free, even if it's the organization that was sued first for some injury or death caused by ingesting donated food.

[mikey pizano]

Why would you want such a thing? Just dying to try Win 3.1?

I have a Dell that has a 486 but the thing is in bad shape. I love using old computers and I collect them sort of like how we collect ThinkPads here. It is fun to try and push a 486 to its limits of usability!!!

[Norway Pad]

If you ever get the urge to throw out an old computer, perhaps a 486, I will pay shipping...

When I rebuilt the working 360Cs from two non working ones, I actually considered throwing the leftover 360 away..! Luckily I kept it, and I WILL be keeping it. Some weeks ago I even found a left over, old IBM harddrive among my stuff. It still spins when inserted in the no-working 360Cs, but with 344MB capacity, it isn't good for much these days.

Good to see that I am not the only one collecting old stuff like this.

[crashnburn]

There should be some kind of 'Liability-free' disposal "avenue" for 'decent' food atleast.

[mikey pizano]

When I rebuilt the working 360Cs from two non working ones, I actually considered throwing the leftover 360 away..! Luckily I kept it, and I WILL be keeping it. Some weeks ago I even found a left over, old IBM harddrive among my stuff. It still spins when inserted in the no-working 360Cs, but with 344MB capacity, it isn't good for much these days.

Good to see that I am not the only one collecting old stuff like this.

That's why I have a parallel port zip drive!

[Norway Pad]

That's why I have a parallel port zip drive!

He, he. I *think* my boss had one for his Thinkpads, but unfortunately I don't know where it went. I just remember it was an expensive piece of equipment back then. Lucky you for having one!

[Radioguy]

These days, the AC adapter is worth more than the drive itself.

[craigmontHunter]

In Ottawa there used to be a private electronics recycling company, you would pay by weight, and they would strip out and sell any usable parts, then recycle the rest. As a person who can only afford old computer, I used to by all my old computer upgrades there - 7$ for a p3 700mhz, I replaced a p3 450... they converted into the Ontario stewardship program, so they take the hardware for free, but they can no longer sell the usable stuff, it all goes to be recycled, which is IMHO a huge waste

[Radioguy]

I'm coming at this from the point of view of the bargain-seeker (more need than thrift), but these tactics and trends are there to kill off resale of what you want to get rid of too.

Although they mask themselves in eco-friendly green to play on your conscience, the in-store recycling boxes and current trade-in programs are killing the legitimate aftermarket. I love how no current trade-in program considers my old 60GB iPod Photo worth a dime, and try to make me feel lucky they'll take it off my hands without charging me (Actually, some would). I see people throwing out recent cellphones and even brand new modern laptop batteries and ink carts in these boxes with no thought they have any value.

A few years back, when you started to see the boxes popup at stores, store-based trade-in programs still gave you some value. Now the new independent companies the retailers partner with only take brand new stuff, and provide a minuscule percentage of the value, if anything. Of course, going by that, if your item is so worthless that you can't get a trade-in, then it should have cost $10 in the first place.

Go have a laugh, and try the trade-in calculator link on one of the big tech or office retailer sites. Just take some new laptop from their site or weekly advert, and see how much it offers you. It's insulting. It's the kind of thing someone with more free time than myself could base a lawsuit on.

Thank god for eBay if you want to get some remaining value for your tech. I just bet these companies are lobbying eBay to refuse such postings, or interfere with them as much as possible, to get you to donate them first.

[BeeJayEmm]

Radioguy, Thanks for providing a perspective that hadn't occurred to me before. You make a lot of sense.

[hunterman223]

I know someone who used to work in an office that featured a "Macintosh Graveyard". There were seriously complete Mac Pro towers all lined up in a row, all with small issues. They didn't have an IT Department, let alone a single IT Person. It doesn't make much sense for a company to pay thousands of dollars for a computer, and then let it rot in the corner. I really wish they would give em' all away...

[mediasponge]

Quite a few years ago I did some work at Apple Computer. I didn't work for them, I worked for a company wanting to do business with them. While working over there, I found out about a unique approach Apple had to this problem. Every once in a while (monthly?) they would tag an empty office with a paper sign that said "Bring Out Your Dead". Over the next few days, all the dead systems would appear in there to be collected by IT or Facilities for proper disposal. I wish I had a copy of that paper sign. It was priceless.