What did you do today?

[Aux]

After a significant review of the number of cases (20) in my house I have decided to take action and have stripped and queued three cases by the back door for the rubbish collection.
Now I just have to make sure they make it out the door.
One of them is a lovely little aluminium case from win 98 days, not Lian li . . . . . this might be a struggle

 

[tinyitx]

... queued three cases by the back door for the rubbish collection.
Now I just have to make sure they make it out the door.. . . . . this might be a struggle

Do you have non-profit organizations like Salvation Army in your area that you might donate these 3 cases. This will do double good as you help freeing up a landfill and also help some poor kids having their first PC case. This might also help you not to struggle as much.

 

[VegetableStu]

i wonder if the salvation army has a PC building section o_o

 

[Aux]

Do you have non-profit organizations like Salvation Army in your area that you might donate these 3 cases. This will do double good as you help freeing up a landfill and also help some poor kids having their first PC case. This might also help you not to struggle as much.

No not really unfortunately. They do exist in Germany, but they are not very well known

These three cases are seriously old and unusable (pre 2000). I acquired these cases from friends who were throwing them out on the thought that I could use them on the cheap to build a new pc. Components and wiring are broken/melted (components shorted), the cases themselves are damaged, burnt and stuff spilled over them. Its just not worth the hassle when I or other people can buy a new case for 20 euros. What I did get out of them were power supplies, ram sticks and hard drives that I used to rebuild some of my other old pcs, so you could say that I am recycling stuff.
I have other newer cases that I have tried to give away for free, two of which were/are still in their boxes, but no one has ever shown any interest (at work, on the web or friends). From my experience, the average person just wants to buy a pc in a box cheaply. Its only us enthusiasts that actually want to get into the detail, and we are looking at the 100 to 200 (or higher) euro cases. I was talking to my brother in law last weekend about his son (my nephew) and all he is interested in is his xbox. A pc isnt even on the horizon for him, and I could pretty much just hand him one.
I have resisted throwing them away because I hate to waste stuff. I have stripped them of anything useful and bagged it away. But this supply is slowly growing and there is no use for it. I did use some of this stuff over the weekend to fabricate a mount for a mugen 3 cpu cooler to one of my old pcs that overheats in summer, but its rare that I need to access it.

 

[Aux]

what we do have here is a waste service that arranges a date for a collection of large or bulky items. This you then put out on the pavement by the side of your house on the day of collection. There are vans that go around on that day inspecting the goods and taking it away if they think they can reuse it, before the actual waste guys come. I will be organising such a collection for these old cases. If someone thinks they can reuse it, they will pick them up.

 

[GuilleAcoustic]

Emmaüs has a Linux PC team, they even have a light weight distribition derived from Ubuntu to help repurpose old hardware: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmabuntüs

No idea if Emmaüs is is anywhere outside of France though...

 

[Aux]

Emmaüs has a Linux PC team, they even have a light weight distribition derived from Ubuntu to help repurpose old hardware: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmabuntüs

No idea if Emmaüs is is anywhere outside of France though...

Nearest I can find is Stifter-helfen.de who are associated with Tech soup in the US but from what I can see they are interested in donations of recent complete pcs from corporate partners, not single donations and not the 20 year old cases that I will be throwing out.

Translated

"PDF product catalog: IT donations and special conditions
As of: April 8, 2019 On the IT portal www.stifter-helfen.de clubs, foundations, gGmbHs and other non-profit organizations can find IT donations from various IT and Internet companies as well as special conditions and know-how about modern technologies. Stifter-helfen.de is an offer from the Haus des Stiftens gemeinnützige GmbH in partnership with the American non-profit organization TechSoup.Availability of the products In our PDF product catalog we give you an overview of the available products in our IT Donation programs and the products for which special conditions apply. In the area of special conditions, non-profits find discounted IT products, such as devices from the program, hardware as new at cost price, or discount programs from IT companies. The products are sorted alphabetically by company name into the two areas of IT donations and special conditions. Since the extensive product range is updated several times a month, deviations from the products actually available online are possible. The product catalog is a non-binding offer and applies according to the eligibility criteria of the individual IT partners, as long as stocks last. Decisive for the availability of products is always our homepage www.stifter-helfen.de. Management fee To cover the costs of operating and developing Stifter-helfen.de, a small administration fee per product is due. The administration fee is net and is calculated plus 19% VAT per item. Exception is 'hardware like new'. There is the price including VAT indicated. You will find the administration fee in the product catalog for the respective products and of course online. Since this is constantly changing due to exchange rate adjustments, the information on our homepage is always crucial. On www.stifter-helfen.de you will find all information on the available products and the individual eligibility criteria of the IT partners. Additionally, nonprofit organizations can register on the site to receive IT donations and special rates. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our staff at info@stifter-helfen.net or 02241/146408 - 0. Your service team from Stifter-helfen.de - IT for non-profitsFor registration formula"

Any one else in Germany have any suggestions, know any charitable donation sites?

 

[rfarmer]

I don't clean my keyboard as often as I should and let's just say it was a bit in need of cleaning or "seriously gross" as my girlfriend put it.
So I broke out the air compressor and gave it a thorough blowing out and a good wipe down, have to say it does look much better.

 

[confusis]

When i clean my keyboard i usually go whole hog with a toothbrush, soap, etc. It doesn't help most of my keys are white and the rest a light grey - they do get noticeable dirty relatively quickly

 

[Windfall]

When i clean my keyboard i usually go whole hog with a toothbrush, soap, etc. It doesn't help most of my keys are white and the rest a light grey - they do get noticeable dirty relatively quickly

//reaction=WOW

(for) user: confusis

(for) using a lowercase i

 

[confusis]

@Windfall r u ofnded by my por spilling, punkchoooachin and gramma?

 

[VegetableStu]

I'm okay with anything, except when i see someone use apostrophes for plural form ._.

... and your/you're. and would've/would-of.

 

[Soul_Est]

Long day at work and at home. Internet is out so I'm using my phone. Thank goodness for generous Voice and Data plans. I have installed Manjaro KDE on Full Circle. Obviously cannot put it through it's paces though.

 

[VegetableStu]

there's an auction that describes a for-parts motherboard as "does not power on" despite having no visual damage (other than lightly-rusted VRM heatpipe)

there's a thread for troubleshooting that motherboard that boiled down to "connect all the EPS headers"
(EDIT: read it wrong, apparently dude inserted the PCIe power into EPS o_o)

... should I try? it might be 10% of the price of a new one (before forwarding costs)

EDITx2: oh dang, same thread mentions two others unable to POST with the right power connections ,_,

 

[Solo]

I rushed to make this really short inlet cable and I want to vomit because it has slack when it's plugged in. It's slightly too long. Whatever.

 

[Valantar]

Watched the final presentations of the student groups in one of my classes (an interdisciplinary course in effective and well-functioning teamwork, but done through experience-based learning while working on semi-real-world projects). Some pretty cool projects, even if the chances of any of them being realized is slim. Even better, this means no more teaching this semester. Huzzah!

 

[Soul_Est]

Watched the final presentations of the student groups in one of my classes (an interdisciplinary course in effective and well-functioning teamwork, but done through experience-based learning while working on semi-real-world projects). Some pretty cool projects, even if the chances of any of them being realized is slim. Even better, this means no more teaching this semester. Huzzah!

That's great and it's wonderful to see them despite that grim reality. Hopefully some of the groups turn those projects and ideas into products or services of a sort. I loved part-taking in and seeing such presentations in the Computer Engineering programs that I took. Sad to see that many would not see the light of day as you had said. None of the programs I was in offered entrepreneur courses so not many people had a clue of going from the project to real-world product if they were so inclined.


Today was meh. I misplaced my Switch's carrying case (and accessories) on on of the buses this morning. I did enjoy quite a bit of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe though. I already submitted an inquiry to the lost and found.

 

[confusis]

Fixed my dad's 25 yr old lawnmower (ignition system needed a service. gapped the magneto, spark plug, cleaned all the terminals and it's running 100% again).

Also received a bluetooth audio amplifier board for an upcoming project. Tested it on the intended small speakers, the board has more power to give! I may buy bigger speakers for the project >.>

Oh and another battery bank kit arrived. I now have >100,000 mAh of USB battery banks. One would think excessive, but they've actually proved to be immensely useful throughout our many powercuts!

 

[tinyitx]

I discovered in my local fruit market 2 new types of apples, from South Korea and from New Zealand.
Will report their ranking in a couple days.

 

[tinyitx]

OK, here is the latest ranking of my apple preference.

NZ , Italy > Canada, France, Australia > China, Korea > USA

New Zealand is still at the top. This country consistently outputs good apples.
New to the list is Italy. I have only started to sample Italian apples recently. Even though it is a new comer, first impression is surprisingly good. It is a surprise as I do not know Italy being a good apple producing country. Hope this will become a long term thing.
So, NZ and Italy tied for 1st but NZ has a long term track record though.