+ Usage of old items/devices what do u do?

and give it away to a deserving person. Even a old Pentium 233 MMX or DX386-40 can get mail all day long on dialup or do Quicken till the cows come home.

I just bought a 802.11G wireless PCMCIA card for $16. after rebates (because it was on sale) and I see people trying to get $10. out of a dented 14,4 baud modem PCMCIA card with no dongle. A guy at the flea market this weekend had a 4X CD-ROM drive (as is) for $20. hahahaha

There is a computer recycling program in our city. About twice a year, you can take your PCs, peripherals, cells phones and such to designated locations. They take your stuff and give you a free gift. The PCs are properly disposed of or recycled for various charitable purposes. Good cell phones go to spouse abuse programs. My wife also works as technology coordinator in a small school that has not much of a budget for PCs. We carefully put aside what's better than what they already have and recycle it that way. One must be careful with direct gifts of this type because that leaves the giver with the onus of properly recycling it when they are done with it so stuff that's on it's "last legs" isn't always a welcome gift.

'begging' letter I would post every so often in the help forums when it was ZDNET (they were very nice about letting me do it.....haven't asked CNET what they might feel about it) asking members to send me their old parts when they upgraded their personal systems. I would then take all the parts and piece together a good working computer, complete with keyboards, mice, speakers, and monitors and include all the software installed on them. Then I would give them away to kids in my area who would otherwise never have one.

They were all internet ready so once they got onto the local ISP, they could get into the local chat room they held and be able to talk with their school friends who normally live so far apart from each other that they only see each other in school.

Never had a complaint from anybody that it wasn't the biggest and baddest out there.....they were just grateful to have one.

I still build units for my grandkids and just gave the last one hers two weeks ago when she came to visit. She was the first to get one when she was two and a half....and I had taught her how to use it back then when she used to spend summers here. Now that's she's twelve I figured she was ready for the biggest and baddest finally.....until the next one at least.

TONI

hard drive in an old system is a long session with a sledge hammer. If you had credit card, social security, etc. on the drive, it will stay there for a long time.