On Mon, 17 Oct 2011, PZ wrote:
An ADB keyboard is a score these days. Sure, we used to be able to find computers with ZipGSX's and Second Sight Cards too, just waiting to get thrown out. An extra keyboard will supplement the dozens of keyboardless CPU's that are out there. Good find.
I gather from a later message that he needed one, which actually doesmake the story much more important. To stumble on something just when it's needed is always a good find.
I thought he was just talking about finding a spare ADB keyboard, and I've found them up till even a few years ago.
Maybe I'm just luckier than some, I worry now that people have started following the "rules" and taking electronics in the special days when there is a collection. How much perfectly useful stuff is going there now rather than the garbage, yet just dissovled for parts or whatever because the collection company can't recognize older equipment? A lot of the small groups that take donations for rummage sales are getting pickier, too. Yet the only reason I have a IIGS is because one school about fifteen years ago had a number of them at their rummage sale, for five dollars each.
People worry about the neat stuff lost when people throw it out, I see it as potential to finding neat stuff, that wouldn't happen unless people threw it out.
I once found a Grappler in amongst some miscellaneous junk. That seemed like quite a find, to find it in the garbage in the first place, but also that for someone who recognized what it was to find it.
I did find that 80meg iPod last summer, waiting for a new battery (and it was tossed out with a soldering iron too). I bought a spare 56K modem last year at a garage sale, in case my current one dies (with few people buying them new, they aren't common on the used market), then a couple of weeks later found another 56K modem in the garbage. Both external. I found a wacom table among a lot of Mac discard this past summer, though
no pen (I wasn't thinking, so I have no idea if the pen was missing beforethe tablet was tossed, or I simply should have looked for it among the junk). That pile also resulted in some SCSI cables, that might be useful at some point. I found an LCD VGA monitor last year when the students moved out, and another one this year that goes into sleep mode without prompting so I assume it needs some work on the power supply. I found a Radio Shack "video camera" that stores on an SD card in the garbage last summer, not that interesting but the SD card in it was. I even found a Sony shortwave radio, admittely with the boards hanging off the open case, in a pile of interesting garbage a few years ago. Something common like a monitor, many likely pass by who might make use of it, something more exotic, it requires a certain type of person.
I don't even go digging, I will go out on certain days when there is likelihood of interesting things (such as when the students move out in the spring, and a lesser move out at the end of summer, and then a lot of people move here on July 1st), and I find all kinds of interesting things without digging in the actual garbage bags. I likely do miss things that way, but I avoid the real garbage, and making a mess. I do find enough interesting things without having to dig.
Michael
On Oct 17, 8:34 am, Michael Black <et...@ncf.ca> wrote:On Mon, 17 Oct 2011, IUnknown wrote:My wife and I like the drive around and go to garage sales occasionally.I have been looking for a stereo receiver for my garage - and well, she just likes to shop. We figure that why throw something away when it could still have life - and mostly, I am just cheap.So, after finding a suitable stereo receiver (Sony - $10), we hit a couple of other garage sales and are just about to head home for the day. We hit the last house, and are perusing the inventory. The wife locates an old hello kitty cordless phone, and my son says 'Dad - there is some apple stuff over here'.I wander over to the cardboard box containing an old HP deskjet style printer.... and there is a PC-style keyboard and mouse in there - apple branded with an ADB connector. My son asked what they wanted for it.....'Give me a $1 and you can take it'.So, I walked away with a great (working) full-size ADB keyboard for $1. Gotta love garage sales. The sad thing is that it would have ended up in a dumpster otherwise..... How much of this great stuff ended up in landfills?After the buildup, I thought you were going to reveal far more interesting things underneath, or even before a box was mentioned, a IIGS or something exotic. The spare ADB keyboards and mice that I have were all found on the sidewalk, waiting for the garbage trucks. Michael