what do ya'll think of this: i was watching a TV show along the lines of 'extreme home makeover' but not that show (althought i have seen them do this too), and they were throwing out all this person's stuff. litteraly throwing it all away. the person had two computers complete with screens. both Pentium 3s if i saw the sticker clearly. anyway, why throw out good systems if a bit slow but still fine at basic tasks, just for the sake of having a more dramatic TV show? what about charities? poor people who would just like to be able to type something or play solitare? under-funded schools? they did the same with a stereo, TV, and nice pair of 12s (speakers). PEOPLE COULD HAVE USED THOSE THINGS! EVER HEARD OF CHARITY??? am i the only one who feels quite strongly this is wrong?!?! Argue for your limitations and sure enough, they're yours.

No, you are not alone. There is entirely too much waste in this country. Sometimes it's actually hard to give things away though. I used to renovate old houses and tried to give away the old plumbing fixtures, kitchen cabinets, etc.(all in good condition) to Habitat for Humanity. They said the were not the proper color and would not take them. Tried a couple of other places and no go so finally they went to the dump. Food stores and restaurants throw out food, they are afraid to give it away because of lawsuits.

I'm always on the lookout for this sort of thing. It just frustrates me that I wasn't there to dumpster dive. When I think of wealthy idiots who throw out things like a laptop with a dead harddrive, or maybe even just disabled by spyware/viruses, it makes me cringe.

Unfortunately, many ppl beleive in a "disposable" society - you don't need it, you throw it away. No wonder with all the "disposable" products at the supermarket. Wonder if anyone ever did a study on how much money went into the trash can from this stuff? Rule #1: Good Computers don't go down. Rule #2: There is no such thing as a good computer.

A lot of people think that PIII's are too old and have to be replaced! I work for, austencibly, the largest insurance company in the world, and they still use primarily PIII's. They serve us very well. The software is getting a bit long in the tooth (Win NT) so they are getting ready to switch us all to XP Pro at the end of this year. Of course, just before Longhorn hits the street. They will also upgrade our hardware with all-new Dell's with P4's. They will not sell the old system's to the employees this time. The last time the IRS got all over them for that! Since they were all depreciated down to zero dollars value, the IRS says they have to send them to the dump!!? Isn't that stupid? I would gladly pay $75 to $100 for a good, complete PIII. It would be a good internet server/firewall. It's crazy how much good, useable equipment is being thrown away. There are plenty of good ways to use this stuff. Sure, it may not be quite as fast as the latest systems, but it's plenty fast enough for ordinary uses. And just a short while ago they were even being used for games! The IRS is behind a LOT of this. I think it's time for some changes, there. A lot of Fair Taxers think it's time the IRS was eliminated. There are better ways to run this country. With one fourth the population, we don't deserve to be using more than our share of the worlds resources. And then wasting them, on top of that! Sorry. I didn't mean to get on the soap box. LOL Bob

thank you. im glad some people agree with me. and as far as games, some older games that will run on P3 systems or even slower all the way down to MS-DOS games, can be just as fun and challenging as modern fancy cutting-edge 3D ones. Hell, my good computer is currently a P3 1.0ghz, 512mb RAM, 40gb HDD, 128mb ATI Radeon 3D AGP card, and it plays every game i want to play. actually it is disabled right now because the HDD failed and i havent replaced it yet, so currently i am on a celeron 366mhz with 128mb RAM, and it takes basic tasks in it's stride! internet, typing, etc. this is a very wasteful country. everything is disposible. computer equipment, automobiles, even houses to some extent (at least for rich people). i feel just as strongly about these other two things being wrong as i do about the former. anyone else? Argue for your limitations and sure enough, they're yours.

I have just today sold a P100, 40Mb ram, 2x1Gb drives. Admittedly I only got £5.00 for it, but I was happy to see it going to where it will be used. I asked the guy what he wanted it for, and he said he wanted a second machine on his broadband connection for surfing and maybe a bit of WP; it will do this fine, so why spend hundreds on a fast new machine which wiould never be 10% used. BTW, when I worked for a major UK telecoms player, it was also difficult to sell or give away to staff obsolete machines, so they were "loaned to allow them to work from home in the event of a transport emergency". Since they had already been written off as assets, they then disappeared from all records.