Computers from junk

I bought an apartment when I first lived here. I still have it now and rent it out. I was over there this morning doing some work and, as I left, I saw an enormous pile of stuff stacked up beside the dumpster.

On further investigation I found a full dinner service, set of speaker stands, a PC, keyboard and LCD monitor and a dozen mice (no – the ones with buttons on silly!). It’s amazing the stuff people throw out. I took most of it to the nearest thrift store (one block away…) but brought the PC home.

A spot more investigation revealed a Sony Vaio PII-400, 1.6GB, 192MB. OK, a heck of a long way from a powerhouse but fully functioning, neat mini case and a matching and working LCD monitor too with integrated speakers.

I’ve had to up it to 256MB RAM and I’m prepping a 40GB drive to put in there. We have a PII-350 which runs Xubuntu perfectly well for casual browsing and email so I think I should be able to do the same with this one.