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Ask HN: What are some interesting projects to reuse your old devices?

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Re: Ask HN: What are some interesting projects to reuse your old devices?

#11

Post by MrGilbert »

pkorzeniewski wrote: post #10

I'm in the process of turning my Toshiba Libretto 110CT (a subnotebook from 1998) into a simple remote terminal (over ssh) with custom server software to handle emails, rss feeds, chats and so on. It runs under FreeDOS and connects to WiFi by a combination of PCMCIA ethernet adapter + mobile router with built-in battery. I love the form factor and the "oldschool" keyboard, I have regenerated the battery and it's quit…

That looks sweet - I did a small search on EBay, and - dang - they are expensive. The only two I could find where around 150€ each.

Re: Ask HN: What are some interesting projects to reuse your old devices?

#12

Post by 2fast4you »

swiley wrote: post #5

I don’t know why everyone acts like old laptops aren’t usable, my 2011 MacBook Pro has no HD (the cable died again and I’m not replacing it this time) and it runs from ram just fine (with Linux of course, not OSX) If you’re not silly you really don’t need much computing power, even then newer laptops aren’t big improvements so if your old one still works I don’t see why you would replace it.

My 2012 MacBook Pro is in great condition and probably would’ve stayed that way for awhile, but sluggishness was just becoming too common. Especially when I’m off mains, running an IDE, a browser, and occasionally compiling

Re: Ask HN: What are some interesting projects to reuse your old devices?

#13

Post by rezgi »

MrGilbert wrote: post #7
swiley wrote: post #5

I don’t know why everyone acts like old laptops aren’t usable, my 2011 MacBook Pro has no HD (the cable died again and I’m not replacing it this time) and it runs from ram just fine (with Linux of course, not OSX) If you’re not silly you really don’t need much computing power, even then newer laptops aren’t big improvements so if your old one still works I don’t see why you would replace it.

I bought a x230 last year as my non-gaming computer, and I really like it. I bought it for 117€, it was pretty beaten up. The display is the cheap TN panel, has a light spot in the center, and the keyboard doesn't match my locale. However, it has the top-level i5. (i5-3380M, I think). I also bought a docking station at a bargain. This year, I bought a new IPS display, a matching keyboard and a new screen bezel for it…

Enterprise ThinkPads are amazing machines. They're very sturdy (although the X230 notoriously has a weak screw holder in the top left (or is it right?) corner that will almost always break and make that corner of the case a bit wobbly. Annoying but not critical. And the i7 top of the range version that comes with the 180GB Intel SSD... Well, the SSD is bad and can be thrown out. It has a bug in its firmware that was never fixed by Intel and never acknowledged by Lenovo so no recall, and no fix. Just throw it away and replace with a 256-512 GB SSD.

And the parts are cheap and plentiful. Get the docking station if you can, I paid 30$ for two a few years ago (top of the range dock, the one with all the connectors and 2x video out)

Also, the IPS upgrade is well worth it.

Re: Ask HN: What are some interesting projects to reuse your old devices?

#14

Post by pkorzeniewski »

MrGilbert wrote: post #11
pkorzeniewski wrote: post #10

I'm in the process of turning my Toshiba Libretto 110CT (a subnotebook from 1998) into a simple remote terminal (over ssh) with custom server software to handle emails, rss feeds, chats and so on. It runs under FreeDOS and connects to WiFi by a combination of PCMCIA ethernet adapter + mobile router with built-in battery. I love the form factor and the "oldschool" keyboard, I have regenerated the battery and it's quit…

That looks sweet - I did a small search on EBay, and - dang - they are expensive. The only two I could find where around 150€ each.

Yes they are getting really expensive and hard to find, I looked for over a year to find one in a decent shape and top specs, paid a lot but it was a dream of mine for a long time.

Re: Ask HN: What are some interesting projects to reuse your old devices?

#15

Post by zozbot234 »

pkorzeniewski wrote: post #10

I'm in the process of turning my Toshiba Libretto 110CT (a subnotebook from 1998) into a simple remote terminal (over ssh) with custom server software to handle emails, rss feeds, chats and so on. It runs under FreeDOS and connects to WiFi by a combination of PCMCIA ethernet adapter + mobile router with built-in battery. I love the form factor and the "oldschool" keyboard, I have regenerated the battery and it's quit…

Would SSH encryption add noticeable overhead to that use case? I've seen videos of folks using modern software on 80586-class ("enhanced" 486-compatible) devices and the overhead adds several seconds to any connection attempt and is even noticeable in normal use.

Re: Ask HN: What are some interesting projects to reuse your old devices?

#16

Post by hanniabu »

swiley wrote: post #5

I don’t know why everyone acts like old laptops aren’t usable, my 2011 MacBook Pro has no HD (the cable died again and I’m not replacing it this time) and it runs from ram just fine (with Linux of course, not OSX) If you’re not silly you really don’t need much computing power, even then newer laptops aren’t big improvements so if your old one still works I don’t see why you would replace it.

How can it function without a drive?

Re: Ask HN: What are some interesting projects to reuse your old devices?

#17

Post by sdan »

Using an old desktop my dad gave me to spin up some websites getting 1,000,000+ unique visitors monthly. It has some basic specs: 12gb RAM and 8 cores from a decade or so ago.

Was using Raspberry Pis before, but given that many Docker containers don't support ARMv7, I'm just utilizing the luxury of AMD64 (and using Docker Compose, Traefik, and Wireguard to do scaling and networking).

Re: Ask HN: What are some interesting projects to reuse your old devices?

#19

Post by stedaniels »

hanniabu wrote: post #16
swiley wrote: post #5

I don’t know why everyone acts like old laptops aren’t usable, my 2011 MacBook Pro has no HD (the cable died again and I’m not replacing it this time) and it runs from ram just fine (with Linux of course, not OSX) If you’re not silly you really don’t need much computing power, even then newer laptops aren’t big improvements so if your old one still works I don’t see why you would replace it.

How can it function without a drive?

The terms you're looking for are Linux Live USB, or netboot. Both often make use of local RAM disks.

Re: Ask HN: What are some interesting projects to reuse your old devices?

#20

Post by wastedhours »

Saw a lot of great videos on YouTube about turning old laptop screens into standalone HDMI monitors (with a simple $12 board). That now explains the the stack of taken-apart laptops in the flat where I've been unable to get them to release the screen...
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