Why Did I Hoard This Shit?

Heeeeyyyy, I still use my 5th gen iPod in my 2002 and 2009 cars! Why is a thing with storage capacity several times greater than most phones in your archeological tech display? (yeah, yeah, get off my lawn as you pay Apple a monthly fee to provide minimally adequate amounts of storage for your pictures.)

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Iā€™ll have you know that my iCloud storage is full.

I would use the companion to the iPod in that photo in my FarmWagon, but I havenā€™t yet gotten around to soldering in a new headphone jack; while I am a committed leftist, I still very much prefer to hear both channels of my audio.

ETA: I meant that my unpaid iCloud account is perpetually full. When youā€™ve got DSL and a NAS, localhost is where the :heart: is.

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I remember circa late 2007 when I was looking for a cheap laptop on eBay to run Linux on, how much a shitty Windows 98 or possibly even late Windows 95 laptop (think 32 MB of RAM) someone slapped a wifi card into would sell for. Like, think $400.

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I have been collecting electronic components, connectors, and devices since about 1959 and while I have managed to off some of it - like the Quadraphonic, CED, and reel-to-reel stuff, as well as whatever actually failed that I didnā€™t cannibalize for parts - such hoards are dwarfed by a shitload of cameras and lenses that are now unusable because my vision is almost gone.

I passed from ā€˜collectorā€™ to ā€˜accumulatorā€™ long ago.

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At first look I thought those were tiny dioramas of offices. So cool!

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Quadraphonic! I love looking through old Stereo Review magazines and itā€™s a surprising reminder of just how hard that was being hawked in the ads when that was the Next Big Thing. I keep thinking to myself reading those ads ā€œoh, if you only knew how hard this was going to failā€

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And yet, in a way, it lives on as 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound. On the other hand, thatā€™s almost exclusively used for video; prerecorded music these days is more often than not just plain two-channel stereo.

SACD and DVD-Audio provide surround capability, but SACD in particular was more about DRM and gatekeeping than anything else.

This is the dumpster of our IT department, and sometimes I raid it like a racoon raids a trash can.

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I used to be like this. Now I am acutely aware storage has a cost, be it a storage bin or how much more effectively you could be using your living space.

As well, time has a cost. If you canā€™t resell it for more than your time is worth, fucking toss it.

I think thereā€™s some buzz in the tech industry right now about, ā€œSeparating Storage and Computeā€. Now is the time.

Just toss it.

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I dont know if this still applies but back in the day, one could go to a gate off Lawrence Livermore Labs and buy cheap, discarded gear like high-power lasers, cyclotrons, and other groovy systems. I knew a guy who bought and horded this stuff. And Iā€™ve known geeks who arenā€™t satisfied with less than discarded JATO units (available at the Ontario CA Air Natā€™l Guard base). If ya gotta horde stuff, horde big bad stuffā€¦

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EMPs. Some of that stuff might work afterwards. How old though?

Iā€™m not sure if I have ADHD, but I very much resemble that slideshow. I could reproduce most of the pictures, but on a larger scale. I have a particular obsession with wall warts and DC fans. One plastic tub of fans. Three tubs of wall warts, sorted by AC/DC and voltage output.

From my desk I can see 5 laptops, 2 netbooks, 5 tablets; all heading to the bin until I intervened. A tub full of old cables (SCSI, parallel printers, etc.) And adapters. So many adapters. I like to think I can connect anything to any other thing.

I like to think Iā€™m doing something useful. Every so often someone will mention a need for some obscure thing, and Iā€™m often able to provide. At which point I loudly proclaim my success, especially to my long-suffering wife.

I use the wall warts a lot; if a battery-powered device enters my home, I immediately find a wart in the right voltage range, perhaps in-line solder a DC buck PCB to adjust the voltage, and batteries are eliminated.

The other good think I do is strip everything down to recycling friend bits, salvaging anything I might use later. I keep cardboard boxes for plastics, metals, PCBs, and ā€œunknownā€ stuff. When boxes are full, they go to the recycle center.

Iā€™ve promised my wife if we ever move again, she does not have to touch any of this collection. If I want it, I have to pack it and get it onto the truck. Jokeā€™s on her though, as I plan to die in this house, so sheā€™ll have to deal with it anyway, and wonā€™t be able to bitch at me!

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From my lounging couch in the morning room I see 2 laptops, 5 phones, 20 guitar-like objects, a few drums, etc ā€“ the cameras, lenses, tripods, printers, empty frames, amps, and more laptops and guitars, are in the storage room, formerly the office.

I donā€™t consider our accumulations to be ā€˜hoardingā€™ as much as ā€œsaving stuff so we need not buy more.ā€ Think of it as material conservation.

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