best cheap/free scores 1.1

[Curious.George]

Originally Posted by Topcat

@79, that's getting up there....

It's amusing (demoralizing!) how your attitudes towards age change, as you get older! License plate frame I saw today: "Old age is 15 years older than I am!"

You also begin to more fully comprehend the old saw: "It's a shame youth is wasted on The Young"

[Dan81]

Scored another free Acer from a friend - Acer Aspire 5738Z - has 4GB RAM, a 320GB Seagate Momentus Thin HDD. I can see now why he gave it for free - while it works on the charger, the battery circuit is literally toast. There's black soot in the nearest left area of the battery port on the board. It works fine on charger though, and I found a dead battery to rip the connector out from so it doesn't look to weird without a battery.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Originally Posted by Wester547

even before the KZG went

Well, the Chemi-con KZG-series caps were known to last for a fair while, then suddenly take a shit.

It can be roughly 10 years later, before the KZG-series caps suddenly take a shit...

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by Curious.George

It's amusing (demoralizing!) how your attitudes towards age change, as you get older! License plate frame I saw today: "Old age is 15 years older than I am!"

You also begin to more fully comprehend the old saw: "It's a shame youth is wasted on The Young"

My mother is one of those.... She's a RN that thinks she's a doctor.....so when 50 rolled around, she claims 50 to be the new 40....and when 60 got here, that was the new 50.....and the devastating 70, naturally was the new 60....and she says this stuff like she's serious....I can't wait for 80 to be claimed as the new 70....

[Curious.George]

Originally Posted by Topcat

My mother is one of those.... She's a RN that thinks she's a doctor.....so when 50 rolled around, she claims 50 to be the new 40....and when 60 got here, that was the new 50.....and the devastating 70, naturally was the new 60....and she says this stuff like she's serious....I can't wait for 80 to be claimed as the new 70....

I suspect different folks have different rationales for such "beliefs".

It's not fun getting old(er). Nothing you've experienced prior prepares you for it! (D'uh!) Everything is a new experience -- and few are as pleasant as the "new" experiences you had as a child (!). E.g., your first hemorrhoid is nowhere near as pleasant as your first KISS!

And, beneath the surface, there's always a silent fear that THIS experience may be REALLY BAD (e.g., is this pain I'm having in my chest HEARTBURN or a HEART ATTACK??).

There's no real guidebook that you can consult to see how you're faring. So, you subconsciously note how those around you are doing. But, this is as meaningless as basing the reliability of YOUR PC/car/whatever on observations of your friend's PC/car/whatever -- it ignores the large effect of individual variation.

Nonetheless, when your friends start dying or having debilitating ailments, its hard not to imagine that "your time is coming".

And, even if you can recognize and rationalize how "you're different" and, presumably, "better off" (diet, exercise, activity, prowess, etc.) those issues are almost as equally meaningless.

I feel most sad for older women who simply can't deal with their advancing years. Nothing sillier than a 60yo with the perky (fake!) breasts of a 16yo! (FWIW, hands, noses and ears are a reasonably reliable indicator of age; e.g., your nose never stops growing -- perhaps grounds for a new "look a gift horse in the teeth" adage??)

[BTW, I rescued three 300G SCA's yesterday that I'll forward once I've wiped them]

[ratdude747]

$15: Fujifilm FinePixS3300 Bridge Camera. Was a bit apprehensive (Like I need another camera that isn't a proper DSLR)... but seems to have been worth it. A bit old (2011 model), but seems to take really good pictures compared to my other cameras. Only bummer is it runs off 4 AA's... but whatever. Too cheap for a DSLR...

[Curious.George]

Originally Posted by ratdude747

$15: Fujifilm FinePixS3300 Bridge Camera. Was a bit apprehensive (Like I need another camera that isn't a proper DSLR)... but seems to have been worth it. A bit old (2011 model), but seems to take really good pictures compared to my other cameras. Only bummer is it runs off 4 AA's... but whatever. Too cheap for a DSLR...

Excellent! My "go to" camera is an ancient (2008?) Fuji A850 (8MP). I really only use photos to "show folks things (email) that are too hard to describe" so I'm not too concerned with the picture quality -- I'll typically downsample it considerably before sending it off.

I prefer this camera, though, specifically because of its use of AA cells (2, in my case) as I have a steady supply of rechargeable AAs on hand (AAAs much scarcer) as many of my devices rely on them. So, even if the cells in the camera are dead, I can quickly swap them out for a fresh pair.

[By contrast, my other half is always having to monitor the charge in her camera's battery and ensure the "spare" is topped off at all times.]

And, its considerably easier to pull the SD card and slip it in a reader than it is to tether, e.g., a phone to a machine for a file transfer.

Someday I'll stumble across a DSLR body to support my (modest) lens collection. But, that camera will likely spend much of its time sitting in a drawer (whereas the Fuji sees use every couple of days!)

Biggest drawback is lack of TTL viewfinder (it feels silly holding a camera at arms' length just to see what the hell it's planning on shooting)

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by Curious.George

Excellent! My "go to" camera is an ancient (2008?) Fuji A850 (8MP). I really only use photos to "show folks things (email) that are too hard to describe" so I'm not too concerned with the picture quality -- I'll typically downsample it considerably before sending it off.

I prefer this camera, though, specifically because of its use of AA cells (2, in my case) as I have a steady supply of rechargeable AAs on hand (AAAs much scarcer) as many of my devices rely on them. So, even if the cells in the camera are dead, I can quickly swap them out for a fresh pair.

[By contrast, my other half is always having to monitor the charge in her camera's battery and ensure the "spare" is topped off at all times.]

And, its considerably easier to pull the SD card and slip it in a reader than it is to tether, e.g., a phone to a machine for a file transfer.

Someday I'll stumble across a DSLR body to support my (modest) lens collection. But, that camera will likely spend much of its time sitting in a drawer (whereas the Fuji sees use every couple of days!)

Biggest drawback is lack of TTL viewfinder (it feels silly holding a camera at arms' length just to see what the hell it's planning on shooting)

I have a boatload of point and shoots. My main ones anymore are:

-The Fujifilm above (Finepix S3300)
-Olympus SZ-14 ($2 score in a prior post)
-Fujifilm Finepix Z70 (compact holster camera I've been using at work).

Not that a fanboy of any brand (other than I can't stand Kodak). I used to use a lot of Canon A series units (and have a bunch still). And A couple Panasonic Lumixes too.

[Curious.George]

Originally Posted by ratdude747

I have a boatload of point and shoots. My main ones anymore are:

-The Fujifilm above (Finepix S3300)
-Olympus SZ-14 ($2 score in a prior post)
-Fujifilm Finepix Z70 (compact holster camera I've been using at work).

Not that a fanboy of any brand (other than I can't stand Kodak). I used to use a lot of Canon A series units (and have a bunch still). And A couple Panasonic Lumixes too.

I'm not really a camera junkie. All of the cameras I have are rescues or hand-me-downs (including the SLRs & lenses). I have no idea how to "shoot" nor desire to learn -- I usually just want to SHOW something to someone... and then delete the image.

My other half has a Lumix <mumblemumble> that she likes (has a viewfinder instead of just the LCD display) -- but, it takes "fancy batteries". And, it's quite a bit larger than the little Fuji that I've "adopted".

I use the cameras in cell phones (none of which have "service") when I'm away from home but have no preference for their level of quality -- it just happens to be "with me" (primarily as a timepiece). They ARE handy as magnifying glasses, though (snap photo; zoom; discard)!

I'd like to see what some of the lenses and filters that I have could produce by way of photos when mated to a DSLR body (instead of the SLR bodies) -- especially for night shots (e.g., meteor showers are very observable, here, due to black/cloudless skies and a lack of "light pollution"). It "feels" more natural than these "flat" cameras. But, I lack the time/interest to investigate the compatible offerings, there.

Of course, the beauty of digital film is you don't fill boxes of photo albums with snapshots! At the same time, you fill gigabytes of disk space with images too numerous to sort/scan/browse -- it "costs no more" to take 10 snaps instead of just one!

[Topcat]

My dSLR is ~2009 Olympus E-420 with a 32gb CF card. Its 4-digit "odometer" has been rolled over twice.

My 'point & shoot' is my phone, for those random things in life....but anything planned and/or requiring quality, the dSLR comes out!

[momaka]

Originally Posted by ratdude747

$15: Fujifilm FinePixS3300 Bridge Camera.... Only bummer is it runs off 4 AA's...

I would take that as a plus. Proprietary rechargeable batteries wear out and will eventually render the camera useless or too much of a hassle to find proper replacement original batteries. AA's are plentiful and not terribly expensive. Moreover, you can get some high quality rechargeable ones, like Enerloops.

Some of my scores for this week are two very large caps (one is a 75V, 26 000 uF big "can") and a car-sized sealed Lead-Acid UPS battery that is practically almost brand new. We had even more of these at work, but the nearby metal recyclers place pay us about $10 per battery, so I was allowed to take only one or two.

[Curious.George]

Originally Posted by Topcat

My dSLR is ~2009 Olympus E-420 with a 32gb CF card. Its 4-digit "odometer" has been rolled over twice.

Wow, CF card... "dated"?

My 'point & shoot' is my phone, for those random things in life....but anything planned and/or requiring quality, the dSLR comes out!

I find the phones awkward... too hard to hold it, wait for good focus and sneak a finger over to touch the "shutter" icon (without altering the shot in the process).

If it's going to require quality, I let a friend who knows far more about composition and photography take the pix for me. It never occurs to me to think about what should be in the picture; my concern is always making sure that there's nothing (accidentally?) in there that shouldn't be!

My buddy has this little "booth" that lets him shoot items without harsh flash reflections, etc. (the lighting is diffused through the walls of the booth instead of directly on the target). So, when I need photos for publication, I can just use his directly without having to touch them up (e.g., in Photoshop) as I would have had to do with mine!

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by Curious.George

Wow, CF card... "dated"?

Who cares...it stores pics as well as any other.... ...and 32gb, I've never filled it. I dump it when done, I don't leave stuff on it....but on the longest vacation I've ever taken, I never even came close to filling it. It was a gift from my wife ~2008-2009ish.

[Curious.George]

Originally Posted by Topcat

Who cares...it stores pics as well as any other....

I've never seen one actually USED (other than in networking equipment to store parameters and code).

...and 32gb, I've never filled it.

Yeah, I have an 8G SD card in my Fuji. But, I don't routinely clear it off -- just the images that I've recently shot and decided are no longer necessary. At times, its amusing to look back and wonder what/where some of the others are or were taken. "Singletons" tend to get deleted immediately. But, any "sequences" of photos I tend to leave on the camera until I can sort out if I want to save them -- and then where! E.g., "How to replace starter motor" or "Routing path for buried landscape lighting wire" or "Disassembly steps for TV"...

My other half has learned that the 32G card I gave her for her camera is more of a curse than a blessing! Smaller cards fill up and effectively stop you from shooting any more. And, send you back to your PC to transfer what you've shot into your own "off-line" archive. BIGGER cards let you delay that reckoning -- until it grows to become an all-day event to transfer and sort through all of the accumulated cruft!

"Gee, I have 15 photos of that mountain lion... should I delete some of them? If so, which one(s)?"

[RJARRRPCGP]

Originally Posted by ratdude747

I used to use a lot of Canon A series units (and have a bunch still).

I got a second hand Canon A-series on July 21, 2015. It's the PowerShot A560, which of course like the A530, is a champion with SD videos!
I believe it's from the Core 2 era.

[Dan81]

Scored about 12 Acer Travelmates for free. They were all Celerons (except for about three of them which were one DDR400 based Turion and 2x DDR2 based Turions) and most were IDE. I managed to save a Travelmate 2494 that had a Celeron M 440 (now has a Core 2 Duo T5500) and a Travelmate 2480 that has a Celeron M 420 w/ 80GB IDE HDD. The rest of them I took the LCDs and will probably send them to recycling after removing the HDDs where is the case.

[Dan81]

Back again with another free score, a HP-Compaq NX7400 that just needs a front panel board (it's missing).

[Gergely_madbad]

Just picked up my first super cheap score.

https://www.bargainhardware.co.uk/hp-proliant-dl360-g7-4-sff-configure-to-order


I've had my eye on one of these for a minecraft server for a while, configured one last week and it glitched out at checkout when quoting shipping to Hungary. I paid £14.47 including shipping, fully spec'd and kept quiet and it arrived in Budapest this afternoon.

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by momaka

...Moreover, you can get some high quality rechargeable ones, like Enerloops...

I bought some of those (panasonic eneloops) for my sencore hand held signal generator. Even when plugged in, it constantly had a nagger saying 'low battery'.... I opened it and found four goofy looking NiCAD's in it, which were nothing more than AA cells. These worked great as replacements. Nagger gone!

[paladine]

Probably the most interesting "score" that I came across was 10 years ago in my previous job working at a university.

A colleague of mine found two Apple Xserve G5's and a fully loaded Apple Xserve RAID by a dumpster on campus! All of it worked and upon further inspection we discovered that the servers had only ever been turned on for 2.5 hours since they were purchased.

Unfortunately the PowerPC servers were pretty limited once Apple switched to Intel, but it is crazy to think that someone spend around $25,000 on that hardware to only use it for a few hours before tossing it away 5 years later.