Call for salvaged hardware!

Tue Dec 8 22:13:00 UTC 2009

On 12/8/09, Christopher Browne <cbbrowne-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 1:18 PM, Maureen E.Thornton <maureen-lxSQFCZeNF4 at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>> How about putting out a general notice and seeing how many groups could
>> send a representative to a gathering in the "Cafe".
>
> Plausible...  I can imagine an objection, but that's David's to raise, or
> not...

C. Martens is planning a meeting for her group next Monday evening, I
will plan to be there to see see how the various groups can help each
other....

No mistake there are some challenges ahead. When it comes to space Jon
Alexander has a (small) space in the basement of a building near
Broadview subway station (donated). C. Martens has a government grant
lined up that should allow for the rental of some space (and she has
her eye on a 2,000 sq. foot location near a subway station).

Ongoing funding is a good question, Jon's group is doing things out of
their respective pockets (which thanks to the donated space, is
basicly gas money). Jon's group moves maybe 200 machines a year. C.
Martens is going bigger, beyond the government grant coming down the
pipe I'm not sure what her funding model will be... The other groups I
am even less sure about funding models....

>> There is a ton of hardware out there.  Many companies just send it to
>> the junk yard because they do not know how to dispose of it without
>> costing an arm and a leg.  I have found two in the last two weeks.  Jon
>> is going to put together something for me to use in order to show the
>> companies what a good Samaritans they could be.
>
> I don't want to be over-negative about this, but it's not all that
> easy to dispose of elderly computers effectively/economically.
>
> There are several problems that make it difficult for such enterprises
> to be particularly economical:
>
> - Enterprises needing to do disposal need to dispose of quite a lot of
> hardware.  200 computers, 150 monitors, and such.
>
> - For this to be a viable enterprise (and I am not assuming a
> particular form of business organization; I don't think not-for-profit
> versus for-profit changes the questions/answers essentially), it isn't
> just a one time shot - they need to cope with this stuff coming in
> 100x per year.
>
> - Transport and storage are both costly.  You need all of:
>  a) Real estate to accommodate the hardware in compact piles,
>  b) Real estate to represent a "work area",
>  c) Truck(s) to do delivery

Or, as Jon's groups does it, large car and a trailer (for the
quantities they deal with this is okay...).

>  d) Staff, available on demand, to bring piles of hardware in, and
> move it between a), b), and c)
>  e) Staff to [do something] with the hardware once it's there
>  f) Presumably, some portion of the materials will need to get put
> into another truck to go out somewhere else
>
> When I lived in Texas, there was a place that did this; it had
> low-cost, terribly-far-from-downtown, warehouse space, and they added
> in g)
>
>  g) Staffing and equipment for a "store front" operation which would
> discount and sell, to the public, whatever was salable.
>
> There's something of a mistake here, too, of assuming that the
> materials are "interesting as computers," which is roughly the same
> mistake people commonly make when thinking about places like Future
> Shop.
>
> People imagine that Future Shop is a "computer store," and imagine
> some expectation that the staff ought to be competent computer
> technology folk.
>
> Take a step back...  Future Shop is *actually* in the business of
> selling boxes.  They get boxes in, aboard transport trucks, have staff
> that fork lift them onto shelves, and then draw down those boxes to
> sell to customers.  The fact that it might be a computer (or an iPod
> or a vacuum cleaner) is largely beside the point.  Their purpose is to
> sell boxes.
>
> A similarly cynical view applies fairly well to bookstores...  Most
> bookstores are businesses that receive boxes full of objects that fit
> nicely on shelves, and try to sell these objects as effectively as
> they can.  Being a "book lover" isn't necessarily a useful attribute
> for the staff at a Chapters outlet.
>
> Back to the "old computer store"...  I can't see this reclamation
> enterprise being of terribly much interest to "computer lovers" - the
> economics of it discourage that.
>
> I'm aware of one bookstore near home that suffers from something of
> the opposite problem; "Books&Music&More" gets in a few boxes of books
> each week, and the guy that operates it evidently hasn't seen a book
> he doesn't like having in it.  You can't get to the back of the store,
> and that means there's books he can't sell.
>
> Practically, it is *essential* that he get rid of a kilogram of books
> for every kilogram that is brought in.  Unfortunately, he's bringing
> in books that others failed to sell, which means that there's two
> strikes already against each and every one of the books.  And the
> place is gradually turning into a fire hazard :-(.
>
> A "computer reprocessing" place has a *huge* risk of falling into the
> same problem.  And it quickly ceases to be "good Samaritans,"
> transforming instead into "that crazy old lady who has 470 cats in her
> apartment."  :-(
> --
> http://linuxfinances.info/info/linuxdistributions.html
> Ogden Nash  - "The trouble with a kitten is that when it grows up,
> it's always a cat." -
> http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/o/ogden_nash.html
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