Selling my Computer

[Onmitsu]

This was state of the art when I bought it in '89.
I'm only asking $2000.00 now. What a bargain!

[Onmitsu]

The Tandy 5000 MC Proffessional System retails for only $8499.00*! New for '89! (*Monitor and mouse not included)
Features:
-a blazing 20 MHz Intel 80386 Microprocessoor
-VGA Graphics
-2 MB RAM
-Cache Memory

The news ad reads:
Our most powerful computer ever! The Tandy 5000 MC Micro Computer is strictly business, from the look of it's 256,000-color graphics to the tactile feel of it's newly-designed keyboard. Its Intel 80386 processor operates at a lightening-fast 20 MHz and a memory cache controller provides a RAM-fast access to your data. IBM Micro channel compatible architecture provides a 32-bit wide data path for virtually simultaneous data transfer between peripherals. Will operate MS-DOS 3.3, MS OS/2, SCO XENIX 386 and network software. The 5000 MC's technology, performance and price all add up to an incredible value. VGA graphics, serial and parrallel ports and mouse support included
25-6000...................................................... $8499.00

[Shitoryu Dude]

Approximate value today - worthless. :cry:

Never think about how fast your computer depreciates in value, it will drive you insane. Just look at a computer as a money sponge that needs an infusion of cash every 6 months.

:beer:

[Onmitsu]

Worthless!?!
How dare you insult my "lightening-fast" 20 MHz Intel 80386 Microprocessor!!!
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

[Shitoryu Dude]

Well, considering that I can't even give away a 5 year old Pentium...... :smash:

:beer:

[Onmitsu]

True......true.

:(

[J. A. Crippen]

Nowadays that box is only useful for tameshigiri. Tameshiwari on old computers will just break you, not the box. Those old things are made of hard steel!

Keep the monitor around if you ever need an emergency text display.

I actually did use the circuit boards from an old IBM PS/2 (a PS/2 30 IIRC) for tameshiwari once. It was fun, particularly since you had to aim just right or stab yourself with sharp pointy components. Picking up the little bits off of the floor later was no fun though. There's always work, even in play... Sigh.

With a little work some older circuit boards can be made into neat looking jewelry, such as pins or earrings. But you need a really sharp scroll saw and some patience.

Occasionally (like once every three years) some friends and I get together in a gravel pit waay out of town. We drag along a bunch of *seriously* ancient and useless computer parts, like old line drivers, 2400 baud external modems, nasty old EGA cards, etc. When the sun sets we pile the stuff up, douse with gasoline, and light it on fire, then dance around it while becoming steadily more inebriated. It's a sacrifice to the technology kami, in hopes that we will have bug free hardware in years to come. Seems to have worked too.

Which brings me in my mental wanderings to another interesting question. Nowadays, I wonder if along with the traditional sake, rice, food, and sacred branch offerings given at a Shinto shrine, whether one might toss a cell phone or hard drive in there too. Maybe the gods would like to try iMode, or have a place to store their MP3s? (Is someone going to shoot me for that? ^_^)

[kenshorin]

Originally posted by J. A. Crippen

Occasionally (like once every three years) some friends and I get together in a gravel pit waay out of town. We drag along a bunch of *seriously* ancient and useless computer parts, like old line drivers, 2400 baud external modems, nasty old EGA cards, etc. When the sun sets we pile the stuff up, douse with gasoline, and light it on fire, then dance around it while becoming steadily more inebriated. It's a sacrifice to the technology kami, in hopes that we will have bug free hardware in years to come. Seems to have worked too.


Sounds a lot like this website... (http://www.powlus.net/macintrashin/) Looks like fun! (Especially because they are Macs...)

[Senjojutsu]

Kenshorin,

Great site for us anti-Mac snobs.

Last MAC I will ever get was an iMac in 05/2001 (baka !).
I sold it for forty cents on the dollar during Christmastime 2001, bought a Sony Vaio and sunk my iMac proceeds in as a downpayment. I had even dumped $130 for an OS X.1 upgrade in hope of salvation.

In those eight-odd months "Windoz PCs", as the MAC addicts call them, caught up with iMACs in DV editing.

I actually was thinking of buying an Apple Cube at the time (Spring 2001); which they discontinued in summer of 2001.

Screw Apple! They are famous for their orphans. The Lisa, The Apple III, The Cube etc..

Onmitsu

In 1988 I bought my first real computer, the box cost $1,800.
An IBM PS/2 with 1 Meg ram and a 30 Meg hardrive running DOS 3.3

It wasn't a bad deal until Windows 3.0 came out - and the demand for hardware skyrocketed.

Shintoryu Dude

There is a local computer consignment shop three minutes from my house. I go there to laugh sometimes. People are trying to sell those 5 year old Pentiums for $400.

I guess hope springs eternal for Red Sox fans.
Snicker:D

[Son of Thunder]

Last year I lived above some computer majors at UAlbany. The entertaining thing about these guys was that when they upgraded their computers, they had a party at which they drug their old computers out into the front lawn and beat them to pieces with baseball bats, golf clubs, etc. It was great fun, like watching the scene in "Office Space" in which the guys "killed" the fax machine.:D

[kenshorin]

Seen the Dell commercial where the guys take their old servers and do them up Battlebots-style? Ultimate geek! Something I could picture someone doing though. (especially people I know)