Number 261 - February 2005

Recycling Your PC
Sandy Shapiro, UCHUG
Here is an article I wrote in 1991 - it is one of my favorites. It was originally published in D&D Lite March 1991 issue (Vol X #3). This article was subswequently published in ComputorEdge in 1992. The surgeon, Joe is really the UCSD Radiologist, and longtime SDHUG/UCHUG member George Coade (I had George's permission to publish the article in 1992 being as the disguise was so thin).    One man's trash is another man's treasure. In my student days, it was fashionable to cruise the wealthy neighborhoods on those nights when people put out their trash. I had friends at Columbia University who, knowing the better parts of Manhattan, never had to buy furniture. Castoffs of the rich and famous kept many a struggling student as comfortable as a trout in a stream.    One of my computer friends, Joe, is a surgeon as well as a computer hobbyist. Leaving a conference on day, at a university in another community, he was on his way to the parking lot when he went by the Business School just as the maintenance person was depositing six IBM PC's by the trash. "You aren't throwing away those computers?" Joe asked in astonishment. "Yup," the man aswered. "you mean nobody wants them?" Joe continued in disbelief. "Nope," the man answered, clearly becoming impatient and wanting to get on with his duties. "Well, do you think you could help me load them into my car?" Joe asked timidly. "Sure," the man replied, "Just back it up over here." These were the original 1981 model IBM PC computers, and they were totally gutted. Inside a heavy tank-like case, empty as church on Monday morning, lay a bare motherboard with 64 K of memory, five empty slots and a 63 Watt power supply. The memory was supplied by four rows of 16 K chips - one row soldered and three rows plugged into sockets. Two lonely looking DIP switches could be seen over to the right. Large holes gaped where disk drives once sat.    Never one to waste anything, Joe offered me one. I declined, but Joe insisted. "Maybe you can write an article about it, " he said. I like a challenge, but I wondered what I could possibly do with it.    Once home, I found a power cord and turned on the computer. The fan in the power supply whined, the computer's speaker emitted some mysterious beeps and the computer sat - like heart that had stopped beating. The hour was late, I was tired so I put the computer away in a closet and went to bed thinking: "How can I test it to see if it even works?" Later that night, in the midst of a very sound sleep - like fireworks on the Fourth of July - the word "BASIC" exploded in my head. The early IBM's are unique - they came with a built-in BASIC interpreter. Using a keyboard and a monitor, I could write and run a BASIC program. I would not be able to save the program.	but I would at least know if the computer worked. With that realization, I went back to a happy sleep.    With nothing to lose, I plugged the Zenith video board into one of the vacant slots on the IBM motherboard, connected a spare monitor I had lying around and "borrowed" a keyboard from my Zenith computer. Powering up the IBM, the fan whined, a long wait - like ants crawling, finally aloud beep from the speaker and the screen erupted with: "The IBM Personal Computer Basic Version C1.00," and the familiar "OK" prompt. C1.00 means Cassette Basic as opposed to Disc Basic or Advanced Basic.) I typed in a BASIC program to count numbers and gave the "RUN" command, and my new computer went to work. It ran all day, in fact, counting out numbers without complaint.    Now the decisive moment faced me. Do I put this computer back in the trash, or do I spend money and make it usable? It could provide a dedicated word processor for the kids to use for their homework. Or I could put a fax board in it and let it run all the time like an answering machine. I correspond with a colleague in Mexico City. The mail service is unreliable and everything goes by fax. I am getting tired of running back and forth to the copy center to use their fax machine. Maybe it was time I had my own setup?    I love to shop, and I scrounged the used computer stores, the want ads and the computer bulletin boards. [remember them? - TOGGLE ed] For under $200.00, I easily found an old keyboard, a memory board, a ten megabyte hard drive (full height), a 360 K floppy disk drive (also full height), controller cards, and I/O card (serial and parallel ports and a clock/calendar), a bigger power supply and newer monitor ROM chip. Installing a Fax/Modem board put me in business. Joe's other computers received similar treatment becomimg word processors for young students.    In relating this story to a non-hobbyist friend, he said, with a slightly patronizing tone, "That sounds like a lot of energy -it would be simpler to buy something." I thought for a long moment and said: "It's like going fishing. You take all your paraphernalia to the beach, throw your line out, wait for hours, fight with seaweed, broken lines and tangles, and if you are lucky you may catch a small Sea Bass that is legal size. You take your prize home, clean it, cook it and clean up the mess. You could go to the local fish market and buy a better piece of fish for a lot less expense and aggravation - but you know, it just wouldn't be the same."    Sandy Shapiro [in 1992 was] vice president of the San Diego Heath Users' Group, an affi[iation of the San Diego Computer Society. The Heath Users' Group welcomes all members.
Number 262 - February 2005