After upgrading part by part for a while now I had enough stuff to throw together a couple extra PCs, so I did. However now I don't really have anything cool to do with them. Here is what I have come up with.

1. Run SETI (or any distributed computing program) Now while I don't mind using idle resources on my computer when I am doing other stuff, to turn a computer on just to crunch units is kind of wasteful to me.
2. Media PC - Load up my MP3s DVDs grab a tv tuner and turn it into a tivo. I dont really have a use for this though. I just assume put the dvd in my player and have at it. I watch about 2 hours of tv a month, so the tivo option would be kind of wasteful.
3. Game server - Not a good enough internet connection.

So my question is, what are some things that you have done with your extra PCs?

Mine is a dust holder. :) It hangs onto all the dust I don't have a spot for.

Oh yes, the other thing it does is run Linux and Oracle. I loaded it up on that so I could learn about Oracle. Turns out I don't use it though, since I have all the access to oracle systems I want at work.

They make good paperweights for all those papers people print out so that they can get to their info faster :)

It seems like every time I get another computer I add another account and multi-box.

I installed Linux on my old computer so I could learn about it 8)

Plus it runs seti@home too!

Hubby runs his own home computer repair business (which really means he loads anti-spyware and anti-adware programs on people's computers, cleans them up and charges them for it....or powercycles their router and charges them for it...or gets rid of the 72 virii on someones computer and charges them for it). When one of his client's computers really IS toast, we seem to end up with it.

He usually fixes it as best as possible, then gives them to a group called FreeGeek ( http://www.freegeek.org/ ). They scavenge parts and build computers for people who can't afford them. It's kinda nifty. They'll take pretty much anything and have folks who fix just about any component of a computer. They also know where to recycle the bits that aren't useable.

Which reminds me, as soon as hubby gets home, he's got to do *something* with the 2 dead computers we currently have in our guest room.

Uh, err. Donate equipement AND pay a fee to donate it? That seems odd. Human nature is going to indicate I just throw it away, thus adding to the landfill.

Build a MAME machine. The cheesiest, weakest computer in the world can be MAME'ed; when your buddies come over, they'll think you're the coolest.

We have seven machines we use regularly: 2 main workstations, 2 laptops for "sundries" (plus those are both our work computers), 1 firewall/MP3 jukebox/file server/movie server (just over 1 terrabyte of disc atm), 1 MAME machine (in homemade cabinet for 40 bazillion old school video games - I <3 the odd Japanese pr0n golf games - and 1 home theatre system (setup with a slick myHttpc interface for browsing all the movies ripped to our server).

Donate equipement AND pay a fee to donate it?

In our locale, the garbage people won't take computers/monitors/televisions, you have to take them to recycling places, which charge the same fee anyway. So if FreeGeek can't fix it, they have to recycle it and the fee goes towards the recycling fee they have to pay.

If they can fix it, the fee you would have paid for recycling goes to help them buy the little parts they need to make something functional (a power supply or a video card or whatever).

Since we'd have to pay a fee either way, might as well hope the FreeGeek folks can fix it and give it to someone who otherwise wouldn't have a computer.

Yeah, usually cheaper to pay a fee to have hazardous waste recycled than to get caught with it in your trash and fined for it.

I usually keep 2 machines up and running. When I build a new PC I'll pass down the old ones to family members. They may not be cutting edge, but, they are plenty fast for what they use.

As for SETI, that's fun and all, but, I prefer Folding vs SETI. Somehow potentially helping to find cures to diseases like cancer, Alzhiemer' and Parkinson's seems more worthy of my un-used computing cycles.

http://folding.stanford.edu/

I gave my last old computer to my grandparents who had never used a computer before in their life. At first they were scared of it, but now they love it.

My other computer is just a dust collector atm, but I'll dust it off and have it up and running again when Wow and EQ2 come out. (to 2box or just to be able to surf the net/chat on aim, etc. without hogging resources from my gaming machine)

You should use it to play a wargame with a pentagon computer and push the world to the brink of WWIII

I did that Aidon, then I made it play tic tac toe with itself before it launched our missles.

What programs support clusters? Namely is there one that I could encode video over my extra boxes?

Since we'd have to pay a fee either way, might as well hope the FreeGeek folks can fix it and give it to someone who otherwise wouldn't have a computer.

Ah, you live in California, I see.

Ok, so human nature now dictates people will dump these in alleys, or toss them out along the road. Besides, who's to know where that computer part came from that is in the dumpster.

I know, you didn't make the rule. I just get bothered when legislation tries to go against human nature and is actually suprised when it doesn't work.

Ah, you live in California, I see.

No she doesn't.

Hmmm... I didn't realize it wasn't ok to just throw my old computers away. Oops.

Wait till you try and throw a UPS away.

As for Oddjob -
What do you mean what programs support clusters? Not a lot of application level stuff uses clustering technology, more go along the way of multithreading rather than actually pushing the work over to a slave computer. W2k/W2k3 Advanced Server will let you set up clusters, but neither of them really have anything to do with vid encoding or anything... you could set it up so that the process is done on one machine instead of the other, but at that point, you mine as well have two computers so you don't have to worry about failovers, shared drives, etc...

Wait till you try and throw a UPS away.

As for Oddjob -
What do you mean what programs support clusters? Not a lot of application level stuff uses clustering technology, more go along the way of multithreading rather than actually pushing the work over to a slave computer. W2k/W2k3 Advanced Server will let you set up clusters, but neither of them really have anything to do with vid encoding or anything... you could set it up so that the process is done on one machine instead of the other, but at that point, you mine as well have two computers so you don't have to worry about failovers, shared drives, etc...

I mean like programs such as Maya and 3DSMax that support network rendering. For kicks and giggles I thought it would be fun to see if I could setup my 2nd box to absorb the larger loads of programs I use. I don't do a whole lot of 3d design, but I do spend alot of time encoding videos from VHS to Divx. At maximum quality it can take about 30 hours. So I was hoping that someone knew if Adobe Premiere or something to that effect had the ability to share the load over many PCs. As well as any other programs that work well with 2 more more PCs. I doubt there are many.
The only word I know for this is cluster computing and parallel computing, is that not correct?

Ah, you live in California, I see.


No, I live in Oregon, where people take recycling seriously. First in the nation to have curbside recycling required to be provided by garbage hauling services. Most major metro areas have recycling depots and there is a statewide number you can call to find out how to safely dispose of various hazardous materials including things like old Mercury thermostats and those little blinky shoes everyone thought was so cool to have their kids wearing that had Mercury switches in them.

Do people still throw stuff away? Yup. Is recycling mandatory here? Nope. Did they legislate that there must be places where people COULD recycle stuff if they wanted to? Yup. And those facilities get used. If you want to throw all your paper/glass/metal/plastic into a landfill, there is no legal penalty for doing so, but why bother? Aside from that, the smaller my actual garbage can is, the less I get charged, so there is a personal financial gain for me to recycle. Most of our garbage is either considered "biohazard" (kleenexes, food debris, kitty litter, various items with various body fluids/solids on them etc) or non-recyclable (certain types of plastic etc). I would guess that we throw away approximately one kitchen garbage bag of true garbage per week.

I'm personally very happy we have freegeek. I love the idea that parts get used, and those who want to have computers but can't afford them, have a means of obtaining them. Overall, it's a win/win situation as I see it.

It depends on the type of cluster, odd.
There's Active/Active and Active/Passive. The A/P is more of a disaster recovery type of thing - just in case your CPU blows up or something, there's a brand new computer sitting right there waiting for the system to failover.

A/A is where you've got two computers running as one - I was never a fan of this as it never made too much sense to me, esp if you were talking outside of the realm of the supercomputer type. I mean, what's the sense behind clustering two computers and creating a single point of failure for both in the shared device? I mean, even if you had a website that had a DB running queries, usually the DB software allowed you to offset the actual number crunching to a separate machine, so again... why cluster.