What do I do with an old laptop?

[Jan Moren]

mån 2006-02-20 klockan 22:35 -0500 skrev Eric Dunbar:
> On 2/20/06, Carthik Sharma <carthik at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I have a very old, Compaq Presario 1245 laptop, with a AMD-k6 333Mhz
> > processor and 128 MB memory (4 gig HDD). Most importantly, perhaps, it
> > does not have a ethernet adapter on it. It does have a PCI card slot,
> > though.
> >
> > What is the best - or most creative - way to use it around the house?
> > Does anyone have any tips as to what I can do with this laptop and
> > how? Ubuntu runs fine on it.
> >
> > Would I rather be better off selling it on ebay for the 100-odd
> > dollars the model seems to sell for?
> >
> > I heard of the picture frame thing on metafilter, but that holds no
> > interest for me.
> >
> > Expecting some creative suggestions :)
> 
> Given that you know it works and you know it works well, I'll offer up
> the not-so-creative solution of simply keeping it as a backup or as a
> portable typewriter. You never know when your main machine goes down
> and you absodesperatolutely need a functioning computer!

Add a USB2 or Firewire PCI card, one with two (or more) ports. connect a
network adapter on one port, and an external harddrive on the other, and
you have an instant home-network wide file server and backup solution;
one that is small, quiet and energy efficient.

Alternatively, or in addition, you can add a webcam, wi-fi or almost
anything else through those ports.

Since a laptop is built to be energy efficient and portable, it is great
as an always-on small server. And if the battery is still working, it
even has its own UPS built right in. The only drawback is cost; you'd
never buy a new laptop just to have as a server. But if you already have
an older one lying around...

-- 
Dr. Jan Morén (mr)              
Japan:  090-3622 8920           jan.moren at lucs.lu.se
Sweden: 031-360 7723            http://lucs.lu.se/people/jan.moren