Used Technology

My, my, where has the time gone? My last post on this blog was way back in 2013, 6 years ago. The first post(s) to this blog was way back on June 7, 2008, almost 11 years ago. Back then I was posting about interesting items that came into The Working Centre's Computer Recycling Project. Somewhere along the way I stopped posting on this blog and started cross-posting about the items on my own web site. It seems fitting now that personal projects be separated to my domain https://www.charlesmccolm.com/ (defunct) and Computer Recycling projects be listed here. A lot has changed over the years, but many things also remain the same. I've been very blessed over the years to have a lot of fantastic volunteers, and I hope this will continue into the future. Among the things volunteers do are: Receive and organize incoming donations Sort and evaluate donated equipment Build Windows (through the Microsoft Registered Refurbisher Program) computers for qualified Low-Income indivi...

November 5, 2013: Weekly box of goodies I decided to start posting a weekly box of goodies that have come in to The Working Centre's Computer Recycling Project . Please contact one of our volunteers if you're interested in any of these items. BC-45B charger Fujifilm Battery Charger BC-45B (asking $5.00) - charges the battery in a large number of Fujifilm Finepix cameras. There is a Kijiji listing showing some of the camera batteries apparently supported by this charger here: http://montreal.kijiji.ca/c-acheter-et-vendre-equipement-electronique-Genuine-Fuji-Fujifilm-Battery-NP-45A-Charger-BC-45B-Original-W0QQAdIdZ533914747 Back of charger has: Model No: BC-45B U, Input: 100-240V~ 50-60Hz 0.15A, Output: DC 4.2V 0.55A Unit is in good condition. SG-IC032 charger Digital Video Battery Compact Travel Charger SG-IC032 (asking $5.00) - charges the battery for a number of Canon Poweshot S-series cameras. The battery it charges can be viewed here: http://www.maplin.co...

I've been a Godaddy customer for several years. When I first signed on with Godaddy their hosting was reasonably efficient and very affordable. While the afford-ability has stayed the same the quality of hosting has dropped magnitudes. Godaddy simply hasn't been a good host now for several years, and it simply isn't worth the "affordable" price anymore because of the lack of stability. What am I talking about? Regular 500 Internal Server Errors resulting from the servers simply being overloaded. Godaddy just can't handle their success and as a result has commodified everything to the point where their offerings are just crap. If the site's not available most of the time it isn't worth the money, no matter how little you spend.

15" LCD monitors At the Working Centre's Computer Recycling Project we've finally begun to sell LCD monitors. At the moment we have several LCD monitors, but these will go fast. We still carry a small selection of CRT monitors for those who find the LCD monitors just don't do the range of CRTs. Our selection includes several different brands including Viewsonic, IBM, and Dell, but selection varies from day to day. The monitors are very reasonably priced. We also have several types of DLink routers (wired, wireless), and a few Netgear and Linksys routers. Other items include scanners, printers, and several types of boxed expansion cards.

Netopia R910 ethernet router The Netopia R910 we had access to is a large 4 port 10/100 ethernet router. An 8 port version of the router exists as pictured in one of the manuals on the Motorola web site . On the back of the router is a 9 pin serial cable for serial communication. We could be mistaken but the down side to this router appears to be that it doesn't seem to have a web interface - the router either gets set up through the Windows software or through a serial connection. We're not big fans of unusual power supply units and this particular model uses a small round 8 din connector for a 12V 1.5A power adapter. Support information is listed as http://www.netopia.com/support/ but Netopia was acquired by Motorola in 2007, so the best place to look for help is the Motorola web page for the 910 . Surprisingly it currently houses a lot more documentation than is typically included with most routers or available on web sites, including a serial cable wiring schematic.

A few days ago we received a Canon BJ-30 Bubble jet printer as part of a group of printer donations. We tested this tiny printer which measures about 1 foot wide by 1/2 foot long when the lid is closed. Amazingly the donated printer still contained ink. Sadly it seems that Canon has discontinued making any drivers or information for Windows available on their web site. We tested the printer under Ubuntu Linux version 10.04 and it printed a test page flawlessly (we even got a full tank of ink). I called our favourite ink re-filler and found that the do indeed still carry the cartridges for this portable printer. We looked around for information about the BJ-30 and discovered that this tiny printer is 720dpi x 360 dpi, although we suspect that number is a software-interpolation number that depends on a Windows driver. As anyone can see from our screen shot above the printer seems to print just fine. The biggest downside to the printer we felt was the lack of a USB port, and the...