The PS2 mouse that came with an older PC is not working properly, the left button stopped responding. Opening it and cleaning it well didn't help. Guess it has lived its life. I am just using another PS2 mouse now, good to have at least one replacement spare, specially with old IT stuff. If not, need to have a good plan to recycle it.

Most IT and sales jobs in Quebec need French these days, I am taking an intermediate French refresher course and also wished to practise typing in French. In this regard, I needed an old French KB and just got it on freecycle, also I was offered a network card and modem card if I picked up the KB ASAP. So, I just went and got them all.

Since my last post here, a few older IT items, a Server Tower and a fairly large collection of old IT stuff were offered on freecycle locally. I am very glad I decided not to collect these as these were quickly collected by others and hopefully will be put to good use.

An amazing article that predicts future trends of Robotics and some related IT::
http://www.naturalnews.com/042276_ro...pulation.html#

As and when all the above comes true, with time, most of the IT we will have even from 5 or 10 years from today will seem like abacus it appears. No one will even want P4s unless it is a rare special collector.

Someone offered a networking kit and another person two old IBM PCs from Win 2000 era on local freecycle. Both were claimed fast and this is good.

One day, I wonder if old PCs will be prohibited on the net as they are too slow, like using a bicycle on the highway in not allowed.

Today it was mentioned in local news that 1/3rd of retailers are resorting to false/incorrect advertising and overcharging clients at the cash. I have experienced this sometimes, however it was quite stunning to hear this in the news, that too, the figures being this high. If so many retailers are doing this, then the economy must be quite challenging. Whenever, I bought a new PC before in store, I was also bombarded with all sorts of other related products and extended warranty etc., I had to keep on saying no and dodge the efforts of the various store clerks. I was sooo glad to pay my bill, leave the store and return home.

This is one solid reason to still continue to use older PCs. Those folks who gave me older PCs, gave them gladly and even gave other extras to go with them for free. It feels amazing to have all these older PCs. and use them in peace without having to worry too much about other things.

Now on this server from 2006, some buttons on linkedin are not working, they are not even appearing. Perhaps, I have to use a new browser. However, I will just try to use another PC for this when needed like in a library or another public more recent PC. With time, I expect such issues to spread to other sites also. The big one will be when web email is affected. This is when, many will reconsider the use of older PCs or use them in a limited manner I feel.

Do you mean in general retail, or computer hardware/software retail?

No, not really.

Retailers make money by selling things..if some trick will increase sales, at least some retailers will use it. Then if a couple of retailers do the same thing, others in the same industy will follow. Then it becomes 'industry standard', and almost everyone does it....

The computer stores that I go to here have very few of those tricks, like 'upselling'. At one of them, I place an order, then go pick it up. The other I just walk in and ask for parts XXXs, YYYs and ZZZs, they bring them out, I pay then leave. There are various reasons why they operate that way, not the least of which is that it costs less to have a lower level of 'customer service' (which can sometimes be 'lets bug the customer to buy more stuff they dont want or need').

I belive that they should be stores selling computer parts in Quebec, or somewhere in canada who have a similar policy.

Could just be some odd browser issue....but it could be because its way out of date. IMO it doesnt matter if its a old computer, or a new computer, using unsupported browsers is a _really_bad_idea_.

Its one thing to use an older computer as an offline jukebox/media player, or basic document writing. If its ever hooked up to the internet, you really need a supported and currently updated OS and browser.

The news report mentioned all retail stores in general. The stores also offer the option of ordering via web and then pickup at the store, however I have not tried this much in recent years. There is a lot of change on the web, so browsers are getting outdated fast it appears.
I know this is not good but as long as my OS, related software does all the basic things, I don't upgrade it, even if it is not supported. Only when things get very critical, do I upgrade. It would be good to atleast check out newer versions of the OS and give it a test run. However, I have to admit that I get complacent.

In that case you should handle all your not updated systems that are connected to the net as potentially compromised systems. I hope that you really think that strategy over, so that there is less potential for other people to get annoyed or even attacked from one of your machines.

Thanks, good point. I use a live CD and am not logged in usually for more than an hour at a time. Mostly login few times a day, randomly. So, chances of this PC getting hacked are little. Also, nothing interesting on this PC for it to be hacked.

Using a live-medium of course significantly reduces the chance of getting compromised.
Keep in mind that usually such hacks are fully automated and in many cases aim not at your data, but the computing power, disk space and bandwidth, for example to host illegal content or to attack other systems.

I didn't know that such hacks are automated. The computing power and disk space on these older PCs are extremely poor usually.

Media reports in general can be rather stupid and biased. If its about general retail then it doesnt mean much at all as far as computers go, does it?

If you choose to buy on 'big name' or 'main street' or similar stores, you'll be treated like the average ignorant sheep looking to buy a computer.

They are hardly the only places to get computers or parts, IMO there is at least one decent shop in every major city.

Find the good places, and encourage people you know to buy from them. Its a good way to stop the big name stores and dodgy retailers to stop using those tricks.

Yike.

Its one thing to have an older system with ancient out of support OSes offline, but everything online should be kept updated.

Does not matter at all.

The average automated atack is not trying to hack machines to store large amounts of data, or to access data already present on random systems.

What they want it for is for things like botnets, or to use in DDoS attacks on major systems, etc.

Even a 10+ year old system is capable of saturating the bandwidth of most home internet connections.

While what an speed an average 'home internet connection' would be, its not that fast. Even 20Mbps, which is considered in many place to be a good speed for a home conenction is only 3MB/sec.....you'd need to be getting up to 100Mbps+ for even a basic 586 to have problems keeing up...

Most folks love to buy from such stores, that is why they still exist and make great profits.

A PC store offering parts for older PCs for free locally:
http://montreal.en.craigslist.ca/zip/4305437123.html

This is quite amazing. Wish other stores and IT Techs would do the same
instead of just recycling stuff away.

This may seem rather ironic but I had to actually give away some of my older laptops and a P3 PC(This has no hard drive and DVD drive doesn't work) for recycling. My apartment was inspected and I was strongly advised to reduce stuff ASAP. So, the older books and the older IT stuff were the first to go.

I still have a P4 server, my P2 and a regular P4 etc., Still using older PCs Happily.

Best Wishes.