Creative Recycling: Dumpster Diving 137
gnewton writes "One angle of Open Source software that perhaps has not been emphasised enough is how the lower cost of software and operating systems as compared to proprietary/commercial solutions can allow for greater creativity and actually open up markets and solutions that were previously unavailable, in the area of Recycling. This article talks about a new startup which recycles old LCDs into cool and fun digital picture frames."
Okay (Score:4, Insightful)
Recycling into something useful (Score:5, Insightful)
My company used to have an annual old equipment sale for employees. It was so popular, you actually had a lottery drawing for line position -- like a rock concert. But when we got bought by the Faceless International Corporation Ltd, that was just one of the personal touches we lost.
Hard to beat a $70 laptop... even if it does have a dark spot on the screen [retrobox.com]!
Re:Dumpster Diving SCO (Score:1, Insightful)
What, you don't STILL believe they're a software company, do you?
Need more information (Score:3, Insightful)
I remember seeing an short story on Discovery Channel about some place in Asia that is the dumping ground for all of the worlds digital equipment. It was quite scary seeing young kids waddling around in lord knows WHAT chemicals trying to get to the gold in monitors.
A company could make a killing recycling computers. But into what?
READ before you blow $ on an old lcd screen (Score:4, Insightful)
You can't simply connect VGA or NTSC signal to an LCD panel. Click on the link above to read why and whether it's worth the effort.
IMHO, Wallflower could have done the same with a small business loan. (and avoided wasting time buying junk from ebay, taking apart laptops,etc)
LCDs can be bought from China for very little $, if you place a large order. (Thus the SBL)
http://www.china-tft.com
Re:No, but have fun trying :) (Score:3, Insightful)
Once you get down to it, though, all these people basically did is rip the components out of a laptop, discard the laptop case, and shove everything inside a picture frame, copy Linux and a webserver, and call it a digital picture frame.