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Hardware

101 Uses for an Old Server 48

Posted by michael from the okay,-so-we-didn't-quite-get-to-101 dept.
mirko writes: "Here's a link to some weird projects that consist of recycling old servers. You have the SGI Fridge, but also the VAXbar, the SGI Espresso Machine, the VaxTap2000Pro and the SGI HiFi-Miniset. Now that you recycled the case, you can get inspiration from this project in order to recycle their inside components..." We've linked to some of these before, but a couple of them are new (to me, anyway).
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101 Uses for an Old Server More

101 Uses for an Old Server

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  • Re:Typical Engineers... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Feedback suggests that voice activation is the only way to go.

    Hahaha. I hardly doubt any voice recognition will recognize a drunken "More beer!" (imagine that distorted to heck by drunken-talk) A tiny platform that has a switch that activates when you set a mug on it is simple and easy enough.

  • The expresso machine is a fraud!! (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Did anyone take 5 seconds or so to actually LOOK at the picture of the expresso-sgi-whatever. Doesn't take too much time or ingenuity to put the faceplate of a case in front of something and take a picture of it. If I'm gonna waste my time looking at this crap, at least give me something real...something entertaining...jeez.
  • I have (IIRC) a PS/2 Model 70 386 w/12 M of ram and a 150M HD. Microchannel piece of junk. I did, however, get bored, and run Win95 across an SMB share (HD way too small). I recall it taking about 12 minutes to finish booting.. :) It's not _too_ bad running Win31, though. I gave it away a year ago to replace someone's 8086.
  • I've a luggable ibm PC with the attached keyboard a HUGE 20mb Hard CARD, and orange 8" screen that runs like a champ :)

    And the Gem of my collection, an RP06 removable disk drive WITH MAGNET, made into a bar cabinet :)
    If you don't know what an RP06 is your too young to drink anyways...
  • i've decided to make a Linux based bong. The machine will be liquid cooled. The water coolant will be shared with the bong component. I'm going to hook up heat detectors to tell when the bowlis being sparced err...sparked. I'm going to try to figure out some method of measuring the size of each hit... If anyone has any ideas, resources or whanot, reply.
  • Looking at some of the uses of the converted server units, I almost felt that they looks better than the real thing. For example, the 'rOctane', the SGI HiFi-Miniset, looked better than your average hi-fi unit. These days if I walk into most Hi-Fi shops the stereos like a christmas tree and just as ready to be thrown away. Sometimes the best industrial design is personal inventivness. Now where do I find someone willing to give me an Octane case?
  • Is your friend rich?
    Why else would someone let a working cisco 7000 just sit there? Sell it and buy a new car or something...
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Partition walls?

    If they had a need for one of those massive S/36s, they're likely to have been in a relativley large complex. At which point it's perfectly possible that the limiting factor was a temporary partition wall of some kind which had been built around the machine, and which the landlord was entirely happy to move within his own building but which would have been against the terms of their lease for them to touch.

    Just one possibility...
  • ...I had taken one of the 2 MicroVAXen we junked 4 years ago and turned it into something like this.
    But then they rest in peace, I just hope they don't get piked on by the big VAXen in VAXhaven.

    --Ulrich

  • I have a friend who uses a Cisco 7000 as a coffee table (I'll see if I can have him snag a digital image and repost it later when he's online) and the bitch is, the router is fully functional... another who uses an old Performa with a slot cut for a tunnel attached to an Adam for his hamsters playground, and recently seen a Mac Classic at Tekserve being used as a goldfish tank before.

    <smartass>
    Well at least Dell contributed some of their laptops to be used for firemen training courses [slashdot.org]
    </smartass>

  • My Favorite... (Score:3)

    by Durinia ( 72612 ) on Saturday June 02, 2001 @09:21AM (#182183)
    I definitely need one of These [umich.edu]. Don't even have to make any big mods! Probably could be used to heat the house as well...
      • This has forced users to smack their forehead twice to activate the tap. Feedback suggests that voice activation is the only way to go.

      HAHA - leave it to us techies to design a cool but nearly unusable interface every time...

    Isn't it fitting that the designer will be hitting his forehead every time he tries to use it. Just as if he's saying "Doh! I can't clap and hold my beer mug at the same time! What was I thinking."

    Hey, if they go voice activated, this will have the added advantage of serving as a regulating bartender. You have to be able to speak to get more beer.

  • The first link in the summary gives a
    page not found error.
    <P>
    If you happened to snap a picture of the
    page could you please post somewhere.
  • There's a retired Cray-2 (formerly bob.brl.mil) in the reception area at the Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, now serving as a coffee table.
  • While I worked at my last job (sysadmin for a larger ISP), we had a problem with corperate getting us funding to replace parts/service contracts for our Sun machines. Well, if finally happened that one of our E3500's blew out it's fibrechannel SCSI interface. It sat in my office for 4 months working as an end table until the day I was laid off. The company filed for bankruptsy a month later. I suspect that machine is sitting in that office gathering dust with what papers I left on top of it (I was working on something to do with SSH at the time... I can't remember what. I printed out what docs I could find because I simply like hardcopies better. Easier on the eyes.), as when I was laid off, so were the other 2 admins that managed the location.

  • I would've thought of donating old servers to some non-profit start-up

    As someone who has been struck by the current recession a little more than most, I would think that the expression non-profit startup is a little redundant...

  • I still want to make one of these [home.com] for my kitty. someday...
  • I've heard of people taking out the monitor components of old Apples (IIEs, perhaps) and making a fish tank out of them.

    Anyone have a picture of *your* apple-fish hack?

  • I would recommend having 2 for fault tolerance.
    There's nothing worse than running out of beer!

  • Hey, it could be worse. Those 'executive shelf sets' or whatever they call 'em are pretty annoying -- they all look like Bang & Olufsen or Nakamichi ripoffs, right down to the (usually) vertical CD player and all the blue lights. And most of them you can't even link up into a boom box.

    /Brian
  • Couldn't agree more. I've got a real nice IRC/web server out of an old Sun SparcStation IPC. 25mhz, 32mb of RAM and a 250mb hard drive. Logging in via SSH is a little slow, but for chatting you'd think you were on a high-end Pentium.
    --
  • Check out My Bong Runs Linux [analog2digital.net]
  • After reading the recent /. story about old computers breeding harmful fungus [slashdot.org], I'm not entirely sure I'd want to refrigerate food in any of my spare boxes...
  • Well that's the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw the picture of that poor dead Indigo case with a coffee machine in it.

    --
  • Heh, i just like the two vax stations i have, i use them to heat my home all winter long, and they do a pretty damm good job :) TD

  • Silicon Keg (Score:4)

    by nick_davison ( 217681 ) on Saturday June 02, 2001 @07:51AM (#182198)
    Back before Episode 1 was released and it was still a cool concept, I remember reading an interview with the guys working on the CG for it. Paraphrased, it went something along the lines of...

    "We have this old SGI box that we've converted in to a beer cooler with holes punched through the front for the taps. Whenever the guys from SGI come to visit, to talk about new hardware, we show it to them and explain this is what happens when their machines don't perform."

  • Either that or someone briefly opened up a doorway using a TARDIS-like device, allowing the passage of the S/36 down the stairs.

    Oh, and you owe me $2,065 for recovering your cat. Saving the universe was free.
  • We never found out how it was put in there to begin with

    "Hey look guys, there's a S/36 in the kitchen!" "Cool, let's use it!"

    I'd suggest mouse traps, but I don't think they'd handle S/36s sneaking around in the middle of the night. Do they like peanut butter?
  • I have to ask... How did they get it in the office in the first place? And how did the landlord get it out?

    This sounds like a case for Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency!
  • It barely made me laugh, rather it was more confusing than funny. All the while, I was trying to get right the idea he was talking about.

    I am sure there are people here who've made better use of old servers, and if not, can surely think up of better ideas.

    All you guys get your thinking caps on and give us some deadly ideas which are not so dumb.

  • Kinda reminiscent of that old 101 Uses for AOL Disks people get in the mail.
  • Well, the link given above, at http://home.planet.nl/~mourits/koelkast/ doesn't work anymore (403-forbidden- reckon it got /.'ed so bad they had to slam the door??) but I've converted some scrounged stuff before, for example I have one of those old Hewlett Packard washing machine sized hard drives that I now use as a rolling tool cabinet/workbench out in my shed, and I knew a dude that used one as a bedside table. Stuffing newer computer parts into old cases is a popular case mod, e.g. AMD Thunderbird based hardware in an ancient Zenith case from the mid 80's, but my favorite thing to do is put computers where they weren't before. I'm not talking about embedded RTOS based Internet ready refrigerator with Bondi blue icemaker or other "modernized" crap like that, but rather taking used motherboard + related hardware and "converting" old technology while maintaining a retro look. I once gutted an old Betamax machine, stuffed it with an old Pentium 120 and first-gen ATI All-in-Wonder and put a DVD player where the tape slot was. I even retained all the original video in-outs, etc. But too bad I tore that one apart and ditched the old Betamax "skin", it would've made a bitchin' Tivo case mod. But I still have my first stereo, with a silver front, woodgrain sides, analog ruler-scale tuner, and 8-track player kicking around, and it's more than big enough for an ATX mobo. Hmmm... Retro looking Linux based MP3 player, anyone?
  • Why is it that this post is labeled 'offtopic', yet we all have to see that rascist shit the other guy posted?

  • Macquariums (Score:3)

    by daniel_isaacs ( 249732 ) on Saturday June 02, 2001 @05:27AM (#182206) Homepage

    The obvious example of case-reuse.

    Here be some good examples: The Apple Collection [theapplecollection.com] and Aquarium by Jim [techquarium.com].

  • Don't forget all the mods at www.applefritter.com [applefritter.com]

    "I am a man, and men are
    animals who tell stories."
  • True, running Enlightenment on X and trying process multiple SETI@home work elements.

    Try tacking "will be quite slow" onto the end; it'll make far more sense.... :)
    ________________________________________________

  • Now, I realize it's not quite the same thing, but... I have picked up numerous 486s. No one will take them, it seems -- they're "junk." I've seen tons of them for sale, but I dont' think I've ever seen any being purchased

    Junky or not, I've got a nice firewall, and what may soon become a backup. And another that I'm thinking of setting up as a nameserver. True, running Enlightenment on X and trying process multiple SETI@home work elements. But people seem to be spoiled by excessively fast computers. You don't need a 650 MHz SMP box to do a small amount of file-serving.

    Don't get me wrong; there's no harm in having an underloaded computer if you've got the money; but the general opinion seems to be "This computer is five years old! Let's tear it to shreds!"
    ________________________________________________

  • I found this picture a long time ago and found it humorous. I saved it to my hard drive and largely forgot about it until now. I've posted it on my website http://www.sellingmysoul.com [sellingmysoul.com]. I apologise for the crappy layout, but I just modified the site in a hurry. If you want to avoid the html all together, the standalone image is at http://expert.cc.purdue.edu/~budzinsk/macq.jpg [purdue.edu]. I take no credit for making this MacQuarium. I just found the image a long time ago. Enjoy.

    ~Mike

    ~Mike
  • I would've thought of donating old servers to some non-profit start-up or something along those lines.

    But to store beer? Too much time on people's hands...
  • Even a brain dead monkey can make a way to speed up their webserver with the addition of extra machines.
  • I've been thinking for a while about quietening down my computer(s) while watching DVDs. My solution is to put it inside an old fridge. (No venitilation problems if it still works.) I'm still looking for an appropriate fridge (I think one of those ones they put coke in in shops with a glass front would be good.)

  • Typical Engineers... (Score:5)

    by WM_NCDESTROY ( 451999 ) on Saturday June 02, 2001 @06:31AM (#182214)
    From the VAXTAP2000 page:
    We have a prototype working now that uses the Clapper for activation. However, early beta tests have exposed a problem: The user has but one free hand for activation since one hand is already holding the mug under the tap. This has forced users to smack their forehead twice to activate the tap. Feedback suggests that voice activation is the only way to go.
    HAHA - leave it to us techies to design a cool but nearly unusable interface every time...
    -
  • My first job in 1988 involved work on an IBM System/36 -- a large, freezer-sized unit. When the AS/400 came out, the company no longer needed the box and we wanted to ditch it, but it was too big to get out of the office via doors or windows. The landlord offered to take it off our hands, so we said "fine". When visiting his house a few weeks later, we discovered that he'd ripped out all of the internals and tipped it on its side, and where the console used to be had put a trapdoor. He'd filled it full of coal for his furnace!
  • Shinier, smaller, and faster. Rather than ripping out its brain, put in a shiny new Espresso PC [ibuypower.com] and run a eVAX emulator [sourceforge.net] on it. That way, not only can the machine serve cold drinks, it can go on serving its original function.
  • I see a great future for a new TV program in the spirit of Junkyard Wars [discovery.com]. The contestants are given ten hours to scrounge parts from a heap of trashed servers to construct useful items. In the first episode, the teams must build a set of rock-and-roll instruments from a room full of PDP-11s. Hosted by Steve Wozniak and Heidi Wall.
  • well, for server tasks a little spare resources are nice ... but as far as clients are concerned: have a look at The linux terminal server project [ltsp.org]. NIC, boot-rom, some paint and you have a nice terminal. cu grissu
  • This site [macaquarium.com] has been selling Mac aquariums for a quite a while now. And they buy used Mac cases

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