A Different Way To Recycle Old PCs 213
Anonymous Coward writes "Glasgow based artist Sandy Smith has some slightly different suggestions for what to do with those outdated PCs and Apple Macs -- build your home out of them! Photographs of his work; rooms and structures made out of up to 100 (switched-on) computers and other equipment can be seen at computersforart.org/create/;
these should be of interest to anyone who has a habit of collecting old (working)
computers, or just hates the thought of throwing out their old 486 friend."
Hmm. (Score:5, Funny)
I'll have to ask my mom if I can build a house in her basement.
Aw, she says I have to bathe first.
BTW, Coral cache mirror [nyud.net], MirrorDot mirror [mirrordot.org]
Re:Hmm. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Hmm. (Score:2)
You must be new here.
Re:Hmm. (Score:2)
Junk (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Junk (Score:1, Funny)
What is your electic bill like these days?
Electricity bill? (Score:2)
Re:Electricity bill? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Junk (Score:2)
You wouldn't need a heater... (Score:4, Funny)
That would be quite an electric bill, though.
Re:You wouldn't need a heater... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:You wouldn't need a heater... (Score:1)
But I just remembered that large parts of the world isn't quite as cold as Norway,
Re:You wouldn't need a heater... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:You wouldn't need a heater... (Score:2)
Re:You wouldn't need a heater... (Score:4, Informative)
How much electricity does it take to make a new computer to replace them?
Not to mention that when I switched from a new 1.7 GHz PC to a 400 MHz half-decade-old Mac my room became much cooler in the summer. Older computers may well use less electricity than newer ones.
Re:You wouldn't need a heater... (Score:2)
He appeared to be giving out about those who run old computers for the sake of keeping up geek appearances. Certainly, if an old machine does the job, use it, so long as the job isn't adding to the matrix screensavers around your desk.
Re:You wouldn't need a heater... (Score:2)
Those tend to be "run" in the sense of "yes, that one still boots up, let me show you...".
If someone's keeping a computer on just to display a Matrix screensaver and leaves it running much of the time, that's a different kettle of CO2 emissions.
Re:You wouldn't need a heater... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:You wouldn't need a heater... (Score:2)
Re:Hair Dryers, Las Vegas, Airconditioning (Score:2)
Re:Save the fukcn world, turn off your computer! (Score:2)
I'm surprised they let you out of school, hippy. Your leaps in logic astound.
Re:You wouldn't need a heater... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:You wouldn't need a heater... (Score:2)
When that thing catches fire, my irony meter will go through the roof:
A wall of firewalls, on fire. Something named after a method of fire prevention, on fire. Someone call the Brits, only they can handle this one...
had to say it (Score:1, Funny)
Re:had to say it (Score:2, Funny)
Yeah, I can just feeeeel the awsome computing power equivalent to three gameboys and a HP48 pocket calculator.
Looks like my garage .. (Score:4, Funny)
But seriously - what to people consider art ? This looks like someone who just piles computers up and plugs them in. Kind of like kindergarten but with stuff only adults can lift.
What defines art? No, it's 'WHO' defines art (Score:5, Insightful)
http://www.google.nl/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q
That's a lot of definitions. Art is art when 'articians' say it is so.
Authoritarial justification.
Even extreme things, like burning crosses or crossdressed foetusses can be considered art. And before modding me down for this: I do not agree with the examples I just gave.
Re:What defines art? No, it's 'WHO' defines art (Score:5, Insightful)
Art is "art" to an observer whenever they think something has the qualities of art.
Errm, in other words:
Anything at all is art (to the observer) when the observer thinks it is because of a (artistic) quality or meaning percieved...
If I find a 5 1/4 inch floppy disk artful, then it is to me because I think it is.
It is arrogant (and unfortunatly common) though to force a perception of art upon others.... that's what pisses people off about the "what defines art" question.
Re:What defines art? No, it's 'WHO' defines art (Score:1)
Re:What defines art? No, it's 'WHO' defines art (Score:2)
Re:What defines art? No, it's 'WHO' defines art (Score:1)
For example, my definition for bad art may for example, be a picasso, but there are millions who would disagree.
Another one: Computers are difficult to use.
You and I may disagree with that, but there are plenty of people who would agree.
Subjectivity is what makes us all percieve the world differently and have our own beliefs about things.
Re:What defines art? No, it's 'WHO' defines art (Score:3, Interesting)
I think what constitutes Art is something that conveys emotions or a new perception to the observer / listener / participant.
A lot of "modern" art may mean something profound to the creator (they claim) but it singularly fails to convey anything to the observer - at least not without reading a two page explanation of the work, at which point an intellectual understanding of the meaning may be grasped, but nothing that really stirs the emotions or the mind.
Of course, my definition could conceivably ru
Re:What defines art? No, it's 'WHO' defines art (Score:2)
You are confusing art with illustration, its a very common mistake.
And you're not listening to what the other person has said, which is an even more common one.
Seriously though, I offered up a definition of Art that you have just said, "no it's not, use the word illustration instead." I'm afraid I'm sticking with Art.
I believe that Art must convey meaning and I'd very much disagree with your statement that most artists don't have a clue what their art means. Your statement has an in-built assu
Re:What defines art? No, it's 'WHO' defines art (Score:2)
The category of art expands, and doesn't mean anything any more. We've become so clever, so sensitive, that we don't need works of art to represent beauty to remind us how to look and how to feel. Some days, everything is tuned really well, and everything you see is sharp, and it's like living in a work of art. And that's what I'm going for, to sharpen my senses to the point where I don't need to make more stuff. I don't know what communication will have to do with i
Re:What defines art? No, it's 'WHO' defines art (Score:2, Interesting)
I think you are very close to dead on here: art is essentially something that someone calls art. But there is one thing that is being left out. In order to be art there has to be human intervention at some point. Art must be (to at least some extent) man made. Even in the case of those damn painting cats (too lazy to find a link), someone at least had to dip the cat in paint and throw it on a canvas.
Ultimately the difficulty is not qualifying somethin
Re: I define art. (Score:2)
Art is not MERELY whatever you want it to be. Art is propaganda. It is the conveyance of an idea, in the hopes that it will instill others with a change in their own value system.
Your floppy disk is irrelevant in the grand scheme of human existence. It is a tool, not art. No creature alive will be moved by its existence or lack thereof.
What you call arro
Re:Looks like my garage .. (Score:4, Insightful)
I would look at some of those pictures and start thinking "I have one of those computers..and one of those..that one too.."
Re:Looks like my garage .. (Score:3, Insightful)
art, humour, ... what about the creative process (Score:2)
If one creates something and thinks it's art, then it is art. There is an intent involved.
Of course, you could argue that the creation of an image on your retina with a given intent was thus the creation of an artistic work
Other things just happen to be nice to look at or funny. I don't call this art / humour.
When laid off, build your shelter out of your pc. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:When laid off, build your shelter out of your p (Score:3, Funny)
KFG
Remember (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Remember (Score:2, Funny)
Lain (Score:5, Interesting)
Queer eye for the... (Score:5, Funny)
http://www.computersforart.org/create/blue/big/sa
Re:Queer eye for the... (Score:1, Funny)
call your own cell phone to find it (Score:3, Informative)
while true; do printf "\a"; sleep 1s; done
Re:Queer eye for the... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Queer eye for the... (Score:2)
Sorry, the vic20 is not rated for heavy loads.
Pretty? Scary? Sad? (Score:5, Insightful)
Pictures [computersforart.org] like [computersforart.org] these [computersforart.org] remind me of how eery a society we live in. It's actually kind of depressing or even scary.
(In an I'm-in-front-of-my-computer-at-4:45AM kind of way)
Re:Pretty? Scary? Sad? (Score:5, Funny)
It's okay. Those things in the picture are called "girls". What you're feeling is natural.
In any case, you're posting on Slashdot at (apparently) 4:45 your time, so they're nothing you'll ever have to worry about.
Re:Pretty? Scary? Sad? (Score:5, Funny)
Pfft. Dude, I think I know what girls look like. I do see my mother every once in a while so she can cut my hair.
The beowulf cluster... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:The beowulf cluster... (Score:1)
And rain, if you're feeling adventurous.
If you need help... (Score:1)
Re:If you need help... (Score:1)
Coral Cache of site (Score:1)
Great Concept. (Score:2, Insightful)
Amateur Execution.
Re: Great Concept. (Score:1)
Which is exactly what you get when a stack of old CRTs falls on you.
Computer Box furniture (Score:1)
Re:Computer Box furniture (Score:1)
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,49473
Re:Computer Box furniture (Score:2)
I had an old base unit - desktop style - with most of its guts ripped out and installed in other working machines - which now has a piece of perfectly shaped wood on top and acts as a bedside cabinet.
I also have a sliding cup holder which came as standard in my new PC. In my first PC I had to fit one of those myself but was rather relieved to see they came included with new PCs these days...
Untitled (The Sky is Blue) (Score:2)
His bathroom. . . . (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:His bathroom. . . . (Score:1)
Looks familiar (Score:1)
Hey, I'm an artist! Who knew?
Re: (Score:2)
Re:This is not art (Score:1)
Are they not allowed to?
Eg, Some 60's memoribilia is now considered art that wasn't thought of as being at the time - but not by everyone, just those who consider it to be art.
Anything can be art if you believe it is.
Oh hell no (Score:4, Funny)
So, if I call it "art" I can claim my pad is an art gallery, eh?
Re:Oh hell no (Score:4, Funny)
and the insane fan noise scares away the women
It's probably your cats and not women who are scared by the "insane fan noise." You can't fool your neighbors into thinking you have women over just because you keep saying "Here, pussy, pussy."
100 per structure... (Score:3, Funny)
400 kilowatt power usage, and emission. The "emission" part would be good if you live in Alaska or Antarctic, or so. The "usage" part would be acceptable if you're a millionaire or own a power plant. I've also seen many CRT monitors. a LOT of them, and old ones, when emission wasn't taken into account so much...
Run SETI@Home on it all, and expect the aliens will visit you really soon. Your house will be shining like a radio-beacon in the space.
Wooha, tumour time... (Score:2, Insightful)
Seriously... that much screen radiation, buzzing, hot air and electrical interferance just cant be good for... well, anything or anyone.
Re:Wooha, tumour time... (Score:1)
Re:Wooha, tumour time... (Score:2)
Ummm...I really gotta ask.
The Arch (Score:3, Interesting)
castle (Score:2)
Speaking which, I have a surplus auction to budget for and some warehouse space to rent...
you know you have been a nerd too long when... (Score:1)
I prefer to do this with old computers (Score:1)
Re:I prefer to do this with old computers (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Is this really recycling? (Score:3, Insightful)
I note the lack of LCD flat screens in these projects - bet it wont be that way in five years time...
Waste of Power & Idea (Score:2, Insightful)
Is it what we call... (Score:2)
Anyway, that's obvious now artists don't know how to use computers.
Imagine... (Score:4, Funny)
A scary enhancement of the art (Score:1)
Re:A scary enhancement of the art (Score:2)
Since most are Macs it's not likely... the "unhappy mac" is much more soothing.
Junk... (Score:4, Insightful)
It's the whole 'dimly lit round basement space' that gets me... I walked past this when it was built a few weeks ago, as I live 2 blocks from the Art School, and not only was it in the floorspace of an empty shop, but it was looking out onto a busy main road. To be perfectly honest, it looked like someone was bored and had arranged a pile of junk computers in a circle. Completely uninspiring and boring. I even told my girlfriend about the 'pile of crap in the shop' and that she shouldn't worry as I won't be asking for any of it. I'm sorry, but I can't see how this passes for 'art'...
And furthermore... (Score:2)
Re:Junk... (Score:2)
Recycled Radiation Shield? (Score:1)
X-Ray Test Rig for Harmful Radiation (Score:2, Interesting)
Two words (Score:4, Interesting)
Hazard.
Stephen King (Score:2)
Some of those photos look like the image I got of the passages down below the City of Lud...when Jake got kidnapped by the Tick-Tock man.... King describes the place as being lined very high with old computers and monitors....
A couple of those shots also kinda' remind me of Doom..... really dark rooms with lit up Tech-walls. But that's just me.
wbs.
a waste? (Score:2)
Re:I hate to say this... (Score:1)
Re:I hate to say this... (Score:2)
Re:Crashing house? (Score:2)
Re:Bad idea. (Score:2)
Re:I have one of those! (Score:2)
Re:Any Custom Programming? (Score:4, Interesting)
I have some old DOS "slideshow" programs.
I load up an old hard drive with DOS, the slideshow program, and a diskful of .jpg's and let it fly.
These go in minimal security places, like shopping malls. Ok, if someone gets malicious and vandalizes or steals the whole shebang, its not really any worse than if the trashman did it.
I mean, what he got was an old '286 with a 40MB 5.25" MFM HD and an old VGA monitor. Good enough to show photos of what's in the food court.
I just arrange things so that the still operational machines continue to work as designed until the bitter end.
I still have a couple of crates of old 40MB 5.25" MFM HD's and a couple dozen controllers still laying around I am slowly getting rid of this way.
I may get into designing a driver board for those large incandescent bulb-matrix displays one sees in front of many businesses, as I constantly see them not working proprely... it kinda pains me to see so much expensive hardware out there that does not function properly because the latest state-of-the-art computer systems don't run all that long before hanging up on something or other.
Its not at all like those old days I went through when I would get an embedded system going and expect it to go for years without any deviation at all. Much as one would design a motor and expect the same. There's nothing magic about sequencing the bulbs on a sign so they spell text, just as there is nothing magic about designing rotating magnetic fields in a motor so the shaft turns. We don't have to constantly maintain our fans either, unless they made them with badly designed bearings.
I still enjoy the breeze from 20 year old fans.
Why is it that the output of older computers is so neglected? Its paid for, and will continue to work for you as long as you give it some power.