Thing #161: Computer Monitor Manual

Not sure what became of the monitor itself; it was a behemoth and probably lives at my parents' house or something, because I haven't seen it in years. So then why do I still have the manual and some kind of accessory disc (with screen saver!), still in the shrink wrap?

It's a mystery, but can we all just take a moment to appreciate that decent computer monitors no longer weigh 50+ pounds?

Thing #158: Keyboard Wrist Rest

Wrist rest. Wrist rest wrist rest wrist rest. Rist wrest?

I was mildly surprised to find that www.compusa.com (as shown on this wrist rest) is still a real website.

Looks like I got there just in time, because in 15 days they're merging with TigerDirect.com.

Thing #154: USB Extension Cable

Found this in a pile, never used. I don't remember what it came with, but I've never needed to extend a USB cable and this is probably USB 1.0 anyway.

Dumped in the "Wires, Cords & Cables" recycle bin at a Best Buy.

Thing #106: GamePad Pro

Now that I'm all done playing Madden, I don't particularly need this.

Best Buy has a bin to recycle old game controllers, so I dropped it there.

Thing #102: Madden 2001-2004

Alternatively: Me, The College Years.

These were the PC versions, so before chucking the discs (and manuals), I tried to play them on my new (2011) PC.

Madden 2001
I was able to get the game to launch in Compatibility Mode for Windows 2000. The menus worked well enough, but the in-game rendering was entirely messed up. Players wouldn't show up at all, or everything would display in a weird pink/green/orange palette. Psychedelic, but utterly unplayable. Fail.

Madden 2002
Uniforms rendered without numbers on them, but the game was fairly playable this time. I managed to start an exhibition game against the Browns, and right after the first play -- a gain of one yard -- virtual John Madden declared: "Tim Couch is a very accurate quarterback." Certainly that's a bug. Fail.

Madden 2003
This actually worked: no graphics glitches. I played a bit of an exhibition game, then simulated the first season of a franchise. I was having fun! Then I tried to save and the game reported my available disk space as "-1 MB" and refused. I guess terabytes were out of the question in 2003. Still, I could have installed this on a smaller hard drive partition and it would have worked. Pass.

Madden 2004
This edition wanted me to updated my Macromedia Flash player, which was funny. The rendering of the uniform numbers was broken again, and suddenly franchise mode was overly complicated and annoying. After one season (which let me save this time), a mediocre offensive guard held out for a new contract. Basically, 2004 requires you to manage a bunch of small details that make it more realistic, but also less fun (in my subjective opinion). Anyway, graphics glitches. Fail.

The verdict is: old PC games might sort of work on Windows 7 and modern hardware, if you're lucky.

Thing #101: Floppy Drive

One of the many items I yanked out of my old PC. I definitely did not get a floppy drive for the new one, so this is effectively one fewer thing I own. I found one single floppy disk to test it with, but I couldn't get it to read the disk. So, I'm not sure this even works. (I'll get rid of the floppy disk separately, once I figure out what's actually on there.)

Anyway, I'm really using this as a surrogate post for downsizing my total PC components. In all, I recycled:

• power supply


• motherboard/cpu/heatsink


• DVD drive


• CD-RW drive


• floppy drive


• 40GB hard disk


• 30GB hard disk


• miscellaneous IDE cables

(I already gave away the two RAM chips, to upgrade the total memory on Sarah's desktop PC. And I'm keeping the old case, for now.)

The new PC has a single DVD-RW drive, a single hard drive, and no separate graphics card; I've reduced the total components by four (including the floppy drive). It may not seem meaningful since they all lived inside the computer case, anyway, but since I kept boxes, manuals, etc., it does make a significant difference. (Those were recycled, too.)

To get rid of all this stuff, I checked around for various tech recycling options. What I ended up doing was going through Office Depot's Tech Recycling Services: you buy a specific cardboard box, fill it up, then bring it back and they ship all your stuff off to a facility that does clean recycling. (The link above takes you directly to the info about the program, including a video demonstrating what happens to the e-waste.)

I picked Office Depot because there's one about a mile from my apartment and I don't have a car. My stuff all fit in the "small" box, which cost $5. Best Buy would have taken this for free, but it would have been $4.50 in bus fare to get there, so I just picked the closer option.

Thing #100: Internal Computer Cables

As I mentioned yesterday, I've been disassembling an old PC, which I already replaced in 2011. I had all these extra cables lying around in a box (not in use); most of them came with the motherboard, the rest with other drives I'd installed.

It was unlikely I would ever need these, but since I was still using the motherboard, I figured I might as well hold onto them. Well, I definitely don't need them now, so I put them in a box of tech waste to recycle. I'll explain that in the next post.

(I'm counting these toward the total since the new PC I upgraded to has basically no extra cables; the total inventory was significantly reduced.)

Thing #97: 256MB RAM

I found this chip in a box with some old computer junk in it. I'm in the process of disassembling an old PC, so I tried firing that up with just this little guy in there. It works! But not very well.

I sent it back to Kingston using their Take Back program. Just put it right in an envelope and mailed it away to live on a nice server farm out in the country.

Thing #93: Tax Preparation Software

For tax year 2006! I think I'm in the clear on that, so when I found this in a box of computer junk, it was an easy call to get rid of it.

I remember trying the H & R Block version that year, probably because it was on sale. It was okay, but I switched back to Turbo Tax the following year and have stuck with that ever since. Their online version is really great, and it's totally free if you have a fairly simple tax return. I highly recommend it!

Thing #12: Computer Keyboard

I've had this for awhile, as a backup I guess. When I was building a computer out of parts (back in the college days), I picked this up for about five bucks online. It worked pretty well, actually. I did a lot of typing in college.

I switched to an ergonomic keyboard several years ago, and I'm pretty sure I don't actually need a backup keyboard, so this went in a paper bag full of things that I donated to the Salvation Army.