Is it wrong that I just spent an unhealthy amount of time inventorying
all my computer electronics? Complete with a spreadsheet to indicate
where I've stashed everything?

But after taking apart the closet for the umpteenth time looking for
that ONE spare video card I /knew/ was in there somewhere* I got fed
up, and started sorting. All the USB cables in one bag, all those
stupid power bricks in another (neatly organized by type, natch). Same
with the expansion cards and hard-drives and everything else I could
find. And then stacked nicely into those storage cubes that seem to be
all the rage.

And - of course - everything listed on a spreadsheet so I can -
hopefully - find it again in the future.**

Turns out I have more - and less - than I expected. I thought I had
more external hard-drives, and had no idea I'd amassed as many CPUs as
I found. I did a bit of housecleaning too (did I really need SIX modem
cards? I hope not, since I don't have that many any more). All well
and good.

But maybe the spreadsheet thing was a bit much?

* it wasn't. It was in an entirely different location
** good luck, future me! But I don't hold out much hope for your
chances.

Nope. Can you please show us? ;)

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
> Is it wrong that I just spent an unhealthy amount of time inventorying
> all my computer electronics? Complete with a spreadsheet to indicate
> where I've stashed everything?

> But after taking apart the closet for the umpteenth time looking for
> that ONE spare video card I /knew/ was in there somewhere* I got fed
> up, and started sorting. All the USB cables in one bag, all those
> stupid power bricks in another (neatly organized by type, natch). Same
> with the expansion cards and hard-drives and everything else I could
> find. And then stacked nicely into those storage cubes that seem to be
> all the rage.

> And - of course - everything listed on a spreadsheet so I can -
> hopefully - find it again in the future.**

> Turns out I have more - and less - than I expected. I thought I had
> more external hard-drives, and had no idea I'd amassed as many CPUs as
> I found. I did a bit of housecleaning too (did I really need SIX modem
> cards? I hope not, since I don't have that many any more). All well
> and good.

> But maybe the spreadsheet thing was a bit much?

> * it wasn't. It was in an entirely different location
> ** good luck, future me! But I don't hold out much hope for your
> chances.

--
"Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed." --Isaiah 1:17. Slammy new week so far 2 make this old ant hibernate >8h after passing out ~10 PM PST. Should this ant B USA's future President?
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>Nope. Can you please show us? ;)

Would be cool to see!
For me, for old shelved hardware I'm down to:
Radeon Fury X
Radeon Vega 64 LC
Crosshair VI Hero & Ryzen 1800X
27" 1440p monitor

I intend to ebay the Vega 64 at the least, and possibly the motherboard &
Fury X (the AIO cooler has lost much of its fluid through evaporation, so
might have to go as parts) as well.

rms

Is it wrong that I keep a history of my stuff? http://zimage.com/~ant/antfarm/about/toys.html

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
> Is it wrong that I just spent an unhealthy amount of time inventorying
> all my computer electronics? Complete with a spreadsheet to indicate
> where I've stashed everything?

> But after taking apart the closet for the umpteenth time looking for
> that ONE spare video card I /knew/ was in there somewhere* I got fed
> up, and started sorting. All the USB cables in one bag, all those
> stupid power bricks in another (neatly organized by type, natch). Same
> with the expansion cards and hard-drives and everything else I could
> find. And then stacked nicely into those storage cubes that seem to be
> all the rage.

> And - of course - everything listed on a spreadsheet so I can -
> hopefully - find it again in the future.**

> Turns out I have more - and less - than I expected. I thought I had
> more external hard-drives, and had no idea I'd amassed as many CPUs as
> I found. I did a bit of housecleaning too (did I really need SIX modem
> cards? I hope not, since I don't have that many any more). All well
> and good.

> But maybe the spreadsheet thing was a bit much?

> * it wasn't. It was in an entirely different location
> ** good luck, future me! But I don't hold out much hope for your
> chances.

--
"Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed." --Isaiah 1:17. Slammy new week so far 2 make this old ant hibernate >8h after passing out ~10 PM PST. Should this ant B USA's future President?
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/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
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( )

On 2/20/2023 2:11 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> Is it wrong that I just spent an unhealthy amount of time inventorying
> all my computer electronics? Complete with a spreadsheet to indicate
> where I've stashed everything?
>
I think it is perfectly appropriate and highly recommended if you are
running a used electronics components store, though perhaps it might be
better to supplement it with a bar code or RFID tag system.

Since you seem to be running such an enterprise given some of your prior
posts. :D

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

>Is it wrong that I keep a history of my stuff?
>http://zimage.com/~ant/antfarm/about/toys.html
Wow! Great list!

rms

rms <rsquiresMOO@mooflashmoo.net> wrote:
> >Is it wrong that I keep a history of my stuff?
> >http://zimage.com/~ant/antfarm/about/toys.html
> Wow! Great list!

:D Yep. I can't remember all the details so I log them! ;) Am I the only
one doing this? ;)
--
"We give thanks to you, O God, we give thanks, for your Name is near; men tell of your wonderful deeds." --Psalm 75:1. Slammy new week so far wo napping. >10:33p->4:33a 4 Z with missing hearing aid behind bread. Incoming 3" rain storm on Th. :(
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On Tue, 21 Feb 2023 03:30:09 +0000, ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) wrote:

>Is it wrong that I keep a history of my stuff? http://zimage.com/~ant/antfarm/about/toys.html
>

My version isn't quite as detailed but I do the same with my PCs,
noting the components of my PCs and any repairs/replacements I do to
them. This is, of course, a seperate list from the inventory I just
created.

Also, my 'history' only goes back ten years. Well, I've records of
older computers, but not their updates or hardware specs. Largely
because I only started the list about ten years ago and most of the
older computers on that list I had to add from memory.

Still, it's sort of fun looking back at the old hardware and seeing
what I once considered 'top-end'. Sadly, many (but not all ;-) of
those older PCs have moved on - either sold, dismantled for parts, or
sent to e-waste. I suppose it's for the best - do I really have need
of thirty-year old PC? - but I know that, had I the space, I'd
probably have kept them. Hurrah for small homes?

Still, impressive list, Ant.

On 20/02/2023 22:11, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> [snipped]
>
> But maybe the spreadsheet thing was a bit much?

No. Would you like a job? We could do with that kind of care where I
work ...

Cheers

Geoff

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 21 Feb 2023 03:30:09 +0000, ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) wrote:

> >Is it wrong that I keep a history of my stuff? http://zimage.com/~ant/antfarm/about/toys.html
> >

> My version isn't quite as detailed but I do the same with my PCs,
> noting the components of my PCs and any repairs/replacements I do to
> them. This is, of course, a seperate list from the inventory I just
> created.

> Also, my 'history' only goes back ten years. Well, I've records of
> older computers, but not their updates or hardware specs. Largely
> because I only started the list about ten years ago and most of the
> older computers on that list I had to add from memory.

> Still, it's sort of fun looking back at the old hardware and seeing
> what I once considered 'top-end'. Sadly, many (but not all ;-) of
> those older PCs have moved on - either sold, dismantled for parts, or
> sent to e-waste. I suppose it's for the best - do I really have need
> of thirty-year old PC? - but I know that, had I the space, I'd
> probably have kept them. Hurrah for small homes?

> Still, impressive list, Ant.

Please share your list. :)
--
"We give thanks to you, O God, we give thanks, for your Name is near; men tell of your wonderful deeds." --Psalm 75:1. New week started slammy & wo naps. Overnite's >10:33p->4:33a Z with da hearing aid behind behind bread this mawny. Incoming 4" rain storm on Th. :(
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( )

ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) writes:

> Is it wrong that I keep a history of my stuff? http://zimage.com/~ant/antfarm/about/toys.html

I wish I had kept track of my computers and their configurations but
lots of it is lost to time. I remember my first PC was a crappy Hyundai
386. Learned to buy clone components after that :)

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

> Is it wrong that I just spent an unhealthy amount of time inventorying
> all my computer electronics? Complete with a spreadsheet to indicate
> where I've stashed everything?

Isn't the usual definition for time consuming hobbies something along
the lines of "if it doesn't harm your important relationships then it's
fine"?

I sometimes think I should inventory my retro computer stuff but I so
rarely bother with the actual hardware these days. So I should inventory
and maybe keep the dearest bits only.

I try to get rid of stuff I don't use sometimes and sometimes manage to
(or get around to) label my power bricks and try to avoid needing them
in the first place. So preferably AC in or power over
ethernet. Unfortunately PoE hasn't really taken off in consumer devices,
at least not the kind I like. I actually once had this setup where I
powered three 12V newtworking boxes from one beefier PSU. Worked fine
but a little labor intensive if/when you have to replace one of the
boxes.

One problem with my closet is, although I recently shipped a 20 kilo box
of old laptops, hard drives and phones to safe data destruction and
recycling, my closet is still nearly as full as before. Those weren't
things taking up much space, they were just the things that were easy to
get rid of. Hard drives especially, I kinda thought I'd wipe them myself
one of these days but come on, I don't have a SCSI card or a PATA card
(or IDE if you insist) any more. Let alone the cables. Or actually I had
a SCSI card until recently but for a classic PCI slot which I haven't
had in quite a while.

Cables though, I've tried to put different cables in different boxes but
it seems I end up with boxes of cables that are useless and the cables
that are actually in use are always too few or wrong length or (recently
with USB) wrong power rating. And of course, cables in use wear out and
break and get lost.

Then there's the special cables I haven't needed in years. I recently
found my old HP48 calculators in good working order but I didn't find
the serial cable to put my old software setups on them any more. And the
cable is a little proprietary. Oh well, I can get the connector needed
with leads attached and someone has published 3D-printable a plug that
goes around the connector and fits snugly in the calculators. So, sooner
or later I'll have the cable going again. Just need another wood tuit.

Then there was my vinyl digitizing setup. My old Powerbook worked, my
old external sound card with phono input worked but I didn't have any
firewire cable any more to connect the two. At least those are easily
found still.

> I did a bit of housecleaning too (did I really need SIX modem
> cards? I hope not, since I don't have that many any more). All well
> and good.

Uh, you kept five modem cards only?-> I think I kept an external modem
for quite some time since it had a leased line mode and I thought I
might use it for networking a shed or something like that. Would've
needed a second modem though. And a shed.

On Wed, 22 Feb 2023 15:07:00 +0200, Anssi Saari <as@sci.fi> wrote:
>Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

>One problem with my closet is, although I recently shipped a 20 kilo box
>of old laptops, hard drives and phones to safe data destruction and
>recycling, my closet is still nearly as full as before. Those weren't
>things taking up much space, they were just the things that were easy to
>get rid of. Hard drives especially, I kinda thought I'd wipe them myself
>one of these days but come on, I don't have a SCSI card or a PATA card
>(or IDE if you insist) any more. Let alone the cables. Or actually I had
>a SCSI card until recently but for a classic PCI slot which I haven't
>had in quite a while.
>

Isn't that the case? While the immediate cause of my recent bout of
inventoritis was my thrilling adventure called "The Search For The
Nvidia 6600GT", the bigger reason was that the closet-o-stuff was just
too crammed of stuff. This became especially noticable after I shoved
in all those extra components I scavenged from that file-server I
found

(because I absolutely NEEDED to keep those 148GB SCSI RAID drives! ;-)

But even after I sorted everything - and even managed to toss a few
items (goodbye D-Link 4-port USB 1.1 hub!) the closet doesn't seem to
have anymore room. Yet I'm hesitant to throw out more. You never know
when you'll need an ISA 10mb network card, after all. ;-P

I have managed to wipe all my drives, though. I have a spare PC with
two hot-swappable drive-bays that lets me plug-n-wipe them without
much effort. I just shove them in, launch boot-n-nuke, and let it do
its thing (PATA drives are a bit more time-consuming, I have to pull
out a USB-to-PATA adapter for that. Fortunately, with the aid of a
spreadsheet now I know EXACTLY where it is. Or at least, where it
SHOULD be ;-)

>Cables though, I've tried to put different cables in different boxes but
>it seems I end up with boxes of cables that are useless and the cables
>that are actually in use are always too few or wrong length or (recently
>with USB) wrong power rating. And of course, cables in use wear out and
>break and get lost.

>Then there's the special cables I haven't needed in years. I recently
>found my old HP48 calculators in good working order but I didn't find
>the serial cable to put my old software setups on them any more. And the
>cable is a little proprietary. Oh well, I can get the connector needed
>with leads attached and someone has published 3D-printable a plug that
>goes around the connector and fits snugly in the calculators. So, sooner
>or later I'll have the cable going again. Just need another wood tuit.

Ach, those cables! Those got short shrift on my inventorying. Mostly,
they were just sorted (IEC power cables in one bag, hard-drive cables,
in another, etc.) and then all shoved uncerimoniously into 'the cable
crate'. I have no idea how many USB-miniB cables I own, and have no
intention of counting, so long as they're all in one place ;-)

But it's the innumerable power-bricks that are my real bane. They're
too big, too tangly and too numerous for me to store with their
associated devices, but keeping them seperate means that inevitably
there will be a mismatch between the two piles. Why can't we just move
our power grid to direct current and skip these power-sucking
vampire-bricks? The elephants will be fine, I'm sure.*

>> I did a bit of housecleaning too (did I really need SIX modem
>> cards? I hope not, since I don't have that many any more). All well
>> and good.

>Uh, you kept five modem cards only?-> I think I kept an external modem
>for quite some time since it had a leased line mode and I thought I
>might use it for networking a shed or something like that. Would've
>needed a second modem though. And a shed.

Well... one internal modem card and an external DSL modem, if that
makes things any better. And I'm pretty sure some of my older PCs
still have modem-cards in 'em too.

As for the shed, I have more than enough networking gear that I don't
have to worry about that. I'm particularly keen on those little blue
Netgear switches, apparently, since I've a bunch of 'em.

Anyway, it's not hoarding!!!!!!!

* If you get that reference, you've got too much trivia stashed in
your brain.

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
>But maybe the spreadsheet thing was a bit much?

You seem to be ignoring the elephant in the room. The problem isn't
that you need a spreadsheet to track all your stuff, it's that you have
so much stuff that you need a spreadsheet to track all your stuff.

I mean, I have way too much stuff, motherboards going back to a 25 MHz
80386, over a dozen old hard drives and maybe only half of them still
work. All sorts of cables in one big tangled mess. But I don't need a
spreadsheet to track them all. It helps that I keep a lot of old stuff
in working computers, so if I need an ISA sound card or a PCI Ethernet
card I can just take it from one of those.

I can't tell you how many old hard drives I have, what capacity they are
or which of them still work, but they're all stacked up in a pile on my
shelf were I can quickly go through them if need be. Similar to the pile
of old ISA cards I have, or that big mess of cables I mentioned before.

On the other hand, I may be a little teeny-tiny bit jealous of all
the old stuff you've managed to collect. Having used the same PC for
the last 13 years, I'm sorely lacking in stuff from the last decade.
I also don't have an ISA Ethernet card, so what am I going to do if I
need to connect that '386 motherboard to the network?

So maybe having so much old junk that you need a spreadsheet to track
it all isn't that big a problem.

--
l/ // Ross Ridge -- The Great HTMU
[oo][oo] rridge@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
-()-/()/ http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca:11068/
db //

On 22/02/2023 07:32, Anssi Saari wrote:
> ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) writes:
>
>> Is it wrong that I keep a history of my stuff? http://zimage.com/~ant/antfarm/about/toys.html
>
> I wish I had kept track of my computers and their configurations but
> lots of it is lost to time. I remember my first PC was a crappy Hyundai
> 386. Learned to buy clone components after that :)

My first PC was pentium based (a bit late to the party I'm afraid) and
the only thing I really remember about it was that it was from the giant
of selling PC's in the UK, Time Computers and it was beige which as far
as I could tell was a legal requirement!

As for my other ones, I remember another Time one before I got a second
hand gaming PC cheap off a friend. Since then I do have bits and pieces
from various PC updates lying around but certainly not enough to open a
museum let alone have a spread sheet.

It's probably only wrong if you're tripping over the stuff as you move around your space

Rarely do I ever have to go back to my old things / boxes but once in a blue moon or so...

I try to keep it to about 3 totes and am pretty good at tossing things I know don't have a use anymore in any walk of life