My old laptop from divinity school, upon which I spilled water and thereby cleansed its LED screen of light in our last semester, finally gave up completely late last year; I had reinstalled Linux on it from a USB flash drive for about the fourth time, and the rechargeable battery quit, doubtless out of frustration. The thing was a tank, and I hauled it, CD/DVD drive and all, between school and wherever I lay my head all those years. That last semester, I managed to use it with an external monitor (loaned) until I got my current PC, and from there on, it lay dormant. It's a tool that I used often and became deeply used to - but didn't actually know or care much about, until forced by circumstances. I'm faced now with how to dispose of it in a way that, well, honors it. I'm ...
My old laptop from divinity school, upon which I spilled water and thereby cleansed its LED screen of light in our last semester, finally gave up completely late last year; I had reinstalled Linux on it from a USB flash drive for about the fourth time, and the rechargeable battery quit, doubtless out of frustration. The thing was a tank, and I hauled it, CD/DVD drive and all, between school and wherever I lay my head all those years. That last semester, I managed to use it with an external monitor (loaned) until I got my current PC, and from there on, it lay dormant. It's a tool that I used often and became deeply used to - but didn't actually know or care much about, until forced by circumstances. I'm faced now with how to dispose of it in a way that, well, honors it. I'm under no illusions that I'll get into build/repair of computers, but I think I do care more about their care than I did . . .