Feed Your Cat and Have Fun, Too
We're about 30 years into the “real” digital age now, if you figure that personal computers really took off in about 1980 (wasn't that the year they invented Wordstar?) Even if you've only been around for some of that time, chances are you've been collecting digital equipment throughout the years.
And as good, frugal consumers, you've tried to make your investment last. Depsite their being cheaper than ever, PCs and their attendant components are still expensive enough; and in the “old days,” you spent a lot more and got a lot less. Nevertheless, back then you didn't really have a choice; computer proliferation and market penetration wasn't what it is today, and most machines were sold by large corporations who insisted on providing “service,” instead of commodity manufacturers. Those were the days geeks like me pored through 700 pages of Computer Shopper magazine looking for a bargain. I shudder to think at how much I spent on “bargains” that were replaced by new technology only a little while later!
And if you're the type that doesn't like to throw stuff away, on the premise that it may have some use “someday,” tallying up the bottom line is especially easy – and especially painful. On a recent cleaning binge in the basement, I came across old PCs, peripherals, wires, cables, etc. What was I thinking when I bought all this stuff? But buying all of it seemed like the smart thing to do at the time. And the truth is, if the equipment allowed me to be productive, it probably earned its keep.
But it still pains me to see this once valuable equipment sitting around and doing nothing. Can't some productive role be found for a 486 motherboard, for example? Surely there must be something you can do with a 56K modem (may if I put the 5 I have together I can get a 256mb ADSL connection?) And surely an old 4 ppm laser printer (don't ask me how much I paid for it in 1992, because if I even think of the number, I'll faint!) must have some use in the post-modern 4 color 360 dpi $50 inkjet printer era?
Obviously, the answer is “yes” - otherwise I wouldn't be raising the issue! If you're good with tools and a soldering iron, there are actually lots of things you can do with old tech products – and if you aren't (like me), you can still get a vicarious thrill out of seeing how people are using outmoded components to create innovative projects that make life easier.
Such as creating a device that will automatically chop up food and chute it out into your cat's food bowl – using the guts of an old VCR! To quote the author of this project, “Any old VCR has a programmable timer that connects to motors for recording TV shows. This is analogous to feeding a cat, and following this principle, you can convert a VCR into a weekend pet feeder.” Add to the VCR a food chopper, a videotape, some nuts and bolts, and a glue gun, and thanks to your new “programmabowl feeder,” you'll never have to ruin another weekend by rushing home to feed the cat!
Pretty cool, huh? A little creativity goes a long way, and the pages of Make magazine, where this project was written up, has lots of other creative stuff to do with old “new technology” stuff whose ostensible use has become more or less outmoded (do they even sell movies on video anymore)?
Make is like second life for all sorts of components and appliances you thought would never see the light of day again. The people behind Make – O'reilly Publishing, which publishes computer and tech books on almost every topic under the sun - The idea is not just to find a use for old stuff, though; its to find solutions using old technology in the service of things that will make life easier – for far less money than you would pay for commercial solutions.
One of the more expensive highlights of a home theater system, for example, are “shaker seats,” where the seats move in tandem with the action. Such chairs cost close to $1000 if bought from the store, Make says – or about $30 if you make it out of speaker wire and an old amp you have lying around. If you have a home theater system, rumble seats are probably something you never even thought you'd able to afford – but Make makes it possible for less than you could ever have thought!
The projects in Make are rated on a scale from easy to difficult, with many falling in the middle. The mechanical projects, of course, require drills, screwdrivers and the like (one of the issues has a complete list of any tool you might ever need, with approximated prices for “regular” and “superior” versions of the tools. But not all the projects in Make are mechanically inclined; several articles discuss upgrading old computer equipment (like Atari 2600s and Tandy TRS 80s!), making a mini-robot out of a mouse, developing new search patterns for Google, turning your Macintosh into a high definition TV set, how to build and distribute your own podcasts, and loads of other stuff.
Make is definitely unique as a magazine that melds old and new technology, amalgamating mechanical and high-tech methods to produce new, useful and unique products to make like better, easier more productive and even happier. It's fun just to read about these projects like these – even if you don't own a cat!
Make comes out four times a year, in both a print and digital (PDF) edition. The digital edition is $34.95, which sounds pricey for a quarterly publication, but it will take you a couple of months to do each issue justice anyway.
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updated June 5, 2009
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