DIY Eco-Gift For The X-traordinary Techie On Your Holiday List
23 Dec 2010
Do you have a techie on your list that goes to extraordinary measures to repurpose electronic items that would otherwise be relegated to the landfill? I bet that person has a bunch of dead computers lying around (doesn’t everyone).
When a dead computer gets thrown away, it does not biodegrade. It just lives in its toxic hole and continues to die a slow death – Yikes!
Computers can be reincarnated, and 62 Projects To Make With A Dead Computer (and Other Discarded Electronics), by Randy Sarafan will have your techie turning dead computers, printers, cell phones, iPods and keyboards from trash into treasure. They’ll even learn how to make an iMac terrarium, a laptop digital photo frame, a mouse pencil sharpener, and a slew of amazing new creations.
Who knew?
Photo credit: Amazon (…but buy it locally if you can)
Jaytee
Dec 24, 2010 @ 08:51:59
Here’s an easy idea for an old laptop. I had a laptop that was completely functional but its battery died. It was quite out of date with an old version of Windows XP on it but worked well. I removed the battery and recycled it properly, hotwired the battery contacts to the laptop’s AC cable and “broke” the hinge of the screen and keyboard so that it the screen was back to back with the back of the laptop. I added a wireless mouse, framed it with a cheap shadow box frame from a frame store, set up my photos in one folder and then set the screen saver to 1 minute and voila, I had an instant and practically free photo viewer. The only inconvenience is the start button, which is now on the back side of the photo viewer but it’s easy to turn off with the mouse.
Ronnie
Dec 24, 2010 @ 08:59:15
A digital photo frame from an old computer – So cool Jaytee!