[ih] Greener computing

[Dave Taht]

On Thu, Sep 1, 2022 at 11:51 AM Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond via
Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>
>
>
> On 01/09/2022 18:41, Bob Purvy wrote:
> > I think by the 90s he's on a PC, but I haven't really said anywhere.
> > Definitely he's gotta try those AOL coasters.
>
> Remember it was floppy 3 1/2 in disks first which were terrible as
> coasters, only to become more useful when they switched to CDs. That
> being said I really hope these ended up somehow elsewhere than in a
> landfill as so many were produced - see
> https://nowiknow.com/remember-all-those-aol-cds-there-were-more-than-you-think/
>
> I wonder how that kind of production would fare in today's
> environmentally conscious world....

I kind of feel that way about home routers. There are easily 10x more
of those than are turned on, that could be upgraded to open firmware,
enabled with ipv6, bufferbloat fixed, made more reliable and secure.
Instead they languish in junk bins or landfills. I keep hoping to find
a charitably suited VC (hah!) willing to back this concept:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T21on7g1MqQZoK91epUdxLYFGdtyLRgBat0VXoC9e3I/edit

With the current supply chain problems everywhere, perhaps people will
relearn how to be frugal.

Recently an ISP I work with reflashed 700 "obsolete" mikrotik
wireless-n routers to current openwrt and is giving them away as meshy
APs. These are well built, and with current software, remain useful
for another decade, at least.

I haven't bought a "new" computer in years. Desktops (with enough ram)
got good enough for me a decade ago.

> Best,
>
> Olivier
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-- 
FQ World Domination pending: https://blog.cerowrt.org/post/state_of_fq_codel/
Dave Täht CEO, TekLibre, LLC