I was cleaning up my cluttered apartment recently and decided to toss a bunch of old computer magazines from my days at Heath/Zenith computing stores. Sensing that someone, somewhere would want them, I tried to find them a good home if one was available. After all, how many copies of Sextant or the Heath Users Group magazine HUG could be left?

Heathkit naturally developed and sold a line of kit and assembled computers early on in the personal computer boom. With names like H8, H89 or Z-100, there still are active users of these now ancient systems. I figured that the best way to find my old magazines a loving home was to post a message on a newsgroup and wait. I found comp.sys.zenith.z100 and made the offer, "Free to anyone that pays shipping!"

Just for the record. The first computer I ever owned was an original Radio Shack Tandy 1000. It had the 4.77 Mhz 8088 CPU, 128 KB ram and a single floppy drive. Mine was modified with an additional 256 KB ram card and second 360k disk. I also used a Star SD-10 Dot Matrix printer, Polo CGA monitor and eventually added a clock calendar/mouse card and an internal 1200 BPS Everex modem. Total cost for everything was about $2000 back in 1985. In case I didn’t say it enough, "Thanks again Mom and Dad for paying for it!"

My second system was a Heathkit H-248. It was an advanced AT class system with the 8-Mhz 80286. I even added the 80287-math coprocessor. Not many programs outside of AutoCAD would ever use the math chip. Floppies were 1.2 MB 5.25" devices and the 720 KB and 1.44 MB 3.5" drives were just starting to be popular with PC users. My first hard drive was a 42 MB Seagate ST-251. From then on all of my systems were hand me downs and loaners from work. For the past few years I’ve been building all systems from components I buy separately.

I loved the writers’ email signature I got in one message recently.

amateur astronomer and telescope tinkerer
reseller of classic Macs & accessories from Plus to PowerMac
S-100 & 8-inch drive manuals and parts, call for "Dr. S-100"

We were at Lawrence High School to speak with the students about careers in computing. They are learning Web design and the related sales skills to take their creative work to businesses. Here is the site they maintain for the school.

Some had nice portfolios of work and were obviously up on the latest Web design tools.

We asked for questions and one of the students wanted to know what he could do with his many old computer systems he had laying around. It’s amazing to think that there are tons of old computers in working condition that are more expensive to dispose of then they are to purchase used.

Some 10 years ago the student asking the question was an 8-year-old playing with a Mac SE. When I was that age, the hottest toys were Hot Wheels cars and Aurora racing sets. The only coding we knew about were Morse or ZIP. When I was 18, drinking was legal in most states and only tapes and records were available for music. Now there are 18-year-olds just entering college who already know more about Java, HTML, Perl and CGI scripting than many Computer Science majors will ever master.

A close friend in the neighborhood during my High School years had a father who was an engineer. His was the first house I ever knew that had a VCR. Of course it was a SONY Betamax deck. This family was also the first to have projection screen TV, possessed the original home Laser Disk players that handled 12" platters and lots of cool stereo equipment. His home office was the site of my first exposure to computers that actually sat on your own desk. He had the groundbreaking Osborne 1. Over the years he would have Kaypro computers running CPM before finally easing into DOS with an ATT 6300 PC. The ATT was not only much faster than the original IBM-PC, it also came with a really cool green monitor.

I am loath to throw things out. While I don’t have the time or the inclination to resuscitate any ancient computers in my home, there are some that find fun with the systems others would have tossed long ago. If you want to find out more about computer history or ideas to do something useful with that old 386 taking up shelf space, there are tons of sites with ideas on Yahoo under the following link.

Apple was the most popular of all personal computers until IBM, Intel and Microsoft cobbled together the first IBM-PC. A discussion right on the front page of the Woz site involves problems with interfacing an Apple IIe with new CompactFlash memory. Never in my wildest nightmare would I attempt such an operation!

Finally for that student in Lawrence with the old Mac SE looking for a purpose, check out a Web site running totally on even older dual floppy Mac Plus!

This month I’ve been writing a lot about old stuff. If you indeed need to toss something, at least it should be done responsibly. I think it is patriotic to support the three Rs of conservation. Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Among the biggest contributors to waste from computer use are old toner and inkjet cartridges that are tossed out by the millions every year. This problem leads me to blame HP for not doing enough.

I’ve been using HP Inkjet printers for over 10 years. My brand loyalty was built on the experience of first selling and then using reliable products.

I just replenished the ink on my printer. Staples Sunday newspaper insert advertised HP ink combo packs that came with a free bonus of glossy photo paper. This seemed like a great way to save a few bucks over buying color and black cartridges in separate packages. While I applaud HP for the idea, the packaging used for two small cartridges is enormous. A giant piece of plastic encases everything. A glossy piece of cardboard was inside the plastic shroud and each cartridge was double packed in individual boxes. Add the folding pamphlets in each cartridge box and one they placed into the twin pack and there ends up being a lot of stuff to throw out.

One would suppose that with all that extra stuff they stick in the packaging, HP would have found the room to put self addressed recycling bags too. No such luck! You have to ask!

This approach is not unheard of. Laser toner cartridges began having UPS shipping labels for returning the spent units years ago.

Of course you could try to refill the cartridges yourself or send them out for refurbishment. The almost universal high failure rate of remanufactured, refilled laser toners that I’ve dealt with over the years has me convinced that only brand-new products are reliable. There has to be a better and cheaper way to deal with printer consumables! Right now I am waiting 7-10 business days for HP to send me my "return shipping materials."

A quick bonus rant! Why the heck do new cartridges have to cost $60 for a pair? The HP 940C set me back only $150. In a year I’ll easily spend as much on cartridges as the printer initially cost. That high cost for something that gets thrown away really galls me.

Until next time, keep reading my columns and let me know about your own adventures in computing.