OT but useful if you use PINE (now FreeCycle again)

[John Foust]

At 12:59 AM 4/15/2005, you wrote:
>So recently I subscribed to several of the local FreeCycle mailing lists
>and set PINE filters to route those messages into their own folder.  And I
>began to receive a flood of messages. 

I peeked into the Madison (WI) area FreeCycle list - whew, I'm glad I'm
not watching that list.  2,900 members; Madison is ~pop. 208,000.

 From the looks of it, someone with too much time and space could easily 
consume both very quickly, driving around picking up computer stuff 
that people want to give away.  If you could receive the list in 
real-time in your truck, you could swoop on the computer stuff the
minute the person's posting from their computer.  And apparently some
items go that quickly.

I didn't spot any antique gems so far, but there were gobs and gobs 
of old PCs and Macs and parts, even Powerbooks and iMacs, up to 1 Ghz PCs,
laser printers, you name it.  I was surprised by the new stuff that 
people were giving away - DVD burners, wireless cards, etc.

I also resisted visiting my county's "clean sweep" recycling site,
where once or twice a year they collect hazardous waste.  This time
they expanded it to electronic equipment.  The paper said they 
hauled away more than a semi-full of equipment.  The photos showed
mostly monitors on pallets.