Altair Fan

[Tony Duell]

> 
> At 04:29 PM 6/19/2005, Tony Duell wrote:
> >The exrta costs, over the cost of the PC, are things like the broadband 
> >connection (I am not going to try to download a 10Mbyte file with a 14k4 
> >modem...), the equipment to maintain and repair the PC (things like a BGA 
> >rework station, a faster 'scope and logic analyser than the ones I 
> >already have, etc), and, of course, a house extension to put said PC in.
> 
> There's no need to repair the hardware of a PC.  If you're as 

There is for me. Period. I am not using things I don't understand and 
can't repair.

> frugal as you indicate, and can leave the house to rub shoulders
> with other computer users, you will find an unending stream of
> cast-off free-or-nearly-so PCs from three PC generations 

I've never found such people. The only remotely PC-biased hacker I know 
actively collectes 486s and later to run linux on. So he's not going to 
be a source od machines.

> (four-five years) ago.  As for the price of digital information: 
> it's about time, it's about space.

I don't undersntand that comment.

> 
> If you want to continue the frugal theme, doesn't your public
> library offer free high-speed Internet access?

I don't think it's free, and they have restrictions on what you can look 
at. Specifically, no copyrighted stuff without the permission of the 
copyright owner. So technically bitsavers is out, and the librarians are 
the sort of people to notice this and complain.

-tony