Colleges to kids: Clean up those PCs
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Many of you can't be trusted with your own computers. Stupidity isn't the problem. It's laziness, mostly, combined with a penny-wise stinginess that resents the $40 price of a good antivirus program.
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Computer recycling fundraiser: The students in the Future Farmers of America's Club at Exeter-West Greenwich High School will hold their second-annual computer recycling fundraiser on Fridays, Sept. 22 and 29, from 3 to 6 p.m. and Saturdays, Sept. 23 and 30, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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(InfoWorld) - As customers line up toÂ buy new PCs capable of running Microsoft's new Windows Vista OS, vendors like Dell and Hewlett-PackardÂ (HP) are preparing to process a surge of discarded, outmoded computers. Dell advises its customers running Vista Premium to use a PC loaded with a dual-core processor and 2GB of memory. As customers upgrade to meet the new standard, they face a question of how to dispose of their outmoded machines without dumping toxic lead, mercury, cadmium, and chromium into local landfills. "As enterprises deploy Vista, they may increase their rate of replacing, refreshing, or updating PCs, and we're certainly happy to work with our customers on the disposal of machines they take out of service," said Michael Cuno, a spokesman for HP. Vendors like Apple and DellÂ offer free recyclingÂ for anyone returning those companies' old PCs. Dell also runs a network that donates working computers to local nonprofit groups. HP directs consumers to drop-off points at retail stores but advises its business customers to lease their hardware instead of owning it. Dell said it was too early to tell if Vista adoptions would be fast enough to drive a surge in consumer recycling, but the company did say it had recorded an increase from 22.7 million pounds of equipment collected from customers in 2004 to 39 million in 2005. The challenge in predicting future rates is that individuals don't always dispose of their old hardware immediately, said Dell spokesman Bryant Hilton. "We often see, at least anecdotally, consumers who purchase a new computer 'pass down' the old system within the household," Hilton said. "If you have the latest and greatest running your home entertainment center, maybe the system that still works just fine but is no longer cutting edge is good for other household uses. What we of course do not want is the old computer to end up in a closet or storage for the next several years, and that's where the challenge of consumer education comes in." Corporate IT managers who discard outmoded PCs face more complex challenges than consumers because they must also worry about protecting valuable trade secrets and employees' personal data saved on hard drives and because environmental safety regulations vary widely between states or countries, said Jim O'Grady, managing director of technology value solutions for HP Financial Services Americas. O'Grady's division treats that stream of discarded computers as a business opportunity, finding new users to buy 94 percent of the 600,000 computers and parts delivered annually to HP's facility in Andover, Massachusetts. The factory sends only six percent to its recycling plants in Roseville, California and Nashville, Tennessee. Worldwide, HP handles over 1 million PCs returned at the end of their leases each year. That number could jump in 2007Â because customers scramble to upgrade their hardware after each jump in technology -- such as the launch of multicore processors, the advent of flat-panel monitors over CRT (cathode ray tube) monitors, or the sale of Windows Vista. "That's what we saw with dual-core [processors]; it made a big difference. The adjustment had been fairly steady before then," he said. HP accepts hardware from all vendors, often receiving servers built by competitors two decades ago. In the Andover warehouse, workers peel shrink-wrap off pallets loaded with CRT monitors, stacks of Toshiba Satellite and T3100 notebooks, EMC Symmetrix and Clarion storage arrays, and servers like the Appro, Digital Vax and Compaq Alpha. Dell Latitude notebooks and Compaq Deskpro desktops are piled on shelves with their peripherals sorted into nearby crates. The technicians clean dust and rust off the frames and decide whether they can resell the entire machine or just its most valuable parts, such as the processor or optical drive. They prepare hard drives for resale by wiping personal data clean with either powerful magnets, software overwrites, or physical destruction. Most PCs never reach recycling stations. HP says that owners turned in only 7 million of the 70 million computers that became obsolete in 2003, delivering the rest to municipal solid waste handlers, many in developing nations overseas that lack the environmental regulations or technology to process such toxic "e-waste." Â
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During lectures, they answer their cell phones, text message their friends and play games on their laptop computers. Are college students really that rude? Yes, says Delaney Kirk, a professor of management at Drake University in Des Moines. But, she adds, it's not their fault.
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Workshop Windows virus cleanup primer
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Have adware and spyware commandeered your computer? An extreme solution: erasing your hard drive and starting over.
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KEYBOARDS and desktops are magnets for all sorts of nasties - from crumbs to flakes of skin and balls of fluff. But now you can keep your workstation pristine with a USB Mini Vacuum.
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Personal computers have rapidly turned into storage vaults for digital music, photos and videos. Now, computer-industry companies are rolling out new ways to let that content roam through the house.
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By Sherman, Will  THIS ARTICLE, REPRINTED FROM DEGREE TUTOR, MAY SEEM TO FOCUS ON PUBLIC LIBRARIES-BUT THERE IS WISDOM HERE FOR ALL INFO PROS. Many predict that the digital age will wipe public bookshelves clean, and permanently end the centuries-old era of libraries.
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Think hours of slogging are helping your child make the grade? Think again
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Dell will wipe the data clean before recycling small companies' computers and gadgets.
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A sleek home-media PC looks creamy delicious; a carry bag becomes a chair storing laptop; and more. By Brian Lam from Wired magazine.
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More colleges and universities are embracing music services for their students in an effort to cut down on peer-to-peer traffic that clogs school networks and puts students at risk for lawsuits. By Katie Dean.
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A warez group being operated by a 26 years old college student started in January 2003. In few months, they collected a database of around 13000 titles and made them available online.
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The recording industry is dusting off an old tactic in its never-ending effort to crack down on pirated music: Target the college kids.
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HP and Dell, which together sell more than half the country's PCs, get kudos for using more eco-friendly components and recycling their products when consumers discard them. By the Associated Press.
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By JAMES COATES, CHICAGO TRIBUNE  Q. I have acquired from my son the laptop he used during his last year of college and for a couple years after that. He did a lot of online gaming, watching videos, downloading stuff from the Internet etc. that I do not do.