Stuff free to good home
I’m cleaning house here and boxing up a lot of old books and software. In some ways I feel like I’m closing a door on a former lifetime. Weird.
The books span from late 70’s to mid 90’s and include the following:
- circuit design and logic (pre-microprocessor)
- assembler (8086 & 360 BAL)
- Ada
- Enterprise Java Beans (several)
- Borland C++ v2.0
- HTML 3
- VB4/5 for web development, ASP, ISAPI
- Object-Oriented Programming
…and a lot of other relics of the past. I don’t think anyone reading this will be interested in that stuff so I’ll donate it to our local libraries. I honestly don’t think most of the books will be of any use to many people, considering how old they are. Where can you find an IBM 360, Borland C++ 2.0 disks (5.25?) or even VB4 anymore? And would anyone really want to? Well, at least these will be off my shelf. I never throw away books, maybe committed a few other sins, but not that one.
- I have an unopened D3 ProPlus v7.2.0 package here from Pick Systems with CD media, full docs for ProPlus, and D3 v7.1 Docs on CD. I don’t think TigerLogic will activate it for you so this might be an item more with historical interest than anything else. There is also an Installation Guide (might have software on CD too) for D3 Linux 7.2.0 and the related D3 SQL and ODBC components.
- There is a box here with Business Objects (business intelligence) v4.0 and documentation.
- There is a boxed set of Omnis Studio v3 developer manuals.
- There are VCR tapes on SCO UnixWare 7 clusters, and migrating SCO OS5 to UnixWare 7. I even have one called "SCO Operating Systems and the Year 2000" with a picture of a little bomb with a lit fuse. Guess how old that one is.
Anyone is welcome to any of the above for the asking – the first email I open decides who gets it. It might only cost a couple bucks to ship each item but as you can see it could add up, so I’d appreciate it if people offered just shipping costs.
I also found 1/4" tapes (DC 6150) – and I have no idea if the data on them is just some daily junk from years passed, or if they contain gold that I thought was lost to the great bit monster in the sky. Unfortunately I don’t have a 1/4" tape reader and not much desire to bug anyone who has such a device to see if we can read them. I’ll hold onto these.
It’s increasingly tough to get rid of stuff these days, with laws about proper waste disposal, etc. Many years ago I had about 8 ADDS Viewpoint terminals that I left outside with a sign "free, take them" – some kids were excited to haul those things away. These days we can’t do that with electronics.
As I was going through papers I found lots of collateral material from Spectrum and other trade shows – along with demo CDs that I never installed. I guess it’s OK to toss that stuff out now – but I’ll separate the CDs from the paper waste just in case there’s some State of California law against tossing CDs.
We also have a couple TVs in questionable state, 3 VCRs that have one issue or another, monitors (maybe with blown tubes) that are worth more as boat anchors, and lots of other old hardware boards and memory sticks that will probably be given to a local recycling agency.
My mother is a diabetic and uses insulin every day. We never throw out the syringes or other "sharps", as these are considered "hazardous waste" and they shouldn’t be thrown in landfill. We’ve been trying for about 10 years to get someone to take them. Hospitals won’t, and the local waste disposal agency refused to take them. After a few phone calls recently, we finally managed to get someone to call someone else and explain that it was OK (actually required by law) for the hazardous waste disposal people to take the sharps from us.
Some things I’m finding around here bring back fond memories. Others just remind me of what a pack-rat I can be. The books and other stuff are going into boxes and eventually the boxes will be hauled away. As usual, the more I get rid of, the better I feel. After a while it even feels good to close some doors on the past. Weird.