There's nothing like a new computer even if its 8 years old

[coriolis]

I just acquired this little beauty from a surplus auction at work. Compu-Gen P3 933 mhz, XP, SP3, 512M RAM, 30G HD. The PC pitstop scan gave it all checkerd flags except for memory, which I can upgrade later. Paid $51.51 for it. (the odd number was due to my sucessful bidding strategy). I also got a 21" monitor for $5.00. (everybody wants a flat screen now. The old style monitors are going cheap!)

The IT guys at work do a great job and this machine is clean and running good.

I sucessfully migrated office 2007 and all my stuff over to it from the predecessor - a 500 mhz jalopy. No more waiting for stuff to load, no more internet explorer error messages.

I also gave away three old towers going back to windows 95.

Life is good.

[chadtm80]

Nothing beats a "new" computer Ed... And a 21 inch monitor for $5?? wow.. Thats a deal man.. You get that at work too?

[coriolis]

Yah. There were monitors that didn't even get bids.

[chadtm80]

Dang... Are they going to have anymore auctions??

[DanKellFla]

What a deal. I just upgraded from a similar computer. There are some websites that won't work, but the hard drive alone was a bargain.

[GeneratorPower]

Once upon a time we used old, muddy and washed out 21" monitors as fodder for our shotgun target practice. Did you know those things have about a 1" thick glass tube? That's why they are so heavy!

Oddly enough, there is no "boom" or "ker-POW" when the glass explodes. Perhaps the shotgun blast muffles the sound. We generally use shotgun slugs as ammo for shooting the main CRT and then switch to birdshot when we have 'er "loosened up". Watching the plastic cases get obliterated by birdshot is quite amusing.

But take heart, the monitors we use for target practice died of natural causes before we shot 'em.

[coriolis]

They have an auction about once a year. Some of the monitors did have issues. The one I picked supposedly had a lesser quality picture, but I can't tell. One other had a line across the screen when it is blank, another would click and cut out occasionally.

[Stephanie]

I think that's a great idea to have an "auction" on all old computers your company has. Less stuff in the garbage plus if your IT department can "clean her up", that beats the GeekSquad any day in my book. What a bargain!

Best of luck with it!

[DanKellFla]

Can you get google earth to work on your "new" computer? Just curious. I never could get it to work on my P3.

[coriolis]

Google earth works. When I was installing it, it gave me a warning that I should install the activeX version of it rather than the regular version, and I had to click on it. Don't know what that is all about, but it works for me.