Good Samaritan Rule?

From: John Foust <jfoust_at_threedee.com>
Date: Tue Jun 26 07:59:26 2001

At 04:19 PM 6/25/01 -0700, Mike Ford wrote:
>A very reasonable course of activity for me is to take the parts I need
>from lesser systems, and scrap the remains, but I suspect like many on this
>list I find that VERY hard to do. Instead of what odd bit did you add to
>your collection, what was the last thing you tossed?

And thus our hobby gradually deteriorates into madness.
Time is money, space is money. I'm with you 110% on the
madness of retaining and hoping to fix old PCs. I've
worked hard to relieve myself of this affliction. You've
got to draw a line and toss it out.

Not everyone in the house needs a PC; I think I'm
more happy with one PC in a central room where I can
watch over the shoulder of the kids on the net.
I may still extend the house's T-1 to the barn just
for the fun of it, or maybe put a webcam on the sheep
and chickens.

Being frugal in most areas of life, I learned a lesson
from the "Tightwad Gazette" books. You've got to value
your time. You are saving and conserving in order to
create time and capital to enjoy later. "Later" must
come, or all your effort borders on pathology.

Even if you value your time at $10 an hour, sooner or
later you have probably spent enough time fixing that
486/66 to purchase a new PC with all the cards and 100x
the features. Treat yourself to the new PC, you've
earned it in other ways.

- John
Received on Tue Jun 26 2001 - 07:59:26 BST