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Roger Wright wrote: with books for learning a number of long obsolete tools, like MFC and TurboPascal
Winning arguments? Such as 'I remember way back when when xxx had yyy and it worked a lot better then!'. And then 'Err...no...I just looked at my reference from 1996 and it did not have yyy...'
Roger Wright wrote: lots of it is software like old versions of Visual Studio and older IDEs
Nostalgia?
Antiques? My friend has every (boxes, manuals, etc) from every game system he has bought back to the 80s (or 70s). Sometimes that can end up being real money such as an original Apple computer (look up the price)
Unusual utility? I worked at a company where a larger customer wanted us to upgrade an application that ran on thousands of install computers. Something like Windows 3.1 or 95. We (or they) had the original source code but at that time there was absolutely no access to the original tools used to build and work on the code. But I had saved all those CDs from Windows MSDN program. So I found the old IDE and we were able to provide a successful update for the customer.
Other than that there are sites that sell miscellaneous stuff. You don't have to make money but if someone is will to pay at least the shipping then they presumably have some interest (perhaps one of the ones I mentioned above.)
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Biggest reason to keep old VS releases is that these still have tooling for otherwise supported, but not cool anymore MS technologies. Like SQL Compact, for example.
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A number of times I've had to dig out one or other "obsolete" piece of software, IDE, tools, whatever, to either upgrade something to work on a more recent platform or fix a bug for a customer (paying for the service). So I wouldn't ditch anything just because it's "old". And never ditch books; knowledge is never useless, just needs the right context to come along!
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When I moved to another state 8 years ago I did some additional clearing. I get a Facebook memories post around March 1st showing pictures of some old Novell Netware CNE and Microsoft MCSE study books (thick ones) from the 90's from publishers that no longer exist.
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Keep it. Maybe you will need after a post-apocalyptic future. And if you have a Windows XP computer, you will be the master of the world. 
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Provided that you've got 230VAC available in your post-apocalyptic world. And replacement keyboards when the old one starts failing due to dirt. And your screen fails, but none of your spare ones can take the VGA signals from your old XP computer. And still usable ink for you ink jet printer. And ...
There is a completely different problem: When your network connection fails - and in a post-apocalyptic world, it will - what are you going to use your PC for? No Google, no FaceBook or Twitter, no music or video streaming for entertainment, no weather forecast service, no whatever.
You can of course use the PC to write down you private thoughts (but without a working printer, you can't distribute them to others) and a spreadsheet for keeping track of your supplies. Maybe a pencil and a few sheets of paper is good enough for such tasks.
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trønderen wrote: Provided that you've got 230VAC available
Amazing what solar cells are doing these days.
I saw an add for an electric mountain bike which comes with an optional solar cells which can do a full charge in a day. Pretty sure that will run the PC for a while.
My next door neighbor uses them to charge up his camper.
trønderen wrote: And replacement keyboards when the old one...
Just saying it beats the alternative of fantasizing about dirt farming using a stick.
trønderen wrote: what are you going to use your PC for?
Entertain the kids.
Encyclopedia (we are talking about old software which used to exist like that on CD/DVD.)
Use Excel (not 365) to track the output of your slaves in the fields.
trønderen wrote: Maybe a pencil and a few sheets of paper is good enough for such tasks.
Except of course those run out also. Although with the Encyclopedia you can probably figure out how to make them.
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Software? Sure, a few years ago I turned every CD and DVD that I still didn't have in ISO format yet into a file, and put them all on my NAS (multi-TB disks are cheap and only getting cheaper). Then I got rid of the physical media. There's exceptions (games and such that can't be converted because of copy protection), but this takes comparatively so little room I haven't bothered to do anything them. At one point I suspect I'll just get rid of 'em - I don't really see myself playing Wing Commander on modern hardware...and if I ever have to scratch that itch, I suspect there's an emulator out there.
Physical stuff...the odds that someone is looking for something specific, and knows you're the one to contact, are so small it's not worth the physical space the stuff is taking. Years ago I had salvaged some brand new X-Window books (low-level GUI programming for Unix), still in their shrink-wrap - a whole shelf worth of them - from a company that went under...had them in a box for maybe a decade, but then I realized I would never make use of them, and the stuff by then was already so old it was never going to be useful to anyone (certainly not me). So that went for recycling, along with many OS/2 books (to give you an idea of how long ago that was)...
As others have said - technology doesn't age well. I have no problem getting stuff digitized, no matter how arcane, but physical stuff is rarely useful. I wouldn't hang onto some piece of hardware as a potential replacement for something someone needs when theirs breaks (is it really your problem to solve?) Besides, replacing something broken with something that's just as old and has been sitting on a shelf for years is just kicking the can further down the road; that system, if it's actually useful, needs to be replaced.
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dandy72 wrote: I don't really see myself playing Wing Commander on modern hardware...
If you know how to slow down virtual hardware in a VM you can really play as old games as that or even more. Someone I know manage to get a win 98 working just to play some really old games.
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Stop hoarding. Quit cluttering your life just because "somebody might want it someday."
Applies to more than just software. Don't leave a houseful of junk to sift through, like my mother's generation did to us.
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We recently had a member share their blog with us that contained a lot of entries about old software and hardware.
Revisiting Borland Turbo C/C++, A Great IDE back in the 90s[^]
It was a good reminder that some people (for whatever reason) have to use legacy code or systems and this developer's blog is dedicated to those people.
If you're going to keep old things, I can see having this level of dedication and reaching that tiny niche of people who need it would be valuable. Otherwise ...
My father was a pack rat. One day I looked in his closest and found books on things like Excel 3.0. I cannot imagine someone needing that book ever again. And it wasn't just books. It was hardware, software, other manuals, and empty boxes that contained hardware and software. When he died, it was difficult to explain to my Mom that none of this junk was ever going to help anyone, and the amount of effort it would take to find those people, ultimately, would not be worth it. You couldn't even put these items in a museum, because no such museum exists. The things you own end up owning you, and when you're gone, your loved ones. Those that would benefit from these relics are highly specialized and don't need your help. And because they won't live forever, the systems that these unicorns maintain will be replaced for any number of reasons.
Burn it all.
Thanks,
Sean Ewington
CodeProject
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Does it spark joy? If so, keep it. If not deep six it.
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#Worldle #446 3/6 (100%)
🟩🟩🟩🟨⬜⬅️
🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜↘️
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉
https://worldle.teuteuf.fr
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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I order a lot of stuff out of Asia, usually from China.
Maybe it's just me but these days shipping from China seems a lot faster than it used to be. Add a few days to the shipping time, maybe. It's not bad for coming from the other side of the world as me.
It's neat, though I'm still holding out for a MIME extension that allows me to just attach electronics via email. 
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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Don't they sell those on Aliexpress? 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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No, they only sell the replicated stuff.
The replicator itself is kept offline and under 24/7 vigilance.
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Yeah I used to count on 1-2 months, sometimes more and now it's 2-3 weeks.
Give me coffee to change the things I can and wine for those I can not!
PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - An updated version available! JaxCoder.com
Latest Article: Simon Says, A Child's Game
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We get a fair amount of quick turn PCBs out of China, amazing how fast we get them.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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Quote: Don't push too far your dreams are china in your hand
Don't wish too hard because they may come true
And you can't help them
You don't know what you might have set upon yourself
China in your hand
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I remember I ordered a Scope thinking it won't turn up for the job I was ordering it for, it arrived three days later. Started to think some companies have stock in the country you are ordering from... which thanks to Covid has been exhausted... 
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Since I never get around to actually building my ideas, I find it's much faster to just have them fax me the parts.
Will Rogers never met me.
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I believe that companies in China sending things abroad get to use a special postal service that is either free to them or super-fast - it's a way to get dollars etc. into the Chinese economy and outcompete companies in other countries.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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honey the codewitch wrote: I'm still holding out for a MIME extension that allows me to just attach electronics via email
I don't know if you're a Star Trek fan, but you do recognize that 3D printers are the first step toward replicators[^]? A design is just data...
Software Zen: delete this;
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