The Stirolux AP was the bastion crossover of the Stirolux company founded in 1980, bridging the gap between professional home ironing, and commecial industrial models. Here it is lovingly accompanied by a Rowenta on a street pavement in Paphos, Cyprus, never more to press the crease from our shirts, just another piece of… Discarded Tech!
One early dog walking morning, in a leaf filled alley this computer case was spotted, stripped of all it’s innards, and left as a wreck amongst the leaves, perhaps ready to start providing a dry shelter for a family of dormice, or a colony of spiders, only nature will be able to use mans… Discarded Tech!
Thanks “Cat Dog Days” 😉
This was the most ambitious Discarded Tech project to date, the objective was to create a case for the famous Raspberry Pi using nothing other than stuff that was laying around… enter stage left… The Digital Linear Tape (DLT)!
The humble DLT was developed around 1984 by “Digital Equipment Corporation” (DEC)
Original capacities were around 94Mb and today’s Super DLT versions go 600GB and up! (And yes, somehow in the world of cheap hard drives, and flash storage, it is still required to make tape backups… although I have worked with quite a few CTO’s/CIO’s that have finally admitted that there is a better way, all we are waiting for is better bandwidth, and lesser download restrictions, then uploading “tape images” into a cloud looks like a viable backup storage solution!)
Unboxing the Raspberry Pi… the nervous anticipation did cause quite a sweaty palm!
For this project, simple tools namely: Stanley knife, small pliars, a good work surface, and loads of patience! Firstly I started with carving out the internal plastic structure, so that the Raspberry Pi motherboard would fit snugly, without being squashed when the lid is screwed on!
As you can see, careful craftmanship with a Stanley Knife needed here to ensure that the RJ45 socket and dual USB ports are accessible once the case is screwed bacl together.
More careful carving, micro USB port exposed for power etc etc
WOW, I could not have planned it better, having the Raspberry Pi logo visible in the little window was a real winner!
The tape flap kept in tact by getting the spring loaded in place to expose the HDMI port
Once baked smother in a light “Raspbian” image on an SD card and boot!
So, in conclusion, if you are looking for a cheap case for your Raspberry Pi, take a look around at some of your old Tech, see what you can re-use before it just becomes more… Discarded Tech!
“Video Home System” or VHS for short, was developed by the Victor Company of Japan (JVC) in the 1970’s.
… if you are like me, VHS played an enormous role in your up bringing, the magic black cassette tape that recorded Thunder Cats, or He-Man and then was played back endlessly, over breakfast, lunch, and dinner, until tracking was needed on every replay!
On an international Discarded Tech finding excusrion this empty shell of an old VHS cassette tape was found on a tropical island in the Maldives, looks like it had only “recently” gone out of circulation, and now forms part of the ultimate tropical… Discarded Tech!
We can only imagine what this cassette had recoreded on it, or how much joy and excitement playing it back could have caused!
Go on, decrypt my files! This USB Stick was spotted very early one summers morning on the road before it was taken on a series of under rubber journies westwards. Classic Discarded Tech!
We have all seen them on the road, but have you ever desperately needed to print out a CV or a legal letter and not be able to find one? This is such a common piece of Discarded Tech these days that there has to be another use for them apart from leaf collector!
I have caught many things in rivers, lakes, and the sea, mostly plastic bags, and stray driftwood, but for some reason this was my proudest random catch, if only we knew what the original tin contained inside this little piece of Discarded Tech!
For any Top Gear fans, you might recall Richard Hammond’s adventure through Africa with a little car fondly nicknamed as “Oliver,” During a recent trip through the ex-Yugoslavian state of Montenegro we discovered this little gem which we immediately nicknamed “Oliver” too! It is still there, has been for years, and probably wont move, you can find it abandoned in “Reka Crnojevica” or Black River in one of the most beautiful gems the country has to offer!
An early morning walking down Uxbridge Road in Shepherds Bush, and look, there, on the side of the road, what’s that… a little abandonded tube box, someone’s original pride and joy, the center of the living room, countless soap opera’s and reality shows no longer to be displayed on this sad little gem Alba TV that now lay’s kicked to the curb as… Abandoned Tech!
