[ntp:questions] [OT] Old Hardware, Was Re: help with setting up NTP on windows with a USB GPS

Dave Baxter g8kbv at nospam.uko2.co.uk
Sun Dec 6 16:39:39 UTC 2009


In article <ab949720-16c4-4032-9266-8bdc88c636b9
@h10g2000vbm.googlegroups.com>, evandro at mailinator.com says...
> 
> On Dec 4, 2:10 pm, "Richard B. Gilbert" <rgilber... at comcast.net>
> wrote:
> >
> > unruh wrote:
> >
> > > Please, do not use a Windows box as your main server. get a cheap ( your
> > > local flea market should have one for $50) computer, install linux or
> > > freebsd, purely for running ntp on it, and use it as your server.
> >
> > Elderly computers can frequently be found at curbside.  Often, there is
> > nothing wrong with them, they are just old and/or slow.  NTP does not
> > require a lot of computing power!!  If these old wrecks will boot some
> > form of Windows or Linux they are well suited to not very demanding jobs
> > like running NTPD.
> 
> No engineer or analyst or consultant worth its salt would suggest a
> banged up PC to perform any role in a project.
> 
> Such suggestion may be fine for one's own garage project, but not
> anywhere else.

Hi..

Not long ago, on my journey home from work, along some dark country 
lanes, I had to swerve to avoid some "Junk" in the middle of the road.

I stopped, went back to chuck it in the hedgerow, but saw sense and 
decided to take it to the tip later that weekend instead.  It was the 
remains (carcase, PSU and CDROM drive!) from what I suspect was an old 
486 class PC.  Total trash...

As often happens, I had a little time to spare, and ended up salvaging 
the CD-ROM drive!   Though the thing looked like it had been run over 
several times, the drive itself works fine!   It now has a new life in 
my garage playing audio CD's through an old set of powered PC speakers!  
;-)

Otherwise I agree, using old "thrown out" hardware can lead you to 
trouble.  But, as I found, some of the "Old" hardware can be suprisingly 
rugged!

Cheers.

Dave Baxter.




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