Many folks, including businesses and government organizations, have a pile of old tech gear lying around. While we won’t go all Marie Kondo here, it’s always interesting in seeing the tech gear to which people hang on, most of which is useless. What can be tossed and what should be kept?
First, with few exceptions, anything lying around, not in use, over 7 years old (some say 5 years), should be chucked. Stuff that falls into this category includes power cords, VGA video cables, network cables, that box of small screws, and power adapters.
Old printers and computers can be trashed as well, although take care if you think there might be sensitive data on the computer (safe disposal of computers is the subject of another column).
That old cable modem or, God forbid, DSL modem? Opala. While many service providers will charge you if you cancel their service and don’t return the modem, this usually happens right away, like their billing, unlike their tech support. So either you’ve paid the fee for nonreturn, or you won’t be charged.
Monitors? If they’re square, they should be thrown out. Square monitors haven’t been made in nearly 20 years now. Old-fashioned big CRT-based monitors are even worse to hang on to, given all the space they take up. A good rule is if the only connector is VGA, it won’t be worth the hassle to try to use it in the future.
Remote controls can go as well. If you haven’t used it, you probably don’t know what it’s for, and in a pinch it can be replaced with a cheap universal remote control. Same with power adapters. While it might look proprietary, any power adapter that has a circular end on it can easily be replaced, if need be, with one of the same size and voltage.
Given the above, it might be easier to identify what should be kept. Power strips, USB chargers and thumb drives are always something you can use and always seem to be in short supply. Keep as many of these as you have.
Keep one of each of the following cables: HDMI, USB printer, iPhone and Android. If you don’t have any Apple products more than 10 years old, you can ditch all of the old-school Apple cables — the bigger ones that are about an inch in length — but keep one of the newer lightning cables — it’s a bit less than a centimeter in length. Note that Apple is rumored to change to USB-C cables in its next iteration of iPhones.
Also, keep one extra keyboard and mouse. Ideally, these are wired with USB connectors as opposed to wireless as they will be a bit more reliable. If you have a keyboard or mouse with the old round connectors — some were green, some were purple — well, if you’ve read this far, you know what to do with those.
What about software? Since just about every contemporary software application is downloadable nowadays, there is virtually no need to keep old CD/DVDs. Anything that old won’t run well on current operating systems, if at all. Same with manuals or other documentation for hardware or software.
Finally, when getting rid of all this stuff, be mindful of the environment. Technically, people are allowed to just put e-waste in the trash, but this is not a good idea. A quick Google search will let you know of the many e-waste drop-off events on all islands. Businesses typically need to pay to have their e-waste disposed of, but it’s reasonably affordable, especially considering the space you will save and, of course, protecting the aina.
John Agsalud is an IT expert with more than 25 years of information technology experience in Hawaii and around the world. He can be reached at jagsalud@live.com.
