GROIC Day 24

Yesterday’s printer was going to be taken to an electronics recycling pick-up point, and it made sense to get rid of some other electronic/electrical bits and pieces at the same time. So today I threw out my 25 year old stereo, which has been sitting in the garage for nearly two years. It still works (by and large), although the CD player was a little flaky, and the volume sliders seem to have some internal dust which makes them “crackle” and behave unreliably. Oh, and it won’t take my iPhone! For the purposes of today’s need to get to 24 there are 6 components: two speakers, a turntable, CD player, tuner, and cassette player. Add to this various cables, a large number of programs from concerts and shows that have no real personal relevance apart from the fact that I went and saw them (these make up a sizable number of today’s required 24 (and even caused it to go over), but do not constitute electronic waste!), and a bulky external hard drive. The latter was still functional, but had four times the size and only 1/3 the capacity (at best) of most contemporary drives. And, besides, I decided I wanted to salvage the super-strong magnets from within it, as they are useful for making caches. It is not easy to dismantle hard drives (you need specialised Torx screwdrivers), but it is very satisfying.