Skip to content
  • Categories
  • Recent
  • Tags
  • Popular
  • World
  • Users
  • Groups
Skins
  • Light
  • Cerulean
  • Cosmo
  • Flatly
  • Journal
  • Litera
  • Lumen
  • Lux
  • Materia
  • Minty
  • Morph
  • Pulse
  • Sandstone
  • Simplex
  • Sketchy
  • Spacelab
  • United
  • Yeti
  • Zephyr
  • Dark
  • Cyborg
  • Darkly
  • Quartz
  • Slate
  • Solar
  • Superhero
  • Vapor

  • Default (No Skin)
  • No Skin
Collapse
Code Project
  1. Home
  2. The Lounge
  3. What is the weirdest item you have in your box of spare parts?

What is the weirdest item you have in your box of spare parts?

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved The Lounge
question
65 Posts 51 Posters 0 Views 1 Watching
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as topic
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
  • R RoswellNX

    I recently came across a VGA to USB adapter. Not quite sure what it's for, but it may be useful someday i guess. I used to also have an internal tape drive circa '91 that used a "clip" type floppy cable. I had a few other things, but i don't remember anymore, though nearly everything i wouldn't intentionally buy is salvage stuff. Roswell :)

    "Angelinos -- excuse me. There will be civility today."
    Antonio VillaRaigosa
    City Mayor, Los Angeles, CA

    D Offline
    D Offline
    Dr Walt Fair PE
    wrote on last edited by
    #39

    I have some old FORTRAN algorithms for making line printer plots. They are on some punch cards in my junk box. Anyone have a card reader handy? I also have a couple rolls of punch tape. One never know when a real TTY machine will show up ... As far as hardware, there were some memory chips from my old TRS80 Mod 1 and a single-sided 5-1/4 floppy drive with a TI99-4A interface in a box in storage. Wonder if I could run Vista on that?

    The PetroNerd

    1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • M Malcolm Smart

      I have a small box of screws, the ones that hold the expansion cards in. The box only has 6 screws in it and a 4" model of Nicole Kidman, painted in a suggestive way. I also have a small plastic container holding 4 of my teeth and the complete toe nail from my right big toe that came off whole as the nail bed had a severe fungal infection. Not sure why I keep them, but once you've had something like that for so long you are reluctant to let it go.


      Last modified: 1min after originally posted -- typo

      "More functions should disregard input values and just return 12. It would make life easier." - comment posted on WTF "This time yesterday, I still had 24 hours to meet the deadline I've just missed today."

      L Offline
      L Offline
      Lost User
      wrote on last edited by
      #40

      I have some stitches from surgery I had. But, when I had some teeth pulled, once upon a time, I asked if I could keep them and the Dentist said no, that it was illegal to let us take the teeth. Still can't figure that one. My toolbox runneth over with my Father's old hand tools. Like wooden handled awls, augars, etc. Plus some very unique leather punching tools, including a piston style hand pump leather drill. My computer stuff all went bye bye with the wife!:laugh:

      ____________________________________________________________________________ "Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space." -- Douglas Adams -- Shohom67

      Z 1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • R RoswellNX

        I recently came across a VGA to USB adapter. Not quite sure what it's for, but it may be useful someday i guess. I used to also have an internal tape drive circa '91 that used a "clip" type floppy cable. I had a few other things, but i don't remember anymore, though nearly everything i wouldn't intentionally buy is salvage stuff. Roswell :)

        "Angelinos -- excuse me. There will be civility today."
        Antonio VillaRaigosa
        City Mayor, Los Angeles, CA

        N Offline
        N Offline
        Name Deleted
        wrote on last edited by
        #41

        I have a dataset from my old Commodore 64. An old 64 Meg RLL drive. Oh, and an old 6MHz/12MHz 80286 motherboard with individual ram chip slots. not sure where the actual RAM chips ever went though.

        1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • C cp9876

          In the bottom of my filing cabinet I still have an 8 inch floppy from old PDP11 days.


          Peter "Until the invention of the computer, the machine gun was the device that enabled humans to make the most mistakes in the smallest amount of time."

          D Offline
          D Offline
          Delphi4ever
          wrote on last edited by
          #42

          We got a 8" floppy drive lying around in a dank room at the back of the building. It's a double dekker, one drive on top of another. No disks though, only drives.

          1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • R RoswellNX

            I recently came across a VGA to USB adapter. Not quite sure what it's for, but it may be useful someday i guess. I used to also have an internal tape drive circa '91 that used a "clip" type floppy cable. I had a few other things, but i don't remember anymore, though nearly everything i wouldn't intentionally buy is salvage stuff. Roswell :)

            "Angelinos -- excuse me. There will be civility today."
            Antonio VillaRaigosa
            City Mayor, Los Angeles, CA

            D Offline
            D Offline
            deltalmg
            wrote on last edited by
            #43

            Not sure what's weirder, that I have them, or that I need them on a regular basis. Bi directional, DVI-i to DVI-d converters. 2PS2 to USB converter. Heck I have some old PS2 KVM's that I have to put a DVI to SVGA converter on the monitor, a USB to PS2 converter on the keyboard and mouse to plug it into the KVM.

            1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • R RoswellNX

              I recently came across a VGA to USB adapter. Not quite sure what it's for, but it may be useful someday i guess. I used to also have an internal tape drive circa '91 that used a "clip" type floppy cable. I had a few other things, but i don't remember anymore, though nearly everything i wouldn't intentionally buy is salvage stuff. Roswell :)

              "Angelinos -- excuse me. There will be civility today."
              Antonio VillaRaigosa
              City Mayor, Los Angeles, CA

              J Offline
              J Offline
              John Bonfardeci
              wrote on last edited by
              #44

              Are you sure it's not a USB to Mac serial adapter? They look just like a VGA hookup, same number of pins too. I had one for a pre-USB Mac modem for my ancient blue and white G3. Probably the strangest device I have is an adapter for connecting a non-standard Mac 10 base T port to a standard Cat 5 jack. It's about 2.5 inches wide 3 inches deep and about an inch thick.

              1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • R RoswellNX

                I recently came across a VGA to USB adapter. Not quite sure what it's for, but it may be useful someday i guess. I used to also have an internal tape drive circa '91 that used a "clip" type floppy cable. I had a few other things, but i don't remember anymore, though nearly everything i wouldn't intentionally buy is salvage stuff. Roswell :)

                "Angelinos -- excuse me. There will be civility today."
                Antonio VillaRaigosa
                City Mayor, Los Angeles, CA

                M Offline
                M Offline
                MrPlankton
                wrote on last edited by
                #45

                Atari 800xl with dozens and dozens of video games on 5 1/4 disks, cartridges and my trusty Paper Clip word processor.... and it occasionly gets used. Oh, and did I mention my Time And Regional Displacement In Space vehicle I keep in my garage.

                MrPlankton

                1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • P Peter_in_2780

                  Still got any single-sided 5.25" floppies? I've got (in original box, with KMart $10-48 price tag!) the chomper so you can turn them over and use the other side.:-D Peter

                  D Offline
                  D Offline
                  Dan Neely
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #46

                  Peter_in_2780 wrote:

                  I've got (in original box, with KMart $10-48 price tag!) the chomper so you can turn them over and use the other side.

                  :laugh: A hole punch will do the same for much less. :rolleyes:

                  -- Help Stamp Out and Abolish Redundancy The preceding is courtesy of the Department of Unnecessarily Redundant Repetition Department.

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • R RoswellNX

                    I recently came across a VGA to USB adapter. Not quite sure what it's for, but it may be useful someday i guess. I used to also have an internal tape drive circa '91 that used a "clip" type floppy cable. I had a few other things, but i don't remember anymore, though nearly everything i wouldn't intentionally buy is salvage stuff. Roswell :)

                    "Angelinos -- excuse me. There will be civility today."
                    Antonio VillaRaigosa
                    City Mayor, Los Angeles, CA

                    D Offline
                    D Offline
                    David Crow
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #47

                    How about a SnapIt2 Power Command box? I've yet to figure out what it's for. I've received plenty of speculation but nothing definitive.


                    "Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for, in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it." - Ellen Goodman

                    "To have a respect for ourselves guides our morals; to have deference for others governs our manners." - Laurence Sterne

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • M Malcolm Smart

                      I have a small box of screws, the ones that hold the expansion cards in. The box only has 6 screws in it and a 4" model of Nicole Kidman, painted in a suggestive way. I also have a small plastic container holding 4 of my teeth and the complete toe nail from my right big toe that came off whole as the nail bed had a severe fungal infection. Not sure why I keep them, but once you've had something like that for so long you are reluctant to let it go.


                      Last modified: 1min after originally posted -- typo

                      "More functions should disregard input values and just return 12. It would make life easier." - comment posted on WTF "This time yesterday, I still had 24 hours to meet the deadline I've just missed today."

                      K Offline
                      K Offline
                      keeleyt83
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #48

                      I think we were talking about computer parts, not people parts.... :)

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • T Tom Delany

                        Malcolm Smart wrote:

                        I also have a small plastic container holding 4 of my teeth and the complete toe nail from my right big toe that came off whole as the nail bed had a severe fungal infection.

                        :omg::wtf:

                        WE ARE DYSLEXIC OF BORG. Refutance is systile. Your a$$ will be laminated.

                        M Offline
                        M Offline
                        Mark J Miller
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #49

                        Tom Delany wrote:

                        WE ARE DYSLEXIC OF BORG. Refutance is systile. Your a$$ will be laminated.

                        I need a tissue, I've been laughing so hard my eyes won't stop tearing up! :laugh:

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • R RoswellNX

                          I recently came across a VGA to USB adapter. Not quite sure what it's for, but it may be useful someday i guess. I used to also have an internal tape drive circa '91 that used a "clip" type floppy cable. I had a few other things, but i don't remember anymore, though nearly everything i wouldn't intentionally buy is salvage stuff. Roswell :)

                          "Angelinos -- excuse me. There will be civility today."
                          Antonio VillaRaigosa
                          City Mayor, Los Angeles, CA

                          B Offline
                          B Offline
                          bendodge
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #50

                          I think my weirdest would be a serial to cat5 adapter.

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • P PIEBALDconsult

                            That's why they invented Viagra.

                            W Offline
                            W Offline
                            W Balboos GHB
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #51

                            I nominate this for the "Best Answer To A Straight Line of the Year" Award.

                            "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein

                            T 1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • R RoswellNX

                              I recently came across a VGA to USB adapter. Not quite sure what it's for, but it may be useful someday i guess. I used to also have an internal tape drive circa '91 that used a "clip" type floppy cable. I had a few other things, but i don't remember anymore, though nearly everything i wouldn't intentionally buy is salvage stuff. Roswell :)

                              "Angelinos -- excuse me. There will be civility today."
                              Antonio VillaRaigosa
                              City Mayor, Los Angeles, CA

                              W Offline
                              W Offline
                              W Balboos GHB
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #52

                              A CD-ROM holder from my SONY External CD-ROM (1x $600). Actually, I've about a dozen of them.

                              "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • R RoswellNX

                                I recently came across a VGA to USB adapter. Not quite sure what it's for, but it may be useful someday i guess. I used to also have an internal tape drive circa '91 that used a "clip" type floppy cable. I had a few other things, but i don't remember anymore, though nearly everything i wouldn't intentionally buy is salvage stuff. Roswell :)

                                "Angelinos -- excuse me. There will be civility today."
                                Antonio VillaRaigosa
                                City Mayor, Los Angeles, CA

                                P Offline
                                P Offline
                                patbob
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #53

                                For a long time I kept a 5.25" floppy drive around, just in case :) These days the weirdest thing is probably the CueCat. Noncomputerwise, it's probably the CD personal cumulative radiation monitoring system (for those too young to remember, CD=civil defense).. ya just never know when it's gonna come in handy. There's also the SR-10, Amiga 1000 and CDC-6500 core, but not because I think those might be handy someday.

                                patbob

                                1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • L Luis Alonso Ramos

                                  If you look at my profile, I was born in 1981.... What's an 8-inch floppy? ;P

                                  Luis Alonso Ramos Intelectix Chihuahua, Mexico

                                  My Blog!

                                  T Offline
                                  T Offline
                                  tsdragon
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #54

                                  Luis Alonso Ramos wrote:

                                  What's an 8-inch floppy?

                                  Insert obvious Viagra joke here...

                                  Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, For you are crunchy, and good with mustard.

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • L Luis Alonso Ramos

                                    If you look at my profile, I was born in 1981.... What's an 8-inch floppy? ;P

                                    Luis Alonso Ramos Intelectix Chihuahua, Mexico

                                    My Blog!

                                    P Offline
                                    P Offline
                                    paul144hart
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #55

                                    Around when you were born, I was writing code, 8 inch floppies were the rage, running OS off them and having ones dedicated to compilers and source. Intel 'blue boxes' used them as primary storage if you didn't have the $10,000 for a 10MB hard drive. The floppy held incredible amounts of data, 160KB. Unbelievable?? Truth is stranger than fiction. Unless you were playing a game with twisting passages, all alike.... also before your time. paul

                                    M 1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • R RoswellNX

                                      I recently came across a VGA to USB adapter. Not quite sure what it's for, but it may be useful someday i guess. I used to also have an internal tape drive circa '91 that used a "clip" type floppy cable. I had a few other things, but i don't remember anymore, though nearly everything i wouldn't intentionally buy is salvage stuff. Roswell :)

                                      "Angelinos -- excuse me. There will be civility today."
                                      Antonio VillaRaigosa
                                      City Mayor, Los Angeles, CA

                                      T Offline
                                      T Offline
                                      tsdragon
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #56

                                      Not a spare part, actually, but more of a conversation piece: I have a circiut board containing actual core memory. A 16x16 array of tiny magnetic donuts and wires.

                                      Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, For you are crunchy, and good with mustard.

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • P paul144hart

                                        Around when you were born, I was writing code, 8 inch floppies were the rage, running OS off them and having ones dedicated to compilers and source. Intel 'blue boxes' used them as primary storage if you didn't have the $10,000 for a 10MB hard drive. The floppy held incredible amounts of data, 160KB. Unbelievable?? Truth is stranger than fiction. Unless you were playing a game with twisting passages, all alike.... also before your time. paul

                                        M Offline
                                        M Offline
                                        molesworth
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #57

                                        "Unless you were playing a game with twisting passages, all alike.... also before your time" I was just about to post that I still have an 8" floppy with the Collosal Cave Adventure on it - and no way to read it... Luckily there are lots of ports of it availabe these days :-D

                                        There are three kinds of people in the world - those who can count and those who can't...

                                        1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • R RoswellNX

                                          Christian Graus wrote:

                                          VGA to USB ? What does that go into ?

                                          Not sure... The USB end is a "blade" (PC end) type connector, and the other plugs either straight into the video card or the monitor, but it's only about a foot long.

                                          Christian Graus wrote:

                                          I have piles and piles of cables, cases, CD drives, you name it. Hard to say what is strange, I doubt I can beat VGA->USB I do have the cable that my old matrox card needed to be dual head.

                                          I'm a hoarder, so at one point i've probably had as much stuff as you do (before we moved), so i can understand. The only stuff i willingly get rid of is neither old, interesting and rare enough, nor still usable by me. The things i've been able to keep thru the move are most of my cables (i still can't find my serial and two sets of parallel :( ), and heatsinks of all shapes and sizes, as well as all the working (or expensive but broken) computers. The 8X CD-ROM drive had to go:laugh: Roswell

                                          "Angelinos -- excuse me. There will be civility today."
                                          Antonio VillaRaigosa
                                          City Mayor, Los Angeles, CA

                                          M Offline
                                          M Offline
                                          MattPenner
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #58

                                          Actually, while this is "weird", it's not that old. I think USB video adapters haven't been around that long. Plug it in, load a driver and you've got an additional VGA port for another monitor. Matt Penner

                                          1 Reply Last reply
                                          0
                                          Reply
                                          • Reply as topic
                                          Log in to reply
                                          • Oldest to Newest
                                          • Newest to Oldest
                                          • Most Votes


                                          • Login

                                          • Don't have an account? Register

                                          • Login or register to search.
                                          • First post
                                            Last post
                                          0
                                          • Categories
                                          • Recent
                                          • Tags
                                          • Popular
                                          • World
                                          • Users
                                          • Groups