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TrigonaMinima/What should I do with my old laptop?.md

Last active July 16, 2016 12:59
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What should I do with my old laptop?.md

Ask HN: What should I do with my old laptop?

  • Give it to someone
  • Put it on the wall near your door, and have it as a generic assistant. Put the days weather, your family calendar, time until next bus/train, news headlines, etc. on it. They should change at different periods of the day to give you time relevant information (e.g. I want to know the time until the next bus in the morning, but I don't care about this when I'm home in the evening).1
  • I had an old laptop I used to run Linux + Spotify on, so that I could take it to people's house parties and run music off it. No concerns about drink spillages or it being stolen, and you can let anyone add songs to the playlist. Warning: be selective over who you let near it.2
  • If it has an HDMI port, you can install Kodi on it and plug it to your TV to create a really cool media center.3. I did this, but with Plex (I am a Plex user across multiple devices). I use the computer in clamshell mode with HDMI to my living room TV. Also, I use Rowmote to control the computer -- an old Macbook -- from my phone and run OpenEmu next to Plex for a home arcade solution. I use a Bluetooth PS3 controller for the arcade. SNES works great with Sixaxis controllers, N64 is possible. Havent tried Dolphin. 4
  • Setup a Twilio service number that hits your old laptop. Write scripts for things you want automated in and around the house. When I'm finished, I should be able to text my PA number: "gift John" and a script runs on my old laptop that buys and sends a gift to John. 5
  • Run pfSense on it as your router, using VLANs to make use of the single NIC on it. 6
  • I installed Arch Linux on and have constantly on and plugged into my network. It runs an ssh server and I can log into it anywhere remotely. It comes in handy for running scripts, downloading torrents/files when I'm out or I run cronjobs to do certain things at certain times. 7
  • VPN server. I've been using a Raspberry Pi for this purpose for a while now. Check out Pi Hole as well to block ads.8.
  • CI server
  • https://home-assistant.io/
  • https://www.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/4t392d/what_interesting_things_can_i_do_with_a_spare/
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