Hello all! I was recommended to this group by Ben Hibben of the LVL1 space in Louisville. By way of introduction, I work for a process engineering firm where I do either IT or process design depending on the day.
I plan on visiting one of the open nights in the next couple of weeks (as work and family schedules permit) and seeing the cool stuff you all are working on, especially as pertains to programming, security and crypto.
I have recently become reacquainted with bitcoins as well and it is this interest that prompted me to write an introduction prior to my initial visit. I was looking for an easy way to convert cash into bitcoins and a Google search for “Cincinnati bitcoin” lead me directly back to your site which I had already recently visited due to the aforementioned recommendation (coupled with the fact that Google knows WAY too much about me).
It occurred to me that I could perhaps kill two birds with one stone here. I have a LOT of older IT gear that is either mine personally or that my company has tasked me with getting rid of. Some of it is free to a good home and some of it has some value for which bitcoins would be preferable If anyone is interested in any of the following stuff I would be happy to bring some/all of it with me (up to the limits of my vehicle) when I visit the space. I’m also happy to send pictures/specs.
Lexmark C750 Color Laser Printer
Lexmark C772 Color Laser Printer
Lexmark T644 B/W Laser Printer
An 11x17 format HPLaserjet Printer (At my house, so I don’t have a model right now, but it is the size of a piece of furniture and was meant as a workgroup device)
Epson Perfection 4490 Scanner with sheet feed
Dell Poweredge 1800 Model SMM01 Server
HP Proliant DL380 Server
Several (10ish) desktop machines. Primarily Dell Optiplex GX series. Not terribly powerful, but most of them come with an OEM Windows XP license attached.
Let me know if anyone is interested in any of this stuff and I will let you know when I plan to visit and make sure to have it with me when I come.
Awesome. Would be glad to have you at the space. I have similar interest in security, programming and bitcoin as well. Not sure about the gear. We have a space organizer (COO) that determines what we need at the space. As far as bitcoins go I would be willing to sell some of mine although I’ve found when people want to buy some from me they tend to want more than I typically care on myself. I typically get mine via an exchange or bitInstant and if you just want an additional layer of anonymity I have no problem buying some for you. As far as mining goes…that’s become rather difficult without a crap ton of HW (did you see the ASICs designed specifically for bitcoin!!!)
Although since you are with the Enlightenment I can not help you…lol j/k
The stuff is available to any member or friends of members that want it, though now that you mention it, how are donations of hardware handled? The stuff that I listed is just what I have on hand now. I am sometimes asked if I have any use for a large number of desktops (where “large number” = a truckload) or other hardware and usually I just say no, because I don’t want a garage full of computers, but if you guys could find a use for such things, I could bounce it off of you next time I get such an offer.
As for the ASIC miners, the other IT guy here and I are splitting the cost of one of the Butterfly Labs units, hence my sudden need for BTC.
Can’t wait to visit the space! Even if it does harbor resistance scum!
Are you on the general Cinci Ingress G+ page?
As for hardware - I’m CTO, and technically in charge of computing for the space. We’ve got a dead/dying server and some other stuff that needs replacing. I’d also like to see more PCs throughout the space. I have to make it down to the space sometime soon to work on some projects so Craig doesn’t kill me. When I do, I’ll look and see if I can come up with a more definite list of what we could definitely use? Do you think you can hold on to the hardware you have for a few days to give me a little more time to figure out what to do with it? We’re a 501c so whatever can be donated to the hive for tax purposes if it has to be. We can always scrap/recycle stuff to raise funds if we have to but we’re not really set up to process a large volume of computer “crap” at this time.
What are the specs on the dying server? I have (but did not list) a Dell Poweredge 2900 with 10 GB ram and (6) 15k SAS drives that I could part with (I keep thinking media server, but honestly I just don’t see me taking the time to do that because it would just be for me to play around with) The PC’s aren’t crap in the sense of being broken, but they aren’t higher end. Many of our engineers here ran on them quite happily doing Word, Excel, some Autocad viewing, etc…,
For instance, I have a whole bunch of these: http://www.dell.com/us/dfb/p/optiplex-755/pd all of which are perfectly functional. My kids play minecraft and several other 3D games on them, on various flavors of linux.
What are the needs for the computers that you want spread around the space? If those Dell desktop units fit the bill I will happily donate them.
Your PowerEdge 2900 seems like it would probably be MORE than our needs. If you can give me a few days to take stock of things a little better, I’ll be able to give you a much better idea. Thanks for your generosity. I’m a little swamped with things outside of the hive right now.
-Dave
Absolutely! Take your time! It is certainly more than my needs as well, which is why I just talked myself in to being willing to part with it. That said, I didn’t pay anywhere near full price for it and would be perfectly happy to part with it for what I put in to it(Approx. $500 (or 22 BTC ($34 discount currently))
In the meantime, it will continue to be a piece of my living room furniture.
I can tell you right now that the hive won’t be looking to spend anywhere near $500 on servers. If you’re looking to get that kind of money for it, you’ll have to look elsewhere. Until I am told otherwise by our membership, the hive operates its IT infrastructure on donations alone. If I need anything else to be purchased, I have to ask the membership for approval.
-Dave
The couple that I pulled out and looked at were Pentium Dual-Core 2.6 GHz with 2 GB RAM and 80 GB Hard Drives.
Unfortunately, when we upgrade computers here at the office, we tend not to upgrade the monitors or KB/Mice, so I just have CPUs at the moment
If there isn’t a use for any or all 10 of the Dell computers, I’m very interested in snagging one to upgrade my father’s seriously lacking home office computer.
Ian,
I emailed you off list to try to figure things out. I don’t know if my email got filtered or something. Email me directly or call me 513 484 3029
thanks,
-Dave
I’ll be stopping by the space tomorrow evening (6:00ish) with everything that I have as far as desktops go. Dave and I talked and it sounds like the Hive is going to use some of them. I’m happy to sell to anyone who is there tomorrow directly and then I will donate the remainder to the space for Dave. If you can’t make it tomorrow evening, Dave seemed willing to part with a few for a donation to the space, so see him if you need one after tomorrow.
If anyone is interested in any of that other stuff mentioned in the original post let me know before tonight so I can make sure to bring it with me.
Ian,
If you want to throw the DL380 and PE1800 servers you had listed in the car too and you have room, that would be great.
In case I can’t be there tomorrow night (pretty likely) if you could set the desktops underneath the pallet racks, that would be great. I’ll be by on Wednesday to take stock of em all.
