Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!gvgpsa!gold!grege
From: grege@gold.GVG.TEK.COM (Greg Ebert)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Silicon Valley Dumpster Crawl: The ideal Hacker Holiday?
Message-ID: <1373@gold.GVG.TEK.COM>
Date: 29 Aug 90 16:34:13 GMT
References: <1990Aug27.174333.15870@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Distribution: sci
Organization: Grass Valley Group, Grass Valley, CA
Lines: 17


Dumpster crawling, eh ? We used to call it 'shopping'. We were also called
'jawas' [the silly critters in Star Wars (1977?)] because *anything* left
out overnight would be cannibalized by the next day.

There were a couple hi-tech firms where I grew up, but most of the good
stuff was liberated from old equipment sitting outside instead of picking
through coffee grounds and used Kleenex (yukkko!). Mostly got nuts/bolts,
wire, copper-clad board, and wire lugs. The biggest place (Hughes) had
their bins behind the guard-gate. Arrggghh! The occaisional jackpot was
some switches, relays, and maybe some indicator lamps.

And then there was 'heavy item pickup'. The city would pick-up large
appliances, etc for free. Every year, like clockwork, hoards of scroungers
would materialize after dark. Like vultures, we would grab the good tidbits
and leave the carcass for someone else. TV's, washers/dryers, stereos, engines,
you name it. By morning, about half of what was put out remained. Ahhhh, youth!