Instead of throwing it out, why not donate your old computer? One person’s box of outdated silicon is another’s treasure chest, and there are plenty of individuals, charities and recycling schemes willing to take your old machine away for free.

Your Local Donation Or Recycling Scheme

This one might require a bit of a searching on your part, but a local resource means you don’t have to drive far and the charity or organisation might even pick up your old computer themselves.

There are all sorts of local schemes throughout the world, and the best way to find them is through local government. Your local council or authority should be familiar with local recycling schemes or charities that take old tech and be willing to point you in the direction of some worthy causes.

Examples local to me (Melbourne, Victoria) include the Byteback scheme and Computerbank (cheap $30 PCs running Linux), and when I lived in the UK there were plenty of local charities and community groups willing to take in components, boxes and laptops for refurbishment.

Freecycle

Devised and established as a way of redistributing items that are no longer wanted or required, Freecycle operates all over the globe. This means you can join your local chapter and simply advertise your freebies (any non-living, legally saleable item) before whoever wants them comes forward to claim.

Freecycle uses Yahoo Groups as its main engine, so you’ll need a Yahoo account to give things away (though you can sign in with both Facebook and Google these days). It’s up to you who gets the goods and the claimant is responsible for collection.

Freecycle is a very environmentally friendly way of re-using pretty much anything you can think of and I can’t think of a single reason not to use the service!

When signing up for a Freecycle group on Yahoo, unless you’re happy to be emailed hundreds of times a day choose “Special Notices Only” for your email preferences, otherwise each and every offer will make its way into your inbox.

North America: About.com Donation Resources & EPA Advice

MakeUseOf is an international website with readers all around the globe, so I’ve split these next few resources by locale. About.com’s Women in Business section has produced a list of ten top donation and recycling organizations that are relevant to US and Canadian residents.

Included is the excellent Earth911 which searches for local businesses and partners willing to recycle or accept old machines, TechSoup, the World Computer Exchange (which annoyingly only has US and Canadian chapters) and Computers for Schools amongst others.

The EPA Advice link contains a few other resources and another facility for finding local recycling projects. Regardless of who you donate to, the resources on both sites are more than worthy of your unwanted electronics.

UK: IT For Charities Resources & Computer Aid International

If you’re in the UK and looking to donate an old PC then you’re bound to find somewhere nearby on the IT For Charities list of links above. Included are links to companies, not-for-profit organizations and bonafide charities who will all take your unwanted computers away.

Computer Aid International are another charity who do especially good work with the donations they receive. The equipment is taken in, refurbished and shipped off to countries where computers and technology are not as accessible. Thus far the charity has sent nearly 200,000 computers around the world to help poorer nations get online.

There are also a lot of community workshop programs and local outreach centres in the UK that use old computers for all sorts of tasks, including basic IT training and charity work.

Australia: Recycling Near You & GiveNow Resources

Recycling Near You is an Australian website that will help you recycle virtually anything, including old computers, monitors and accessories. The website uses your location to deliver relevant results that are local to you, including both charities, companies and recycling schemes.

Whilst the aforementioned website is probably the quickest way of finding a local recycling centre, there are some very valuable resources on GiveNow.com.au. Each is separated by state and region, making it easy to find the right links.

Worldwide: Retailers & Manufacturers

This is by no means a golden rule that is upheld everywhere, but many manufacturers and even retailers will now take in unwanted electronic equipment. Computer manufacturers such as Apple and Dell both have recycling schemes where in certain countries they will accept any brand of waste and waive a fee (note you might still be charged for pick-up).

Retailers similarly offer recycling schemes, especially when new products are purchased. These sorts of schemes are popular with large items like refrigerators and ovens, but it might also be worth asking about computer recycling. A benefit to using a retailer like this is that they will often come to your house, remove the equipment for you and swallow any recycling costs that may apply.

Whilst many international and national laws state that these products must be recycled responsibly, don’t forget that this isn’t quite the same as donating to charity.

Conclusion

There are plenty of charities, organizations and companies who will accept your old computers to prevent them ending up in a landfill somewhere, so the next time you get rid of a PC or monitor don’t forget to look up both local and national schemes. By recycling or donating to a good cause you can feel great about helping someone out and even better about the fact that your old kit isn’t sitting in a landfill.

How are you going to get rid of your next PC? Any other resources we should know about to donate old computers? Have you recycled a PC before? Let us know in the comments.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

I have come up with 7 ways of either putting them to use or properly disposing of them.  If you can add to the list, please do!

Keep It & Use It!

1. Pocket Watch

It occurred to me that I haven’t worn an actual watch for quite some time.  Why is that?  Is it because I am so poor that I can’t even afford a cheapo watch?  No.  Is it because I find watches uncomfortable?  Probably partially but that’s also not the real reason.  The reason is because I don’t need one because my cell phone keeps better time!

Well those unused phones could prove handy if your power goes off and on and your wall clock is reset.  Have one charged and available and you’ll always have the proper time whether or not you actually have a cell phone plan!

2. Flashlight

Have you ever found yourself waking up in the middle of the night thirsty and stumbling across the whole house in the dark to find the fridge?  I know I have.  Also I work nights and sometimes I want to find my way to bed when I get home after dark without turning on the overhead light waking my wife up.

Well, the solution is that soft light that your cell phone emits!  Instead of paying for a flashlight or something similar, why not just put that old cell phone back to work?  Most cell phones put off just enough soft light to at least see where you are going.  Besides they usually fit right in your pocket!

3. Digital Camera

Everyone likes digital cameras, right?  They’re handy when you’re in a pinch and something comes up all of a sudden that you don’t want to miss.  These days, it seems that most cell phones, even somewhat older ones, have digital cameras built right in.  Surely some of the many unused cell phones you are hoarding has some type of camera built in.

Even if you can’t afford a cell phone plan, you can at least use the camera, right?  Find one that accepts an external card or USB cord so you can retrieve those photos.

4. 911 Emergency Phone

At least in the US, all cell phone carriers are supposed to design their phones to be able to access 911, whether or not they are activated.  What does that mean for us?  Any phone we have lying around should be able to dial 911 in an emergency.  This can come in handy in many different situations.

One such situation would be anytime you are driving.  Why not keep a phone charged and in the glove box just in case?  Also, since you already keep that unactivated phone by your bed as a flashlight, just remember that in the case of a midnight intruder, the phone will double as an emergency 911 phone.  This handy feature will come in handy further down the list!

Properly dispose of it!

5.  Sell It For Cash

If you have all of those cell phones just sitting in that drawer, why not get a little extra cash for them?  Someone will actually buy used phones from me?  Yes they will!  Besides selling them on sites like eBay, here are several articles written here on MakeUseOf showing just how and where to sell your cells :

• SellMyOldCellPhone : Sell your Old Cell Phone,

• HowTo: Sell Old Cell Phones and iPods,

• BuyMyBrokeniPod: Sell Old or Broken iPods and iPhones,

• Venjuvo: Get Cash for Your Old Electronics and Gadgets.

6. Donate It

There are many organizations that will take your unused cell phones off you.  For instance, women’s shelters can use them as emergency phones for women in abusive situations to call 911 in the case of an emergency.  Also, senior centers and senior citizens can make use of them for the same reason (check out CharityGuide for some more information).

Then there are also organizations who will accept them and sell them to recycling centers to use the funds for some type of charity (check out Cell Phones for Soldiers as an example).

Want to do something good for someone else while getting rid of your cell phone clutter?  Now you have no excuse!

7. Return It

In many cases the store that you bought the phone from is obligated to receive it back again.  In some areas, retailers that sell electronic equipment need to be able to expose of it also.  Many of them will recycle or donate them for you.  This option of disposal is probably the easiest but comes with the least reward.  So it’s up to you.

There you have it!  7 things to do with those old cell phones you have sitting around.  Hey, and as a bonus, James has previously written an article about how to use your cell phone as a copy machine.  This can also work with unused cell phones if you have a way to get the images off them so add this to the list someplace.

Like I said, if you can add to this list, many could benefit from your wisdom.  What other things could someone do with old cell phones?

Image credits: MorgueFile.com

This is exactly what iNumbr does for phone numbers. The free, temporary phone number you give out simply forwards to a number specified by you and then it will expire or self-destruct when you want it to!

It is a proven fact that by providing a phone number you are much much more likely to make a sale. It adds to your credibility as well as it shows you care.

Let’s take a look at how iNumbr can help you in your eBay auctions, classified ads or even to give out to girls you meet at a club. Wow that’s a good idea ““ too bad it’s about 10 years too late for me. Kids today and this new fangled technology!

When you arrive at iNumbr you will see a site that looks like this:

Simply click the link that says Get your Free iNumbr. You will need an email address and a phone number to have iNumbr forward your calls. Once you click the link you will get hit with a little human verification to make sure you are not a spam bot or something similar:

After you hit submit on your verification you will be sent to a page to set up your actual free temporary phone number. That screen looks like this:

From this screen you can choose your preferred area code. Most major United States markets are included in the list. These are:

• Atlanta 678
• Boston 617
• Chicago 773
• Cincinnati 513
• Dallas 214
• Detroit 313
• Houston 713
• Las Vegas 213
• Miami 786
• New Jersey 973
• New York 347
• Phoneix 602
• Pittsburg 412
• Portland 503
• Salt Lake City 801
• San Diego 213
• San Fransisco 415
• San Jose 408
• Seattle 206
• St. Lois 314
• Washington DC 202

If your area code is not included it might be added in a future release or you could always email the developers begging pleading asking nicely for them to add it!

Next up you choose when should they disconnect the free, temporary phone number (you can change this in your control panel later):

Then after you are finished, submit the form and you will be sent to a page with your information on it:

So here you will see how long your number is active for, what number and extension the caller needs to dial, where the call will be forwarded to and how you can record a personal greeting, as well as your password.

Now when someone calls your iNumbr they will be asked for their name. Then your phone will ring with the name that they left.  You can then choose to answer it or send it to voicemail.

This is a really nifty service! Do you use this or something similar? We would love to hear about your experiences in the comments!

This web application is called S4ve.as and if you need to say it out loud it would be “Save As”. OK ready class let’s say it together now…. Save As.  Sorry I have been watching WAY TOO much children’s programing nowadays!

When I say no restrictions on uploading I mean that you can upload any file type or file size. But please note that the files are only saved for 24 hours and then they will be deleted. Also the files are temporarily stored on S4ve As’s servers and there is no security on who can or cannot download. So obviously this is not the place to upload your tax return files for your accountant to download. Keep that in mind.

Let’s see how Save As works. We will start by shooting on over to S4ve.as and we will see a simple dialogue box in the center of the screen. It wants to know what you want to upload.

Simply click on the box or the select file button. That will launch your built in Windows find dialogue box or another if you are on another operating system like Mac or Linux. I have not tried it with either of these operating systems but in theory it should work. If you try it out let us know in the comments.

After you hit Open the file name will appear in the box with an X next to it. Hit that X if you want to remove it and start again. The file’s size will appear below the box in a sentence that says press upload to being transferring x MB.

When you are ready hit the magic upload button and your file will start transferring into the clouds. The transfer speed I got was pretty awesome for a free service. I was uploading at almost 4 Megabits Per Second.

My upload was done in about 15 seconds. When it was complete I saw a new screen. It looked like this:

This window shows me a bitl.ly link to the file, a direct download link, a created date, expiration date and the type of file it is. Very, very nicely done. Once you have uploaded the file you can send the links on to who ever needs to download the file. Once they click the link they will get a file download dialogue box like this one below.

Again the download process just like the upload process should work on any platform. If you try it on something other than a PC shoot us a note in the comments to let us know if it worked, didn’t work or blew up your computer (just kidding”¦)

Now we have discovered a service that does ALL the hard work for you! It’s called DinkyPage and can be found here.

All you need is content and if you want to use pictures, a place to host them.

When you arrive at the Dinky home page you have one large option and a smaller one below. You can create a new free web page or create a custom page with a custom name. This means your page’s URL will be something like www.DinkyPage.com/Name instead of www.DinkyPage.com/74u“¦

This is a great way to make the URL easy to remember and it looks better in an email. Create one of the links and move on.

If you choose the custom name for your page you will have to input it before your page is created. Next up you will find yourself looking at a What You See Is What You Get editor (WYSIWYG) – this makes creating the page ultra simple.

Start by naming your page in the page title area. This will show up in the web page’s header. Below that you have a text box to enter anything you want. Type in some text and then highlight it. Click the globe with a paperclip in the toolbar to create a hyperlink. This means when your reader reads this page they can click on this line of text to go somewhere else. The link will appear underlined. Go ahead and try it out.

The dialogue box looks like this:

For a normal link just leave it as is, but if you want to make the link a Mail To: or link to another portion of the page pull down the link type box and choose accordingly:

Now like I said before if you want to add images to your site they need to be hosted elsewhere. You can hotlink to an image by right-clicking on the website it is hosted on and selecting properties. Copy the image’s full URL and paste it into the URL box. The image will appear in the preview box on the right.

Hit OK and your image will appear with your text like so:

So below you can see my page with some text, a hyperlink and an image. I then hit the Publish Changes button in the upper left hand corner and the site is now live on the world wide web. You can see this page here: http://dinkypage.com/74u.

This is what your page looks like online. Not too shabby for a few minutes of work.

And if you used a custom name for your URL it will look something like this:

If you are feeling adventurous you can click on the HTML mode button in the upper right hand corner and edit the real deal HTML of your page. This is awesome for adding other code into the page or pasting in a ready made document.

Do you have another method of creating a free web page to get information out on the internet quickly? We have previously profiled how to create a disposable webpage but we would love to hear your suggestions in the comments!

Maybe you need to fill in an email for a one-time registration that, you are sure, will only lead to spam. That is where temporary email services come into play. Today we will talk about 5 of those that I highly recommend.

Here they are (in no particular order):

Mailinator

Mailinator is definitely one of my favorite temporary email services. Besides providing the standard temporary email, Mailinator offers RSS feeds, a widget for use on your website, the ability to delete messages – just in case someone else is using the same email, alternative emails for each individual email, and 7 domains to use that all redirect to the same email (just in case someone inconveniently blocked @mailinator.com)

YopMail

YopMail has a more advanced user interface than most other temporary email services that makes it look almost like a realistic webmail. Of course there are many features, including: RSS feeds, ability to delete messages, widgets, a realistic email viewer (with all of the functions of a full blown webmail), and the ability to send messages to other @ yopmail.com accounts. Read more on Yopmail at here.

MintEmail

MintEmail is another extremely simple and easy to use temporary email service that definitely makes temporary email fast. Simply click “Create New Mailbox” and immediately you have a new, randomly generated temporary email address for use anywhere on the web. Emails are kept for 3 hours, but can be easily extended. Another great feature of MintMail, is the ability to forward emails to any other email address for a certain amount of time to get only the few emails you need without having to constantly check MintMail.

FilzMail

FilzMail offers the standards of many temporary email services with RSS feeds, clean interface, and a long-lasting email – in comparison to other temporary email services (24 hours). You can either set your own temporary email address or get a randomly generated temporary address that is automatically updated.

10MinuteMail

10MinuteMail offers users the ability to use a randomly generated, free 10 minute temporary email address that should definitely fill the need of a fast, simple, and one-time temporary email address quite easily (and it automatically updates too!).

What do you use for that quick temporary email service? Tell us in the comments!

Disposable services are incredibly useful when you just want a bit of anonymity online. Can’t trust a website that looks a little dodgy with your real email? Use a fake one which you can gain access to later.

Disposable services are also good for cases where you just need something to exist for a limited amount of time and not reside in cyberspace forever, for example files you want to share with your friend, or in this case ““ a webpage which expires after a certain timeframe. Below, I’ll show you how to create a disposable webpage in a matter of seconds.

Why would you want a disposable webpage?

The aptly named service is called DisposableWebPage and is completely free. What it does is that it creates an instant wiki for you to edit, share and perhaps collaborate with your friends. This also means you reap all the benefits of a wiki system with rich text editing and collaboration built directly into the system ““ plus you have version control so you can easily revert back to previous forms if something goes wrong.

These web pages can last up to 90 days or less, and can be very useful for event based discussions, for example, party or travel decisions ““ where it’s important to get everyone’s input but you don’t need to have the details stuck online after the event.

With this service, you don’t have to worry if all your friends use Facebook, Friendster, or whatever social networking service to organize and plan an event. Everything is on a single web page, accessible by all.

You can also put in photos, and even easily integrate sticky notes, and maps to make the page more dynamic.

Finally, you don’t have to worry about the site expiring without your knowledge. Every time you visit the page, a countdown timer to expiry is prominently displayed.

How to set up your own disposable page

What I really liked about it is that it’s pretty much quick and dirty. You don’t need to register in order to create a page, so your disposable web page can be set up in just a matter of clicks. To show you how easy it is, I’m going to walk you through making one for yourself.

Step 1: Go to DisposableWebPage, and click on the big red link, and name your page

Step 2: Your page is created! Now you can bookmark it right away, start editing it, change the timer, or send editor keys to your friends so they can edit this page as well.

Step 3: After you make the changes you want, send it to your friends so they can collaborate as well.

That’s all there is to it! Simple, and flexible for quick and dirty solutions where you need a web page which expires after a certain amount of time.

Do you use disposable tools? If so, tell us which ones you use in the comments!

Photo Credit : Wok

To get started, just download the addon for your browser. If you’re using Firefox or IE, download and install this search addon. Once it’s installed, just select YopMail.com from your search drop-down list. Enter in a random string of characters, and that will become your @yopmail.com email address. Hit enter, and you’ll be taken to the mailbox for that address. Couldn’t be easier!

Opera users can download this widget. Once it’s installed, open the widget and click the “lightning” button to generate a random address. Then click the Mailbox button and Opera will open a new tab and display your newly created mailbox.

Creating random temporary email addresses is perfect for those web signup forms if you don’t want to get hit by spam mail. If you value your privacy online, these browser addons are perfect for creating one-off “use them then toss them” email addresses.

You might also want to check out 5 “DISPOSABLE” Web Accounts to Keep Your Identity Safe by Aibek and Get a Grip on eMail Spam Before It Gets A Grip On You by Tina.

I. Organize your eMail accounts

This is the most difficult part since it requires some serious thought and discipline. Set up different accounts for different purposes. Use one for friends and family and never post it online. Try to do the same for work. Use other accounts for shopping online, social networks, chat friends, message boards etc. It’s tedious at first, but if you’re using Pop mail, it’s easy to manage multiple accounts.

When creating your eMail address be creative, don’t use words found in a dictionary, combine with numbers or letters. The reason is that most spam doesn’t reach your inbox because your address was extracted from a dubious source. Rather you are being spammed randomly by so-called dictionary attacks on your eMail provider.

II. Mask your eMail address

Fortunately, most spam bots are stupid. For example they don’t recognize eMail addresses typed with spaces or displayed in images. There are several excellent tools that may help you to protect your eMail address and keep it spam free:

1. Hide your eMail address in an image.It requires some level of intelligence to copy text from an image.

Tool: Spam Proof eMail Generator

2. Hide your eMail address behind a CAPTCHA.

Again, whoever wants to access your eMail address needs to be smart enough to pass the test.

Tool: MailHide ReCaptcha

3. Hide your eMail address in a contact form.

This will not reveal your eMail address at all.

Tools: Kontactr, ReachBy and Contactify

III. Use temporary or fake information

How many times a week do you sign up for something new online, and how many times will you keep coming back to that service? Temporary eMail addresses are a great solution to avoid sharing your eMail address in the first place. Should you decide to stick with that service, you can still give them your valid address later on. Again, there are numerous sites to consider.

1. Spam Motel.

My personal favorite. You sign up a permanent account with them and create temporary eMail addresses as you need them. Mail is being forwarded to your real address. Once spam finds you, you cancel the address it’s coming through and start over. There is a similar tool called GishPuppy , however the signup form didn’t work for me.

2. Spamgourmet

It’s one of many similar services. It creates a disposable eMail on the spot which automatically expires after having forwarded three messages. You need to sign up with Spamgourmet to use it.

3. MintEmail

Here you can create a temporary address that will expire after four hours or after three months. What’s cool is that the four hour address is automatically created and saved to your clipboard once you enter the page. The page proceeds to constantly check for incoming mail on that address. The concept is awesome. However, while testing my test eMail had not arrived after over one hour. Hopefully a temporary issue.

4. BugMeNot

Step out of the vicious eMail cycle and use disposable login data, including an invalid eMail address.

IV. Filter Spam

Chances are you have an eMail address that is already being spammed but you don’t want to part with it. Depending on how you check your mail you can either manually teach your mail program to better recognize spam or, in case you’re using POP mail or IMAP, you can use a tool that sits between your eMail provider and your inbox to filter incoming eMail.

1. Writing Mail Filters

This article from Spamnation gives excellent directions on how to decrease the amount of spam that reaches your inbox with a step by step guide.

2. Spamihilator

A free Windows tool that works with POP3 and IMAP accounts. Spamihilator claims to identify more than 98% of incoming spam mail. You can help to increase its success rate by customizing the settings, such as adding words to the Spam Words list, enabling the DCC-Filter to recognize unsolicited bulk mail, add your friends’ eMail addresses, and install plugins to further improve the overall performance.

Standard mail programs are recognized automatically (although it can take ages), those that are not supported can be set up manually.

The online documentation for every aspect of the program is very thorough and clear.

V. Use Gmail

Gmail comes with a few nifty features that can make your life a lot easier. First of all the default Gmail spam filter is pretty good. Then you can use a single Gmail account and have multiple eMail addresses with it. Just sort them into different folders to effectively separate spam from real mail. You can track and block spammers by adding cue words to your eMail address when signing up anywhere. Read more in Aibek’s article 1 Awesome Gmail tip You Don’t Know about. Seriously.

How much time do you spend digging through spam and how do you fight it?

(By) This post was written by one of our regular authors, Tina from Recommended.