Got you beat, on the car at least. Mine is 16 years old. I don't buy new stuff just for the sake of it, squeeze the last bit of use out of almost everything, but I have had a weakness for computers the last few years. Didn't even get my first one 'til I was almost 50 but then got a monkey on my back!

Power up here in NW Indiana has gotten expensive this last year or two. I figure it costs up to $10 per month to run one pc 24/7. When you've got 12 of 'em and you have to run summertime A/C too, the bills are real eye openers.

Elsewhere in these forums, a member was complaining that he had 15 machines in his farm that could no longer be used because they were below spec for the new projects. At my power cost, I would be spending as much as $1800 per year to run those things. For that amount, I could go to Circuit City and buy 4 or 5 economy type basic pc's that would double or maybe triple my result production and cost 2/3's less to operate.

Keeping old computers out of landfills is laudable, but not practical. There comes a time when the useful life of just about any product is over. I think any computer under 1 gHZ has reached that point. New gear has gotten so cheap and can do so much more for less cost, it makes little sense to keep the old stuff heating up the environment.

Just my 2 cents.

Gotta run. Daughter wants to use the phone. I'm on dialup, too!

Happy crunching.

Those were the first coins in the U.S. that contained the motto "In God we trust" but were abandoned in 1874.

Yes, it is. "Old ways" generates a lot of fees. Southwestern Bell was among the last to offer high speed dialups, so bought AT&T and changed its name to .... AT&T.

The phone company in Hawaii claimed they got some new equipment when I was there. It turned out to be some stuff that San Francisco threw away.

Don't get me started on phone fees.

LOCAL:

Basic local service line#1 12.00
call waiting 2.80 (we use that one a lot)
touchtone 0.18

charges for line #2 (computer phone line) 9.85 (no long distance)
touchtone 0.18

SURCHARGES
Federal Subscriber Line Charge 10.50
911 service fee 1.00
Texas TIF reimbursement 0.46
Federal Universal Service Fee 1.14
Expanded local calling service 0.08
Texas Rate Group Reclass Surcharge 1.42
Municipal Charge 2.38

TAXES
Federal (local charges) 1.26
Federal (non-regulated and toll charges 0.02
State and local (local charges) 3.45
state and local (non regulated and toll charges) 0.04

LONG DISTANCE:

Justcall 3 cents 3.99

[ ACTUAL LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE CALLS ] 4.08

SURCHARGES AND OTHER FEES
Federal Universal Service Fund 0.63
Federal Regulatory Fee 0.04
Texas 911 Equalization Surcharge 0.02
Texas Telecom Infrastructure Fund Reimbursement 0.11
Texas USF Charge (5.65%) 0.14

(MORE) TAXES
Federal Tax 0.27
State and local taxes 0.62

(some subtotal lines omitted)
TOTAL CURRENT CHARGES 58.16