Something I couldn't fit into my guide on How to Use a Computer, but really needs to be addressed anyway is how to buy a computer. I mean, sure, you can just go onto whateverbigboxstore.corn and buy the first computer that you see, but that's a bad idea. Buying from huge online storefronts does nothing but generate electronic waste, as they've all got contracts with the equipment companies to rotate out their stock when a new model is released. Say, an iPhone, for instance. When the iPhone X was released, Apple expected everyone to immediately stop selling the iPhone 9 and begin selling the new one. What happened? Huge, great, heaping piles of iPhone 9s just got pitched into the skip because they were out of date, and not just from the merchants, either. Apple owners are notorious for brand loyalty and also threw away their iPhone 9s to replace them with iPhone Xs. It's the same way with computers. Asus builds an all-in-one desktop computer with Windows 10, 16 GB of RAM, and a Toshiba 512 GB hard disk; then, they come back six months later and build a new all-in-one desktop computer, with exactly the same specifications as the last one, except this one has a WD hard disk instead of a Toshiba. The new one costs more, is advertised as the "next generation", and is supposed to completely supplant the Toshiba version, but is otherwise exactly the same.
Well, all-in-one desktops are stupid for a number of reasons, but you get the idea. Computer makers these days are trying to make their equipment as much like mobile devices as possible, not insofar as they're mobile, but the same kinds of restrictions on modifications and root directory access. That's one of the big things about all-in-ones that I don't like; you're stuck with the internal hardware that the (very mean) OEM gives you, without any ability to add or modify anything. Also, not being able to mod my computer strips me of my agency to make decisions about my technology; without the ability to rip out and replace the hard disk and the operating system if I so desire, the company forces me to accept their terms and conditions. There is only ONE term and condition: when the product leaves the factory, it belongs to the buyer, not the company. This is not fungible or negotiable, it is irrevocable and mandatory. The second the company tries to foist its own values onto my technology is the moment I disconnect it from all communication channels.
What has any of this got to do with computer literacy? Let's talk about computer refurbishment for a bit. Refurbishment occurs when a buyer can obtain a large quantity of computers at bargain-basement prices and prepares them to be resold at cost. A refurbished computer might have come from a big-box store who negotiated with a refurbishment company to sell what was left of last year's stock (interestingly, more retailers are starting to realise electronic waste is a bad thing), or it might have come from an office that upgraded their systems and didn't want to just throw their old ones out. The refurbisher wipes the hard drive or replaces it, replaces the RAM, and installs a new operating system. While Windows 10 refurbs are more common, you can also find Windows 8, 7, and XP. Yes, Windows XP! Refurbishment is magic! Apple doesn't like it, but refurb MacOS computers are also available, but then we come back to the inherent unmoddability of Apple devices. Need more RAM? Sorry! This is an Apple product, we don't do that here. Anyway, the best thing about refurbished Windows PCs is the price. They're sold at absolute rock-bottom prices, because they don't come with any but the most basic chipsets. Obviously, if you have gaming or pro audio aspirations, you're expected to supply your own hardware-- which you can do fairly simply, if not cheaply-- but for most types of general computer use, a barebones computer is all you need. It has enough onboard RAM to run media players and web browsers, on-chip audio and video capability, usually an optical drive, and enough USB ports to connect up all the devices you could possibly need. The only caution is, the Dell Optiplex series, of which reconditions are fairly common, has no SD card reader, requiring the user to either supply their own USB card reader or use only flashdrives to store their files.
I own 2 refurbished computers, a laptop and a desktop, and in neither case did I have to spend more than $300. The desktop PC only cost $175, because it had only the Dell factory chipsets, nothing else. If I need to (and I haven't yet had a need to), I can install additional RAM, video cards, or other kinds of expansion boards myself. I haven't needed to because I only use that computer for video streaming, datahoarding, and Super NES emulation; and the factory chipsets work fine for that purpose. Obviously, you should have some idea in mind of what you want to do with the computer once you've got it. It doesn't need to be as specialised as mine; general purpose home computing is a perfectly reasonable thing to want a computer for. When it comes to laptops, however... you really do need a concrete vision for a refurbished laptop. The reason is laptops are notoriously uncustomisable; you can swap out the hard disk and that's about all. In general, I don't recommend laptops for gaming machines. If your gaming interests end with Nintendo 64 ROMs, then laptops are fine; but big, photorealistic games with netplay and voice chat; don't get your hopes up. Don't get me wrong, they do make gaming laptops, but as with anything else called "gaming", they command steep prices and are not really suitable for anything else.
As you can see, refurbished computers are good. However, refurbished expansion boards are not. This was especially big business after the NFT boom of 2022, when the refurbished parts market saw a glut of used graphics cards being sold for low prices by the techbros who thought they could make a mint on Etherium. It brought up a key weakness in refurbished parts, in that parts get used and used until they are just on the cusp of expiration. Right before their last gasp of breath, the operator shuts the equipment off and takes the part out of the computer to sell to an unsuspecting schmoe just trying to complete his first new build. "Oh, saints be praised! I found a Nvidia RTX for less than $900!" Well, up until last week, that Nvidia and 99 others were running full-bore, day and night, for 3 months trying to crunch enough numbers to find a vacant spot in the blockchain, and it's so knackered that it won't survive another boot.
This tends to be true of budget parts, in general. If you find a graphics card, for instance, that promises the same performance as a Nvidia or ATI but for a fraction of the cost, be sceptical. People will either rewrite microcode inside the part's chipset to will fool a computer into thinking that it has greater capabilities than it has, or will modify the casing to make the buyer believe they are getting something different than what is actually sold. You see this a lot with 1-terabyte SD cards that are sold for less than $50; what the seller has done is acquired an old-style 1- or 2-GB card, acided off the identifying numbers and brand names from the casing, and printed a new label that makes false claims. Since most people are never going to store more than a few hundred megabytes of data onto their SD cards, they will never notice the duplicity. Walmart and Amazon are the worst offenders here, and I'm starting to hear bad things about Newegg as well. When it comes to buying new parts for your refurbished computer, do so in person at the store wherever possible. Online, look for name-brand parts being sold by the store, itself. If the website provides no way of seeing who is providing the product, do not buy.
I wrote once that computer ownership is freedom. It's your computer, you don't need to share it with anyone, and you can store whatever files you want to store and install whatever software you want to install. It's not the family computer next to the basement staircase-- if you want to torrent porn, you can do it. If you want to play Minecraft for 18 straight hours, you can do it (stand up and walk around occasionally, though). Can't you do that with a mobile phone? Yes, but there's a big, glaring difference; you can fully disconnect a computer from the internet. Specialists call it "airgapping", inasmuch as you pull the USB WiFi dongle out of the computer, thereby creating a gap of air between the computer and the network. You can't airgap a phone; even shutting the phone completely off will not disconnect it from the network. I've talked about this, I don't need to go over it again; but the fact is that, on a computer, your files are private. Remember "private"? No government agency monitoring your computer for lawbreaking, no corporate feudal entity selling your data to make a swift quid, no wireless provider waiting for you to run the wrong kind of programme so they can disconnect your service and charge you a fine. The only way anyone's going to know what your computer has on it is if they physically come into the room, sit down at the computer, and rifle through your files. Well, and if you get some kind of spyware, but you already know about Mozilla Firefox and safe browsing habits, so you don't have that.
I think the problem that people have with refurbishment is the picture of technological reconditioning that police procedurals have painted onto everyone's brains. Sure, it turns a nifty C.S.I. plot to have a serial killer working for a refurbishment company and installing spyware in the reconditioning process so he can kill the people who buy the computers, but at the end of the day, as with most other cop show plots, it just isn't very realistic. I can do minutes on how badly copaganda has eroded America's critical thinking skills, but that's a different post. The other problem is the corporate ideal of "new is better". HP would have you believe that old computers are slow, buggy, and they fall apart when you press a button too much. Maybe you've even heard horror stories like this from family and friends: "oh, don't buy a used computer, it'll go so slow you can't handle it." Admittedly, old processors will run slowly. Very slowly. But, refurbishers will replace processors and entire motherboards as necessary. If someone just wipes the hard disk and says, "welp, that's good enough for me", without doing any kind of evaluation to determine what needs replacement, then of course it's going to run objectionably. Relative to new computers, as in "just out of the box from the factory" new? If I put my Thinkpad T430 in a race against a budget HP Windows 10 laptop, I would win. Since the refurbisher doesn't have to contract with components manufacturers, they can sell faster computers for less money. Why did I pick these two computers? I've actually measured speed with them before. My T430 only needs 25 seconds to A, fully boot; B, connect to the internet; and C, open Mozilla Firefox and load a webpage; whereas it takes my mum's HP Windows 10 laptop 90 seconds. 30 seconds extra if she starts the VPN. My laptop was made in 2012, hers was made in 2020. Newer ain't always better, spud.
--28 May 2023--