Today was nice and sunny and relatively cool, perhaps slightly cooler than my ideal temperature but still more comfortable from the humid heat of the past few days. I overslept and missed out on my morning trip to Rosemont but I made my usual run in the Plateau / Mile-End.
I found this pile of trash in the alley adjacent to Parc. It looked like someone moved away. Inside the long cardboard box was a green screen for making movies, which I moved to somewhere more visible for others to potentially find.
These new-in-plastic books were inside a never-opened parcel. I ended up leaving them in the Give Box on St Viateur.
My best find from this place, however, was this Sony DVCAM Player / Recorder. I never heard of this format before but apparently it’s popular for people shooting their own film, including journalists. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the DC adaptor which would allow me to test it (and it seems to use a strange connector). Still, a machine of the same model being sold for parts (and without a power cord) on Ebay ended up going for 140$. I’d be pretty happy with that!
I also came across this box of French-English translation books. Most focus on very technical translation, such as for use in plumbing and Canadian census data. I thought I’d drop them off somewhere where someone else might find them but I ended up just bringing them all the way home. If anyone has any interest in these let me know and maybe we can arrange some sort of trade.
Not a bad start to the week. I’m going to a friend’s in NDG tonight, which I may use as an excuse to check out the trash in Verdun. I’ll keep you posted.
I think the translation lexicons are probably only good for recycling. I recycled mine (I am a translator) a few years ago. All that stuff is now included in http://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/ and http://gdt.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/ .
You’re probably right. I’ll probably end up putting them out on the curb, maybe someone will take an interest
Have you got people following you now, hoping you find interesting things that you don’t want?
I wonder if the AC adapter was there in the pile or not? A few months back, I found a 240 to 120V transformer, I assumed someone had brought it back from Europe. I was tempted, but decided I had no use for it. I dig in the box, and find a sander, one of those more recent ones with a small triangle at the front for the sanding paper. I figured it might need new brushes, something simple. I get home, look it over, and realize why it was tossed, why the transformer was there. The sander is a 240v model, so clearly the transformer was to use it here. Had I been paying attention at the time, I would have brought the transformer home too, instead of seeing it as an unrelated item.
On the other hand, when I found that Xbox 360 on Friday night, I did look carefully in the box for whatever else it held, which meant I found the AV cable and the power supply. Oddly, I found an Xbox power supply just like it about a month ago, no Xbox though.
I got a ten dollar GPS (yes, it does maps) at the Westmount Rotary Club “garage sale” (items are donated, they sell them off), it’s actually a car model with built in battery so it can be used on foot. All anonymously alone in among sports equipment, not much to indicate what it was unless one looked close. And it works fine, the battery even holds a charge. Someone must have gotten tired of it, a step away from being tossed out. And then I bought for 25cents an AC adapter for it at a later garage sale, it easier spending the 24 cents than looking through the box of ac adapters I’ve already brought home…
I also got some Pcmcia cards for a Powerbook I bought used some years back. Like the AC adapter, put out by the owner having the garage sale, and likely not expecting someone to come along and buy them. I took one ethernet card, and a wifi card, and then the guy was handing me the two other ethernet cards, and as I came back down the street, he hurried over with the cdrom for the wifi card. Just because someone actually came by and was interested enough to buy them..
Michael
I checked but didn’t see it. I should maybe have checked a bit more though. It might be worth my while to buy the adaptor so I can test it out. If it actually works I could make a lot more cash than if I just sold it for parts.
Every time I find something that really interests me, I always wonder, it nags at me, “did I find it all”? Did someone get there before me and find related but “better” stuff?
Reality is that if I find something that interests me, I likely am the first one. And I’ve found plenty of stuff where things are missing, why did someone toss an Xbox 360 power supply a few weeks ago, but not the Xbox?
What kind of connector does the recorder use? It might be different from the usual coaxial connectors used with AC adapters, but it might not be exotic, thus allowing some other power supply to be used to try it out. On the other hand, that Xbox I found, I’ve never seen a connector like that.
Michael
Yup, I feel the same thing a lot of the time. In the end you gotta be satisfied with what you got.
It looks a bit like your average 12 dc adaptor hole but apparently just different enough not to accept the various adaptors I have lying around
Verdun, eh? I curious to hear if you found anything there.
A grren screen in the garbage?!!! WTF!?