Looking for ideas. Apple offered me $500 for my old laptop, but when I sent it in they say, "Oh, a scratch. We'll give you $100." There's no way a perfectly functioning and upgraded M1 MacBook Air is worth only $100. So I got it back.
Now I'm looking for a good home for it. I don't want money, I want it to have a good life. Two conditions:
1. It has to help make the world a better place.
2. I'm not shipping it, so the transfer has to be local to Sydney.
@robpike Just a thought if you can't find someone to take it: there are a lot of distributed computing projects you could support with an unused laptop. All the "@home" stuff (eg, folding@home, which I supported for a long time with my extra computers before I thinned out my collection).
Most are easy to set up and can really make a difference! There are a broad range of topics too, so you can probably find something that resonates with you.
@fencepost @robpike Fair point, although there are options to limit utilization and runtime (eg, use 75% of the CPU only between 6pm and 6am).
With two older systems running (7700k, 4790k), my power bill went up by about $12 per month. But of course the actual cost depends on your rates!
rob pike
Delta Sierra
Alan Miller 
🇺🇦