Bill Detwiler

Pet owners show off their four-legged peripherals.

Software and hardware from Carnegie Mellon could make it easier for people who speak different languages to understand each other.

Consumers have taken to the Razr’s ultrathin design, making it a top seller. Here are some other winning designs.

An English inventor turns his old VCR into an automatic cat feeder.

Boston’s Museum of Science gathers props from the interstellar movies to teach lessons about technology.

The newly rebuilt de Young Museum in San Francisco offers podcasts and cutting-edge high-tech displays to bring visitors closer to the art.

Description

The question of what to do with all of the old information technology equipment we discard each year is a complicated one with no easy answers. Recycling the raw materials holds the most promise and is the route most of us will take. However, there are always some who walk to the beat of a different drummer.

In a previous TechRepublic photo gallery, we showed you some of the innovative ways people are using old PC equipment. This photo gallery shows you one innovative way to use an old PC monitor case after its insides have been removed and sent to the recycling bin.

Break out the canned air, anti-static wipes, and mini-vacuum–these computers are dust-covered nightmares. It’s hard to tell whether some of the machines in this photo gallery are computers or lint traps. See what happens when the dust bunnies take over.

Not all iPod add-ons will be compatible with Apple’s latest music players.

Cisco has developed an Internet Protocol system to create compatibility between radio networks at public-safety agencies.

To help improve security on the ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC, Lenovo has included an integrated fingerprint reader. With it, you can use fingerprint scans in place of Windows XP’s traditional user id/password combination. This Screen By Screen shows you how to set up and configure it.

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