:lol:
it is usable, no argument there, but "nice specs"? i think not. whatever. it's fun, and old enough to keep around as a museum piece.

Compared to other retro pieces I have seen, this one is like brand new for me almost. Edited to add: Latest perhaps is a better word for this PC.

Just found an old Seagate 60 Gb IDE hard drive in recycling bin. Not sure if it works or not, will try it later.

Edited to add:
Just tried this HD, it was set initially as Master, single and gave
boot failure. Set it to slave and my main HD booted well, this Seagate HD was detected well on boot, mounted easily, has just windows NT on it and is fully free. If and when there is a future need to use it, I will just erase it fully and install Linux on it. Will store it safely till, then. Glad I am not storing a non working HD.

This HD was last used in 2004. Surprising it was not used for so long. Also found several video cassettes along with this HD, got 3 of them home and opened one, took the tape out, it is a lot of tape, will figure out how to use it, good to tie stuff etc.,

Have to admit that while older tech is interesting at home, at work one gets hit hard by a layoff fast when working with older tech and if one doesn't upgrade skills constantly:
http://www.rediff.com/business/repor...y/20170515.htm

You pick your news article to fit your argument.
Just yesterday I was reading about the demand for "old school" Cobol programmers at NASA.

If I was younger, or unattached, I might have applied for that. I might still ask if they want part time from home staff.

See the need for retro tech is there but it is a niche and very limited. For eg., Navy etc., also use older systems such as even Vax, Planes still use floppy drives etc., However, when it comes to Jobs, few folks already in those systems will fill those positions after training.

Use of such older tech will not create many IT jobs. Hope this clarification helps.

Banks and financial institutions along with MANY large companies still use older PROVEN technology.
Many of those will and do turn staff around.

From what is observed, this is also a niche need compared to general Global IT use.

I wouldn't call banking and financial services niche.
Also the vast majority of government, both local and national use older technology.

If all this were true, then why are there so many layoffs due to older tech being replaced by newer tech ?

Because they are BEGINNING to update to newer tech. In many cases that is being forced by the lack of support by the manufacturers for the older tech that MARKETTING have decided is out of date - not that it has ceased to work.
The problem for replacing the software is that it IS tried and tested over many years and there has been a reluctance to spend money on replacing something that works.
Look at how much of a panic there was when the century rolled over. Many people have said that the software industry cried Wolf when there was no need to. What those people don't know is how much effort went into checking software in the year leading up to it. I know that I personally checked as many as a thousand programs and needed to modify about 15% of them. In most cases the change wasn't anything other than purely cosmetic in that the date was just printed or something like that, but there were a significant number where the date was used in comparisons and those could be life threatening. In some cases it takes years for newer software to be fully approved for general use.

Companies are forced to improve, reduce costs, energy, increase performance and security. So when new tech offers them this, they are forced to change. We see this pattern all over. Lots of new tech being sold.

I wish to make it clear, I am not a new tech shamer. There is a place for more new tech and a much smaller older tech these days. Helps to see things as they REALLY are.

Found a laptop cooling pad today, verified that it works well.

The power adapter I found in dumpster has cut wire, sparks and so is a fire hazard.
From now on must check all cables etc., that I get well visually to observe for cuts.

Tried the Bell Modem I got with 16V power, it needs just 12V and powered on very well. Then this is something else also that I can work with.

I have made several older power adapters valuable again by simply replacing faulty cords. On some it was only a little soldering and electrical tape, but newer ones you have to break and re-close the case and they are a pain to work on. Worth it to keep some older hardware working.