It Came From PCR!

How's that for a nice little homage to 1950s horror movies? "PCR" is an acronym we have that stands for "PC Recycling." When we need to get rid of old hardware - whether it is broken, old, not energy efficient, etc… - we fill out an online form and the folks from PCR swing by to pick up the gear.

Every so often, we may need something from PCR. In a recent example, someone on our team need 80 power cables to go into a lab. Power cables are kind of an interesting case. Just about every piece of gear we get comes with a standard power cable. Since most of the gear we get is replacing existing gear - think upgrade - the power cable is not needed. It usually gets thrown into whatever bunch of gear is getting recycled and goes away during the next pick up. In this case, though, we needed some of the cables back.

Here's what they sent:

That's far more than 80 cables :) From their point of view, though, they probably had this big box full of cables and nothing to do with them, so they jumped at the chance to "move some product." As it turns out, this box is sitting just outside my office right now and I am waiting for them to come take it out of the way.

Just thought I would share a little snippet of life at Microsoft.

Questions, comments, concerns and criticisms always welcome,

John