HN Explorer

Pay It Forward

44 points by proexploit ↗ HN
A month or two ago, I read about about someone (maybe vibhavs?) giving away a lot of old programming books they were done with, and was impressed with their generosity. I've been working hard to live simpler.

I've got 3 extra external hard drives that are unused (but not in box) and I'm just not getting any use out of them. As pretty as they are, I know they never will from me due to my overabundance of space already. I want to give them to someone who needs them (well, probably 3 someones) and can give them a little more use than I. I don't want any money, I'll even cover shipping (in the US please). If you're thankful, or even if you're just reading this, consider doing a random act of kindness for a stranger you meet tomorrow. Pay for a coffee or buy a lunch, it'll change their day.

Details: All HD's are identical. 1TB Western Digital Green Power @ 7200RPM in a Speed Metal copper-colored case (which you can see here: http://i.imgur.com/nzcE8.jpg).

I'm going to attempt to choose randomly provided there's enough interest. I haven't considered the format and I don't want to just do "first one to see it" but I'll do my best to be fair.

53 comments

[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 111 ms ] thread
cmelbye
I'd love one if you still have any left.
PhysicsAndYou
Thanks for doing this.

Random acts of kindness may not make the world go round but it certainly makes people happy =)

swwu
I'd love to have one too, if you still have any.
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Goosey
I like the concept. I will edit this comment with my random act of kindness tomorrow.
Goosey
Oh I guess I can't edit after too long. :) Here are mind kindnesses for today: - Told an older lady I passed walking my dog in the morning she looked nice today. She seemed to appreciate the compliment (but I ended up feeling a little creepy). - Alerted everyone in my office about Starbucks giving free coffee to people who bring in travel mugs today. Good for moral, bad for productivity.. :) - Helped a friend get motivated to start a project he has been thinking of doing for a long time. This probably will have the longest lasting effect.
jonah
I'm building up a computer to give to a starving (digital) artist friend but it only has a 40GB drive.
agnokapathetic
i'm a broke college student whose running out of space on his very old 300GB HD. Will edit random act of kindness tommorrow!
jamesshamenski
I love this idea. Free swap meet for HN! A few companies have toy'd around with the idea of earning community tokens to be turned in for other forms of karma.

I have a few network devices and office equipment that i should post on here if i deem that it's not spammy.

BTW, im interested in the drive. Thanks!

proexploit
Unless someone has a better idea, I'll give them out in this fashion:

1) Anyone who requests one gets added to the list (I'll do this tomorrow afternoon). If it's not requested, I'll assume not, just because some people are leaving comments about "good idea" etc. 2) I'll put them in a spreadsheet and then use http://andrew.hedges.name/experiments/random/ to generate 3 random numbers and attempt to contact those people. Someone doesn't work out, new random number.

If someone has a better idea, I'm all ears.

Side note: to those who said they'll be doing a random act of kindness tomorrow, amazing! Every little thing counts. I just wanted to be clear it's not a requirement.

proexploit
Ok, starting to enter all names and do the randomization. If I had 50 hard drives, I'd give you all one. Additionally, some people seem really in need of these hard drives. If you are, I certainly hope that you are one randomly picked. I can't take the time to try and evaluate who needs it most etc, but I hope that whether or not you are someone who receives one, that you still do a random act every once in a while.
proexploit
Ok, I've gone through and randomly selected the order. I'm not going to list the usernames right now in case someone lives out of country, can't be contacted etc, but with permission I'll list them upon shipment.
dmpayton
Please add me to the list. I've been running off of one 250GB since my 320GB had a hard disk crash, and I could really use the space.
dannytatom
I'm down for one. Also, if HN hasn't done this already, a secret santa of used tech stuff would be neat.
proexploit
That would be very cool. Or a year-round "secret santa" of tech skills. I've had great experiences trading my design skills for experienced programming etc. There's no shipping involved in that.
bcwood
This is a great idea - add me to the list, I could definitely use the extra storage space!
thecoolestcow
Wow this is a cool idea. Add me to the list please! I will pay it forward.
Qz
Put me down for one... I'm kind of isolated at the moment, so RAOK for a stranger is unlikely -- however I do have a bunch of books laying around that I've already read, mix of sci-fi and classics, hardcover and paperback. If I get selected I can mail out one or two to someone in dire need of reading material!
suvike
I'd love to be on the list. Thanks, proexploit!
lleger
I'm always down for free stuff.
pasbesoin
I'm actually shopping for some much needed backup, but other comments here present greater needs and/or projects. So, put me down as simply grateful for the gesture; I'll leave mention of my own shopping just as an indication (additional data point) of how generally useful that gesture is.

Cheers!

P.S. I don't know just when my next random act of kindness will come along, but they've been known to happen. :-)

proexploit
This is more generous than what I'm doing. I'm giving away something I don't have much of a use for and other people need. You're choosing to turn down something you need so someone more fortunate can have it. It's good to see people like you existing.
ztravis
I'm interested! Thanks!
tremendo
Amazing, my respect to you. I'd also love to be on the list and would gladly pay for shipping.
CrazedGeek
I, like most everyone else here, would love one.
niels_olson
My home desktop is a 7 yo dell that just this morning crunked the main hard drive (the one with the OS and grub). It only boots if I open the case and tap the drive with a hammer to get it spinning. Everything is backed up to a server (an 11 yo Dell running OpenSuSE 11.3) so I haven't lost any data. I would just get another computer, but I'm moving to San Diego and our house is under contract and we're thankfully only losing $20,000 on the deal (just cleared appraisal, yay!). As it happens, just this afternoon I put 3 hard drives in my Amazon basket of about this total capacity, along with a PCI SATA controller. It's crazy random coincidence so I will happily send you my crunked drive to inspect if you want to verify my claim (maybe after I try to wipe it though -- I think there are some crypto keys on there).

Anyway, look forward to finding out how this goes. Good on you for the effort. Cheers.

edit: thanks to whomever gave the upvote.

olalonde
I'd like to get one... mine broke a few days ago and I lost about 500gb of data :/ I'll give some books away on HN tomorrow :)