On Topic: Carpets producing static and old HPs

Is Downy a detergent for sensitive clothes (the name is familiar)? Or is it specifically for this purpose? Well, this room has a raised floor under which power and network cables run. The floor is wooden with the thin carpet on top. At various points you have these metal 'holes' where the sockets/plugs are located. In fact the covers are metallic and have carpet on them too and it was intereting when I noticed that they have a little grounding wire connecting them to the rest of the metallic frame. That's obviously for keeping static off that bit, but it doesn't seem to be doing any good for the rest of the carpet. I'm sorta used to it - you should see the shocks some of the people get when I go to help them. :)= That's another problem we have. We are facing Kengsington Gore (a big street in London (just on the south side of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park)), so we get tons of pollution coming in. It's a nightmare getting that out of a computer I've opened for repairs (I had never seen anything like it before when I opened the 'ancient' Macs that were probably being opened for the first time). Same dust problem goes for the large amount of (mostly HP) hardware left in the far end of the room. Oh, get a load of this - all this hardware was under an electronics workbench (this room is great). I tested some of the old screens and was happy to find that some of them work. The HP stuff is what is left from the network they had here before they got all the Macs and the college-wide network. We're talking about a system that was given to them (sponsorship?) back in 1988 or something. I don't know how gloriously (or not) it went down, but nobody seems to care about it, it's been sitting here for years and they've been trying to chuck it out for years. I'd hate to see it go in the skip like that and I've stated my concern. And now that I'm the only one in charge of the computer room and I do have to get this stuff out of here eventually, I'd like them to have a nice home. This is the main reason I joined this list. I'm sorry I'm too lazy to type in a list right now of what we have. Besides being tired on a Friday evening, I'd give you the list after I decide what I want to/can keep. And there may be some interested people in this college. What is left will go to this list, I guess. It's obviously an advantage if you are in the London area or the UK, but whoever is interested and willing... Thanks for your info Russ. Bye all, Nasos