Good news for hoarders: HP is looking for firms running old HP servers and will award a new rx2660 server plus support to the owner of the UK's oldest installed HP-UX system. The earliest eligible systems are therefore HP Series 9000s from about 1983.

The rules stipulate that the wizened computer must be in daily use, and that age will relate “to the date of purchase, not of installation”. Servers that have seen nothing but a store cupboard for decades are therefore eligible, providing you can get them up and running without igniting their dusty innards for long enough to grab the prize.

And sadly cheats can forget dumpster-diving or car-boot sales: secondhand systems are ineligible.

10 May 2007