Some guy used to turn original Macs into a fish tanks with real fish (not included with the tank mod).
Ah, the Macquarium, a term coined by Andy Ihnatko. 
I bought a 2009 Mac Mini that won’t work beyond 10.11 and a second-hand shop advertising monitor and set them up as a permanent rolling photo show. The monitor hangs on the loungeroom wall and displays about 7000 holiday photos in semi-random order just in screen-saver mode. It can be a traffic stopper and is a brilliant reminder of all the places we’ve visited.
Such imaginative uses are made possible by people who buy old hardware on Ebay etc. and refurbish them. Last year I sold an ancient G2 and a G3 to people who specialise in restoring old machines for gamers and collectors. So there’s a market.
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Oh my goodness—I’ve never seen that before. I mean, I sort of knew about it, but I’d never read it in its full Andy Ihnatko glory. Definitely worth reading for the jokes and asides alone.
I’ve long thought of doing something like this with an old iMac, preferably mounted within a nice picture frame and connected to my iCloud Photos account (or snagging things from sites like Unsplash). Maybe if I have more time on weekends this winter when there won’t be yard work and long bike rides to occupy my free time.
I have an unused iPad mini laying around that I think I’m going to use for ham radio. I can set up a Raspberry Pi to pair with my radio for digital modes and then use a VNC client on the mini to interface with the Pi. I might also put some important documents and instruction manuals on the mini and outfit it with a sturdy case like an Otterbox. I could even keep it in a small trash can as an EMP shield for an extra level of paranoia. 
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Most tips have been mentioned. But things I have done with old computers are:
Running Linux on them. It’s a blessing with computers that have ethernet ports in them. I learnt how to do simple ssh/rsync etc using a spare Mac connected to a network running Linux.
With ssh/rync, it’s much easier to:
- run a Plex video server on a remote computer
- run a bittorrent client on a remote computer
I have a 2009 MacBook Pro (max macOS was Mountain Lion I think), running single-booted Ubuntu, running a private social network server for my family, which works nicely. It also works a an Airplay speaker, as I run Shairport Sync on it. Useful.
I have a Dell mini 9 netbook (before the iPad was a thing) on which I am running Pi-Hole. Actually easier than a Raspberry Pi because it has a built-in screen and keyboard.
Extract information from old hard disks. Some of my old hard disks had USB and Firewire interfaces, and I managed to copy information off them onto a networked-attached storage (using rsync). People with really old devices, could also extract information from floppy drives/zip drives/SCSI devices. Sometimes the old file formats have to later be converted to PDF, or TXT/Markdown etc. Harddisks that I no longer want, I dismantle for magnets.
CD player and ripper. It’s amazing to me how quickly optical drives are no longer in vogue. It used to be that every computer could play CDs. Now, even if some CDs last forever, I am down to having one device in the house that can read them. I also have a PS3 in a drawer somewhere as a backup.
Playing CDs/DVDs is good for the kids as they can handle the physical media and choose what they want. Some kids books have CDs (audio read by the author). I also have old family/wedding function DVDs. However, I usually rip the contents, and have a copy of the contents on my NAS.
Network extender. For many years, macOS has had “Internet Sharing” working via the Sharing preference panel. So when the original Xbox did not have Wi-Fi, I used an iBook as a Wi-Fi-to-ethernet adapter. This should still work now I think.
Once, when a radio station which I liked did not stream online, I connected a FM radio to a Powerbook microphone port, and ran an Icecast server on the PowerBook, so that I could listen elsewhere.
Use as a dedicated peripheral-connector. At one point I had an old Mac connected to a Scansnap and flatbed scanner, so I didn’t have to worry about software updates. And as my computer table was getting crowded. The scanned files were transferred to my main computer through sync.com/dropbox-type service. Or ssh/rync (again) could work as well.
Even longer ago, I had a old computer connected to a HP Laserjet which only had a Apple serial/localtalk port and a parallel port. Printing PDFs sort of worked. A ethernet network add-in board was available, but cost more. This didn’t last long, as it was a hassle.
Games. I put this here, because a nephew plays on my old Gamecube. And also apparently NES Classic was a hot seller (maybe fad?). My experience is that few people actually want to continue playing old games if there are alternatives. And there are emulators etc. But it is an option. At one point I had an ADB joystick which would be complicated to use on USB Macs.
Three asides (off topic, so stop reading here). One worry I have about Apple moving away from Intel, built-in ethernet etc is how less-useful their computers will be to me as they get ancient. I mean, how likely are Linux distros going to properly support a small subset of machines with virtual function-keys (Touchbar)? My experience is that even Wi-Fi has non-100% support under Linux. And I remember that support for PowerPC Macs was just not-great (much better with Intel). The day will come, when I find an ancient MacBook Pro to be less usable than an ancient Raspberry Pi, which IMO is quite sad.
Second aside, in this COVID-19 era, is that I think a Linux distro that converts individual old laptops/iMacs to dedicated video conferencing terminals would be useful. Most/all these devices have had built-in video cameras, speakers, microphones and larger-than-phone screens for a decade+. Videoconferencing doesn’t seem to be that hardware intensive, and may not even need much/any local storage if nothing is recorded. And may not need external peripherals aside from ethernet. This is over-simplifying things, as various backend stuff will need to be in place.
Third aside: with the removal of 32-bit app support and upcoming Apple Silicon switch, I am considering converting my not-that-old Mac to an old-Mac, as one of the software I use for work will likely not be upgraded to 64-bit quickly. i.e. I would stop using my current Mac as my personal Mac (remove iCloud photos, Messages, personal documents etc), and use it purely for office use.
If I want to stick to the Apple ecosystem, then I’d use a different Mac as my daily driver.
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I give old office Macs to a friend who then puts linux on them and gives them to a child from a poor family along with instruction. I think he does this through public schools. He finds that good use is made of them. The key is the instruction and support he provides.
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My sister is an artist, with a long track record in video pieces. She had a major retrospective and had to prepare a back catalogue of older work for display. I was very glad I still had an old G3 PowerMac running iMovie HD (!) and early versions of Final Cut Studio, she had projects based in both but had only burned regular DVDs back in the day. I guess you could refer to those as vintage technologies.
I got to load up the original projects and re-export at the highest quality level prior to preparing exhibition versions.
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