Recycled computers (Was: Hosstraders Spring 2006 - What a Blast!)

[Jon maddog Hall]

tedroche at tedroche.com said:
> We've been approached by several companies asking us for assistance in
> disposing of older machines. There's no doubt this avenue is fraught with
> peril - we could get stuck with some white elephants or useless toxic waste
> - but we might also get some free software into the hands of deserving
                                                               ~~~~~~~~~
> people at little to no cost to them or us. I'd welcome further discussion
  ~~~~~~
> on this one. Preferably before the night before!

Any way you look at it, this is a lot of work.  After more than five years
of going to Hosstraders, I find that Hosstraders is:

o a place to get hard-to-find ancient parts at low-cost/free
o a place to get rid of ancient parts that I will never use again
o a place to find people who are not afraid to pull a PC apart or learn
  something new
o a great place to meet really nice people while eating a bowl full of
"fries" (freedom, french or otherwise)....or an Italian hot sausage.

But I will point out that these people drive hundreds of miles, pay $5. to get
into Hosstraders, then refuse to pay $1. for a SCSI controller still in the
box.

Things were different five or ten years ago, when new "parts" were still really
expensive and you could find things at Hosstraders that still had some life
in them.  I saw used LCD screens at Hosstraders this year that had price tags
more than the prices for new LCD screens in the PC Connections catalog I had
in my pocket.

If a company wanted to donate computers for the GNHLUG people to put Linux
on and give to worthy causes, I would suggest:

	o we do this systematically, finding both a willing donor and a willing
          recipient(s) before doing the work

	o the recipients be truly "deserving" (non-profits, schools, shelters)

	o we do this with lots of systems that are more or less the same
	  configuration

	o we set a "minimum configuration" for notation

	o we have a place to store them while we sort them out and build and
	  test them

	o we have a place to put the "remains" after we are done

Better yet, we train a boy scout troop, high school or tech college class
or some other organization how to do this as their "project" for a year.

Instead of a "Net Day" we could have a "Recycle Computer" day (I purposely
stayed away from the word "Free").

Here is where an article in the paper telling about what we would like to do
might let us build a database of organizations who would like them, and people
who are willing to give them away.  Heck I don't mind if one of the
organizations is the Salvation Army, and all they are going to do is put them
on the shelf and sell them, as long as the money goes to a "deserving" cause.

But I have a hard time putting my time and effort into giving someone a computer
who drives away from the event in a BMW, or takes it backto their spot to
sell it for $50.

Quite frankly, the cost of new machines and "labor" being what it is today,
unless we find reasonable labor (and or make it a lot of fun to do this), it
is easier for me just to reach into my pocket and pull out $200. for a system
box to give to a "deserving person".

As a side note, we could set up a LTSP system at Hosstraders of cast-off parts,
demonstrate it working at Hosstraders, then announce that we are donating it
to a (pre-arranged) recipient school.  This would be a nice project for the
next six months for GNHLUG to drive.  We could probably find some nice
peripherals at Hosstraders to add...some scanners, printers, plotters....
and we would have people from all over coming through to see it.  We would not
have to take the entire LTSP system up there, just the server and a few boxes
to act as clients.

My two cents.

md
-- 
Jon "maddog" Hall
Executive Director           Linux International(R)
email: maddog at li.org         80 Amherst St. 
Voice: +1.603.672.4557       Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A.
WWW: http://www.li.org

Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association

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