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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
An Anonymous Coward writes "Out in Oakland, CA a group is taking donated PC's and breathing new life into them with Linux. They turn around and donate the computers to schools, build POVRAY render farms (with MOSIX) and generally promote Linux."
That's a pretty neat program - reuses the old tech, trains the unskilled volunteers in an up-and-coming technology (Linux), AND produces more Linux-skilled workers, increasing Linux's mindshare.
Sounds good to me.
It takes a fair bit to impress me, but this article does. "ACCRC is a self-sustaining, self-funded organization that trains unemployed, unskilled volunteer workers how to build and maintain Linux computers" They must get their money from somewhere to be able to afford a 38,000 square foot complex. Good on them.
Linux cluster is 30 Athlon 850MHz PCs and up to 350 recently refurbished PCs that are Pentium 166 or better
I sure hope the 850 MHz Athlons weren't donated by anyone....until this week my main home machine has been an PII 300. If the Athlons were rescued from landfill that makes me feel _really_ inadequate.
There site navigation is totally borked so here are all the links on the site I could find:
Home
About
Donations
Internships
Press
as does my inability to close italics properly :)
I thought this sounded familiar... seems there are many groups working in this worthwhile way. Google directory links a few here.
If you don't live in the Oakland area there may be a group near you who you can either volunteer to help, or donate those old PCs gathering dust in the attic.
If you can't find anyone near you, why not go it alone? I installed Linux on an old box and gave it to the neighbours kid, with a bashed up old 15" monitor from the local tip.
Incidentally, Johnathan and Alan show that nothing is too old or useless for us. if you have anything strange or odd that you don't know what to do with. Give it to us.
I hope my wife doesn't see this site. she will try to donate my he-man figures.
"We recently turned down donations of an aircraft carrier and a 727", says executive director James Burgett. "But we are ready to handle a 727 the next time one is offered."
C'mon, guys...we were this close to having the Linux Air Force!
"Roger, Blue Leader, this is Blue 6...I'm taking another pass at Redmond." "Stay on target, Blue 6, stay on target..."
Carousel is a lie!
before I had to go back to italy to serve the army. It was an excellent opportunity to learn, I was taking care with other people of the beowulf cluster - and the rendering speed was impressing, around 12 seconds to render the 'famous' pvm x-vase when the cluster was around 60 nodes.
:)
the interesting part was that there were little optimization on the network and on the linux - it was a standard redhat 6.2 kernel, and the computers were just put on a shelf, connected, booted with a floppy that got the image from the network and self-installed the machine, rebooted, and you had a node ready for rendering.
on the other hand, the people working there were the most easy-going and honest I've seen so far - there were no hypocricy going on, and basically there was a place for anyone in it - still without too much trouble.
just wanted to share that with you guys, in case you wondered if such a non profit company was really working - it is. definitively.
anyone wanting to start something like that in norther italy?
cheers
-- There are two kind of sysadmins: Paranoids and Losers. (adapted from D. Bach)
As a former educator who worked in a "resource-challenged" school district, I applaud these types of programs. Unfortunately, often schools like the one I worked in would get money thrown at us for certain tech projects, but since there was often no follow-through or training, the money was pretty much wasted, or used for other purposes deemed more important by the school administrators.
It seems this organization not only refurbishes the computer, but also trains people to do it as well. If Linux is ever to get a foothold in schools, it will take a lot more effort than just donating X number of computers with Linux preinstalled. The community will have to invest time in making sure those computers are filling the need and that people on site are trained and commmitted to maintaining them.
Linux and public schools seem like a match made in heaven. Even though Microsoft gives a lot of lipservice (and money, you do have to give them some credit) to supporting schools, it still doesn't make sense to spend that kind of money on Windows licenses. One could make the argument that exposing students to an alternative like Linux will improve their technology skills (they're still gonna get the Windows exposure, no matter what's used in the schools).
Just my 2cents.
We do that
here and
here.
-... ---
I don't like that taste, yes linux is far more efficient with resources than win2k or xp. However only making it public by allowing it to run on lame machines also makes a bad reputation.
One day one student will say, "all linux boxes I worked on were lame-ass". Because they runned on some old Pentium 166, while the windoze of course just had to have the new 1.5 GHz processors, with 40x cdrom speed.
I remember a friend telling me that installing his linux told so much longer than the winxp. Of course! He installed linux on an old PC with a quad 4x speed cdrom, but winXP on one with a 32x cdrom. Now who wonders....
Same with people "trying" linux they give it a 512MB partition on the harddisk and nearly no swap drive, while windows is allowed to take the other 20GB. Now who wonders why you have that less hard disk space available on linux... (or just run it in some linux emulator at all)
--
Karma 50, and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt.
2: "Naked" - So? You need an OS.. it's your business what you do with the hardware you purchased.
3: "exposes them to the possibility of unwittingly purchasing pirated software": Which has more pirates... those for linux or windows?
4: Technical troubles: I'm not even going to comment, after all this is MICROSOFT saying this.
5: Upgrade problems *cough* *splutter*
6: Viruses. I really can't believe microsoft, #1 willing (outlook?) distributer of viruses is saying this
7:
8: I'll translate the last bit: Tell them to buy windows or we'll stop supplying you.
Three cheers to this group and their efforts to promote Linux. I hope they convert many people to the Power that is Linux. This article has impressed me so much that I'm going to donate towards this scheme: It's a hell of a lot better than paying the annual M$ tax. Cheer's to an organisation that is 100% Microsoft Free
Move faster
This article was on linuxjournal yesterday.. and now it's up at /. ???
Boy.. talk about slow newsgaring...
For what it's worth, the centre is running on volunteers. If you happen to live nearby why not go and help a hand... i would like to know what their "bussiness model" is. Here in the Netherlands we do not have something similar while we really could use one.. Perhaps something to start up here as well...
is that the schools will be charged by microsoft for the computers because they are capable of running windows.
Oh well.
"A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
In a word, bullshit.
If I take a computer I own, format the hard drive with an electromagnet, and donate it to a public school with a free copy of a Linux distro, what the screaming Hell(tm) does it matter that it once had Windows on it?
1) I am not giving them Windows. I am giving them the hardware.
2) I am not encouraging them to steal a copy of Windows in any way, shape or form.
3) Microsoft does not own the computer. They never did. It was my computer, therefore it's entirely my choice what to do with it.
Kierthos
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
When Linus built the kernel it was so he could run it on a 386. Now that ability of running on old, available, otherwise defunct hardware is going to make Linux permeate the world.
:)
Total world domination is just around the corner
Q&A #1 from MS's donated computer FUD...
"Q. Why should a donor include the operating system with their PC donation?"
"A. It is a legal requirement that pre-installed operating systems remain with a machine for the life of the machine. If a company or individual donates a machine to your school, it must be donated with the operating system that was installed on the PC."
Bullshit! This is just MS FUD twisting the language of their EULA, which they assert is a legal document. True, per the EULA, you cannot move an OEM license to another PC. But that has nothing to do with any legal requirement that the license must transfer with the PC.
- If we aren't supposed to eat animals, then why are they made out of meat? - Steven Wright
You hook up 10 486dx2's to make a povray render farm. It consumes 10 times as much power to do the same job as a modern intel chip. Not only did you waste your time, energy, and networking hardware; you just contributed to the fact that you local nuclear or coal power plant has to chug that extra electricity,
just to help you "reduce, reuse, and recycle".
Does that make any sense?
Some time ago I thought about taking older computers from the University and turning them into machines for the unfortunate in my town. The only problem I had was that Windows 95/98 costs money and normal people might not be able to use a Linux box. However, with the features X has nowadays and the idea of maybe giving them to schools instead of (or in addition to) just people/families in the city, I think it could work. Now if I could just get startup money... HAH!
(this is the correct story for this reply, btw)
2+2=5 for extremely large values of 2
They're called Computer Angels
Blog
Reduce and Reuse. Those are the hard ones, but they have an effect. Nobody likes reducing or reusing, however.
Most brainwashed green people who recycle assume it goes away magically when they put it in the dumpster. They fail to take into account all the energy and oil that needs to be used to truck the recyclables around; the subsidies that need to be given to make it viable; the fact that nasty chemical and industrial processes need to be used to reclaim materials (paper is the best. breaking down processed paper is nasty, check out a pulp mill). The end result is that you've consumed more energy in recycling the good than producing a new good, and it's the energy consumption on this planet that's a problem. Beer bottles, on the other hand, are more than viable to recycle. Wanna know why? Because they're not melted. They're just cleaned, i.e. reused. If you had to melt them, it'd be cheaper to make new ones.
If you care about the environment, find a way to stop commuting and work from home. Not driving your car a few days a week will have an order of magnitude more effect then recycling plastic bottles.
Not that it matters, have a look around, wonder what happens when oil gets scarce, and how hard people are working on fusion. Note to americans: $2/gal gasoline prices are not sustainable, dependance on foreign oil reserves is not a good thing.
..don't panic
www.povray.org
If you want to see some example of what can be done with Pov-Ray, check out my site at docbrown.net and click on "Portfolios"-"Renderings".
-Ed
Ed Wedig
Graphic design services
docbrown.net
Reboot.ca and the Linux Volunteer Group have been around for quite a while.
They do good work.
Tuus crepidae innexilis sunt.
This is just a typical example of Microsoft being intentionally misleading. What the *law* says is that you can't donate your PC to the school with Windows on it and keep a copy of operating system for installation on another PC. Of course, in practice this is largely irrelevant, as Microsoft's agreements with computer manufacturers make it nearly impossible to buy a PC without Windows, so who would want an extra copy of an obsolete version? But Microsoft manages to explain this in such a way as to give the false impression that you (or the school) cannot simply erase Windows, destroy the license and the Windows disks, and install LINUX.
Portland Oregon has a great non-profit that does this sort of thing as well: Free Geek
"Jesus saves sinners...and redeems them for valuable coupons"
Hey DIY fan!
Check this out.
It's actually about PET plastic, but should be workable for polyacrylate as well. I've welded them together with solering irons, works great.
If you want to see a hardcore plan for using CDs, then check this one. I aint fucking around when it comes to recycling used CDs, or plastic bottles for that matter.
I'm insulted by your sig ;P ;)
-
ping -f 255.255.255.255 # if only
As of Slackware 8.0, you can still install it on a laptop without a cd-rom or nic with only 4 megs of RAM (using a Plip connection). I believe 7.1 can be installed entirely from floppy disks.
Slackware forever. Honestly, what else would you trust when it absolutely positively has to be stable, secure, and easy
BTW, where are all these teachers that actually know how to use computers? All the teachers I know either don't use them, or just use them to check their friggin email. They don't actually teach teachers anymore, they just throw them some technology and hope that they learn how to use it. The problem is that for every dollar spent BUYING software or hardware, about ten cents is spent on training.
Also, have you ever heard that most teachers (at least in america) get insane amounts of time off? Maybe they could use that time to train these people.
The real problem isn't what computer system we use in the schools, it's that we just don't care about education anymore. Maybe America never did, but here in the land of the free, I think that the only reason we think we are free is because we are too stupid to realize how trapped and shackled we truly are.
What's so intutive about a GUI? How is a flashing button any better then a command prompt? I'll tell you, the difference is that a GUI LIMITS YOUR OPTIONS.
What if instead of a flashing cursor, you printed out a small list of commands before every prompt?
cd ls fortune netscape
user@localhost / >
Repeat after me, computers are not intutive, computers are not intutive. They are not easy to use and they are hard and intimidating to beginners no matter what. The difference between a CLI and a GUI is that a GUI limits your options to those on the screen so that you always see what you have done and what oyu can do next ( at least in a GOOD GUI ). A CLI throws all that away to speed up the process of working if you actually know what you want to do next.
Children are very smart, they just need some sort of stimulation and feedback. Unlike adults, they are more likley to play with things just to play. While adults get fustrated when things don't go the way that they think that they should.
Only geeks are willing to spend the time playing with these infernal machines to get them to do what they want.
On your second question, you have a lot of links that look like this:instead of this:So I keep getting sent to http://p3.html, which does not exist.
"I like to wear big boy pants."
Coal fired plants abound. But they're a joke compared to the pollution that'll be generated if you need to run the transportation infrastructure off of electrics. Your average car easily uses around 100kW of power (in terms of energy production from gasoline). A performance car could easily double that, and a truck even moreso. Generating that much power from coal would blacken the skies.
..don't panic
Unlimited growth == Cancer.
Thats good for casual protection, I think you're supposed to do the random writing over 25 times nowadays though for the paranoid.
I've hear other people prefer to drill a hole through the drive.
Yet others disassemble it, wipe off the oxide and burn the rags and stomp up and down on the remains and put it in a canister of nuclear waste and bury it in a volcano.
I think mailing it to the sun would suffice.
Someone set us up the bomb, so shine we are!
Might have been a good meeting room, though, or you could set up your Beowulf Cluster on a slightly larger Viking Dragon Boat than Mr. Beowulf himself used.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Don't you feel horrible exposing all these people who previously didn't have to deal with the intense RF radiation of a computer and monitor to debilitating RF radiation?
Need a Python, C++, Unix, Linux develop