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Major Linux Hardware Donor Is a CNN "Hero"
christian.einfeldt writes "James Burgett of the Alameda County Computer Resource Center calls himself a 'tattooed freak' and a recovering drug addict, but CNN is calling him a hero (video) for diverting tons of computers from landfills, installing Ubuntu Linux on them, and giving them out to schools, non-profits, and poor people. Burgett's filmed interview is currently leading a CNN contest among videos of 'ordinary people' whom CNN considers everyday heroes, narrowly edging out the video of a man who is saving gorillas from extinction. In his interview, Burgett points out that the people working for him are also recovering drug addicts or recovering mental illness patients." Update: 10/02 23:46 GMT by KD : Reader stefanlasiewski posted a journal article describing how, bewilderingly, the state of California is threatening to shut down Burgett's ACCRC.
Is a hero in all of our books!
Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
"It's all about the Pentiums, baby..." --Weird Al
Windows 3.1x calc: 3.11 - 3.10 = 0.00
A guy actually doing something useful is beating out another guy doing something equally noble but less practical? Checks outside Nope, clear skies, no cats or dogs...
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
...when he found himself in a public washroom installing Vista for $20.
(just kidding...keep up the great work!).
Getting off drugs, both him and his assistants. VERY Cool.
Helping out schools. Cool
Helping the environment. Cool (though some in the "movement" would gripe about the electricity consumed).
Linux. Uber cool!
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Wow, think of all the PC hardware and Windows sales he's thwarted.
Ron
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
You don't have to be crazy to install Linux
but it helps!
sorry... old joke...couldn't resist
None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings don't care.
The term "Linux hardware" is as non-sensical as "Windows hardware" (something I've never heard or seen either). Hardware has nothing to do with an operating system.
We got a guy out here in Hawaii doing that too. I'm about to take a couple of P3's to him that I would have just dumped before.
http://www.hosef.org/
Get the gorrillas to start using linux. That would surely win the top prize then.
Wow... I don't have sound at work, but felt compelled to watch the video anyway. With all the fade-aways and cut-scenes, had I not read the article I would have assumed that by working on a computer, I would become a narcotics abuser! 0.o
Come on man... just one more refresh...
On the one hand, this sounds like one of those feel-good bullshit non-news stories about Joe Random Public Being a Good Person (Let's All Feel Good About It), which I hate.
But on the other, the content isn't total bullshit. The man's doing something useful (and spreading Linux), which is pretty kick-ass.
So, how long until Microsoft spins this to say that you have to be on drugs or crazy, or both, to run Linux?
What's with the quotes? Just trying to troll up some attention as usual?
Ugh, I never used to pay attention but lately I'm thinking kdawson is the new Jon Katz.
Good for him, on a number of levels.
First, on a personal level, for taking control of his life back.
Second, on an environmental level, for saving unnecessary rubbish from a landfill somewhere.
Third, on a charitable level, for donating the results of his work.
Fourth, on an economic level, for using free software and cast-off hardware to do something useful.
Fifth, on a geek level, for using Linux to do it.
My hat's off to you, sir.
Interestingly, James is asking voters to vote for the other folks:
"Vote for the gorillas. 25 grand and fame that id probably just piss away anyway is not worth a specie.".
Nice honest opinion from the Hero.
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
Bad for the Gorillas
I say skip the energy waste and toss them out now!
I am glad to see/hear/read about someone whom is finally doing something good! Not only is he savin land fills, saving time and effort wasted in the disposal process, and the By-products as a result of the disposal, he is also giving back to the community that mostlikely supported him during his re-covery.. GOOD SHOW. I wish more public/private ententies had this much fore-sight into their own communities that support their business.
Shortly after this announcement, a James Burgett was found at a local Denny's dead from appearent posioned grit inhalation.
You read that right. Inhalation. He did not chew.
Back in the early '90s. It was the most thankless task I ever undertook. Granted back then we were putting freeDOS or some such thing on them... lol. I say good for him for getting recognized for it. All it ever got us was bitched out repeatedly for storing machines here and there and pretty much a lot of 'We don't care if we did start this program with you guys, what do we need to waste time with these computers for!'.
Times have changed. For the better I guess in this case.
This would be the same recycling center that was recently issued a violation by the California Environmental Protection Agency...
I hope they come out of it OK, good to see them getting more positive publicity. Reduce, Recycle Reuse!
Is there heaven? Is there Hell? Is that a Tuna Melt I smell?-Primus
Off drugs but on CNN? this is an improvement? Hey he is installing Linux and spreading the good word, for that I will forgive.
- Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
Anyone in Portland should check out FreeGeek and consider volunteering.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
Free Heroin!
And thus ends the fiasco.
If this man is the one I'm thinking of, he's saving a lot of computers from landfills. Even those of us in the movement have heard what an ecological disaster that can be. "Reuse" is often the best thing you can do with a used item, even better than recycling.
When the axe came to the forest, the trees said, "Look out - the handle was once one of us."
Hmmmm, he seems to have moved from a small to a commanding lead... I wonder why?
of the usefulness of the creators' newclear power, & the planet/population rescue/mandate, harnessed by a few good folks. see you there?
if you need to know the nature of the outcome of what you do, check the motive(s) for yOUR behavior/intentions.
Their name was inspired by the yellow bicycles in Amsterdam, which I understand are freely available for anyone to take and ride around on.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
>
>The Department of Toxic Substance Control of the California Environmental Protection Agency has issued the ACCRC a violation that could make it very hard for the group to stay in business. And, quite frankly, that's a damned shame.
And when I wrote Natalie's Restaurant more than two years ago, I thought it was fiction. Shit, the only thing I got wrong was that I imagined a San Francisco bureaucrat, as opposed to a Berkeley bureaucrat, and that my imaginararily-awkwardly-named "California Computer Recycling Use Fee Commission" wasn't long enough to match the actual bureaucracy's name (namely the "Department of Toxic Substance Control of the California Environmental Protection Agency").
Because nobody, not even in the Bay Area, could be so dumb as to suggest that tossing a bunch of working hardware into a container ship bound for a crusher/smelter in China, was somehow a "more green" solution than reusing (and giving away) perfectly functional hardware so that it doesn't go into the waste stream in the first place.
But then again, that's the difference between recycling as done by folks like the ACCRC - which is interested in reducing and reusing as well as recycling - and recycling as done by a government bureaucrat, to whom the only "green" that matters is how many taxpayer dollars can be milked out of an operation.
So we'll sing it again when it comes 'round on the guitar.
Can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day, diggin' through their closets and attics, findin' somethin' that still works, and givin' it to someone who ain't got one? And friends, they may think it's a movement...
Ballmer: "See, this just goes to confirm what I've been saying all along -- Linux is only for drug addicts and crazy people."
You need to be a recovering mental patient or drug addict to have the patience to install Linux.
Saving endangered gorillas is a heaping load, if you're going to go that far save some friggin human beings! People that put hte lives of animals before humans are the worst kind of people (...with people that post comments on the Internet a close 2nd).
Nice irony. Was that van powered by biodiesel?
I imagined a San Francisco bureaucrat, as opposed to a Berkeley bureaucrat,
This threat came from a State agency, who just happen to have an office in Berkeley--- not a Berkeley agency.
Sadly, I'm not sure if the City of Berkeley is doing anything to help the ACCRC.
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
...that you have to PAY to drop stuff off there? I live less than a mile away from their office, and when two cities, each with 3 miles, both have FREE electronics drop-offs (with the promises of recycling), I can't even consider paying to drop stuff off with this guy. And I don't care about the OS. I care MUCH more about the gorillas.
Where do you think Vista came from?
I'm using latest stable ubuntu, I can see youtube videos, but not CNN videos :(... is there something unrecursively executable with this specific content?
He's helping schools for the time being and prolonging the inevitable... one day, and soon, even those computers will be trash in a heap.
He's winning, but I expect more from a
repairs discarded computers and gives them away
16% 482 Larry Gibson
is fighting to protect his land from mountaintop mining
6% 176 Ken Noguchi
leads "litter brigades" on the slopes of Mount Fuji in Japan
33% 997 Eugene Rutagarama
is dedicated to saving mountain gorillas from extinction Maybe we can keep track of the poll's progess here
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
James Burgett was featured on the front page of Digg.com, where he got 2906 diggs for his blog entry about his dispute with the government (spam warning: I dugg that story). James has subsequently told me that he and the government are working things out. He is not entirely satisfied with the government's approach, but at least he will be able to continue operating his excellent Ubuntu box giveaway program. So it seems as if the attention from the popular media (Digg in that case) has taught the government that James was doing something that was sufficiently meaningful to the community that they should really try to work with him.
Full disclosure: I do not work with / for James or CNN. I do volunteer for a public middle school in San Francisco, California that benefited from a donation of 30 Ubuntu fat clients for our Linux chubby terminal lab.
... not just Portland! There's one in Vancouver (BC), Chicago, Olympia (WA), Columbus, etc.
See this page for other startups near you.
James Burgett was featured on the front page of Digg.com, where he got 2906 diggs for his blog entry about his dispute with the government (spam warning: I dugg that story). James has subsequently told me that he and the government are working things out. He is not entirely satisfied with the government's approach, but at least he will be able to continue operating his excellent Ubuntu box giveaway program. So it seems as if the attention from the popular media (Digg in that case) has taught the government that James was doing something that was sufficiently meaningful to the community that the regulators should really try to work with him. His fans in the community will continue to watch his operation to make sure that if the government does exercise poor discretion in its oversight of his operation, at least we can give them an earful.
Full disclosure: I do not work with / for James or CNN. I do volunteer for a public middle school in San Francisco, California that benefited from a donation of 30 Ubuntu fat clients for our Linux chubby terminal lab.
'course, if the judge who walked in with the seeing-eye dog was an Orca user, he'd of known all about Ubuntu as it's the place lots of blind folks use their Orca screen reader. Then there wouldn't have even been that $50 fine...
I worked with that guy when I was in middle school. At that time we refurbished 486es and a lot of Mac IIcis. IIRC they have been waiting for a big break like this for a while, I hope this gets them the recognition they deserve!
This state has some of the most fucked up and contradictory laws in existence about the whole state trying to shut him down.
Then again I think it's more of a company seeing its future being bleak because of a pesky non-profit taking away their purpose, thus their money from the state. Probably paid an inspector off to shut this guy down.
Less crushed electronics = less money from the state.
It was a great experience, lots of cool old hardware (I got to actually see and touch a NeXT cube!) and if you are in the bay area and have weekends or a summer to spare, I recommend checking them out.
Its california, what else would you expect?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
That article points out that "You might even collect some of the vintage electronics that comes through the door and hang on to this stuff because you think it's cool and somebody may want it someday."
I thought that it is a violation for a charity to allow its workers to claim any donation for their own personal use? It is an unspoken perk often given to volunteers, but it is a violation to do so, from what I've read in other articles about charity work.
Looks like I'm going to have to quit saying there's no such thing as a fat crackhead.
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
Overall, I agree with you, but isn't this stuff going to end up in the landfill eventually, anyhow?
When folks talk about "landfill", I presume you mean it like a "resource", and therefore care about "conservation"... so it seems to me this guy just gives a few extra years of life to these computers before they end up in the landfill - but consuming energy before they do.
So, ...on an economic level, for using free software and cast-off hardware to do something useful. it is a "win", but it is not free. Wouldn't the "carbon footprint" be smaller if you just trashed them now?
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
From the aftermath technologies blog:
He's right. I voted for the gorillas.
All about me
The Lone Gunmen showed a monkey using Linux:
...
SCENE 10
(Back in the barn. FROHIKE carries PEANUTS in and sits him on the table.)
FROHIKE: All right. Time for a meeting of the minds. Talk, you thief. Say something.
BYERS: Please, Peanuts.
LANGLY: Speak.
YVES: He can't. He's a chimpanzee, he doesn't have the vocal cords for speech. Haven't you figured that out yet?
LANGLY: So what can he do? Besides Grand Theft Auto.
(YVES places a laptop in front of PEANUTS, who immediately begins typing.)
FROHIKE: It's gibberish.
BYERS: No. it's not. It's Linux.
LANGLY: He's downloading some sort of voice synth program.
FROHIKE: Wow! Way to go, Peanuts.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Generally I've found that Californian "liberalism" does not tolerate people who are poor. From putting officers on duty to confiscate shopping carts from the homeless, to pushing homeless out of town. If you want to run a business that gives ex-cons and ex-addict a real job they can come to every day and make a better living for themselves, you get shut down.
Pro-environmentalism California is entirely about special interests. If you're not a lobbyist, then your voice won't be heard. The environmental issues are driven entirely by special interest groups managed by the Elites, people and business with the money to make or break a representative's future campaign.
It's curious that California is pro environment with it's complex and confusing beverage recycling program. When compared to states like Michigan that take 10 cent deposit on a soda can, and you get all 10 cents of your deposit back. while California has a "redemption value" which you almost never get the same amount back that you put into it. (it's taxed, and the value the recycling centers pay is sometimes below what you paid at the store). Also huge expensive recycling centers are subsidized, and are generally in bad neighborhoods so most people don't even try to collect their refund value. While in other states you simply drop off your empty cans at a participating grocery store, and they print you a receipt (at no additional charge) that you can exchange for cash or just apply to your grocery bill. Private companies foot the bill but in return they get foot traffic to their stores, so they are more than willing to pay.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
I've met the gentleman whom CNN refers to as a "hero". Nice that he is getting such good press. Not so nice that he is personally obnoxious and has systematically destroyed partnerships with individuals and Berkeley businesses.
Another fun fact: when I called them 6 months ago to say their email wasn't working (after unsuccessfully referring a friend who wanted to donate $ to them), the person who answered the phone explained to me, slowly and patronizingly , that the email address was www.accrc.org, and that it was working just fine, thank you very much.
Monkeys wrote vista, the gorillas only use it.
It's pretty clear to me that he's talking about a museum (or some other organization) finding it useful for display.
And (I know this is /. but) if you read further you'd have found he had a pdp he was restoring, hoping a museum would be interested in it. That's the kind of "stuff" he's probably referring to...
i bet he turned to linux after finding his feminine side in prison.
I think it's why he deserves a running chance against the person saving mountain gorillas. Helping people may not seem as serious as saving a species, but it's very important. At any rate, more important than giving people Linux.
Wrong. All electronics recycling is FREE at the ACCRC. That means, if you bring your old computer and monitor to this facility, and you are a resident of California, you pay nothing.
Furthermore, the refurbished computers that are granted by ACCRC to nonprofits and needy individuals are granted free of cost. Zero. No dollars.
If the recipient is not happy with the free computer they received, they can return it for no charge. Again, it's free at the ACCRC.
There's no mandatory recycling fee either for disposing or receiving a recycled computer. There is a recycling fee assessed to the purchase of new monitors by a reseller. You basically pay your recycling fee when you buy your monitor. This is similar to car batteries. That said, if you don't buy a new monitor, and instead say receive a free monitor from an organization like ACCRC, you pay nothing.
In response to California's threat to shut this project down, I need to comment on my experiences with the so-called "eco" state.
I was doing the Orange County to Encino commute daily for a summer clerkship and wanted a good mileage car. As a farm state kid fascinated with the idea of biodiesel, the car I settled on was the diesel Jetta. However, to my great amazement the diesels couldn't be purchased in California. This in spite of the fact that the diesels get better mileage than hybrids. I had to go to Vegas to buy my Jetta and my first tank was biodiesel. The hybrids were awarded with car pool lane status while my better mileage, (potentially) less polluting diesel was relegated to 2nd class status.
Why have 1 person driving a backhoe when you could employ 20 with shovels?
It's "girl's name" and "English".
People tend to be missing the point here, blinded by the fact that the guy is using Linux. He's recycling computers. If half the stuff I've read from tech-waste doomsayer articles is true, this is definitely working towards dealing with an environmental problem. There's no obvious ideology bullshit here, it's recycling.
Winmodem.
Message contains 1 attachment: spam.gif
Steve, is that you?
Now I am sad.
The admin of that site is probably furious at this guy or something: on my Ubuntu 6.04 Firefox 2.something, I get a "page not found" when I try to vote (noscript turned off)...
Never heard of one or seen one, uh?
Liberals
I can imagine the headlines coming out of Redmond already... Anyone who uses Linux is obviously a mentally ill drug addict.
What a punishment, he is using it anyway. And Vista will be phased out in 2-3 years anyway. Windows EXtreme coming soon.
Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
You need some of the random "feel good" stories which basically translates into covert marketing anyways. Most of them are pushing an agenda of some sort or they are attempting to sell an idea or product.
But more importantly, the news is more then who is fucking who over. It isn't all people getting ass raped over Nike tennis shoes or shot for a sports themed coat. And when all you hear or see is bad things, then that is what some perceive the world as. But the cruel fact is, the world isn't really like that. At least not on the scale you would get by reading all the bad stuff in life with nothing to counter it.
Everything means something to someone. Good or bad, or which ever angle your looking at it from, it has meaning. You should chose to tolerate them instead of hating them. It might improve your outlook on life.
The right one is http://www.gatt.org/
Trust me, I work for the government.
I'm not American and I don't know anything about Californian eco friendliness. But here in Europe there have been similar problems in countries that are early adopters of eco friendly technology. They get a working system, often at a high cost, and when a better alternative is invented, there is no environmental gain in replacing it. Because there already is a working system with low environmental impact and the environmental cost of replacing it would overshadow any effect of the new system.
Mind you, diesel used to be the least environmantal friendly fuel not long ago.
So, to elaborate on my prior post, what bothers me is that most of the "good thing" stories amount to "human interest" fluff pieces - which are nothing more than mindless entertainment that neither provokes thought nor enspires action. This piece has some of the characteristics of one of these stories, and I was just saying that it was nice to see some actual content. It might improve your outlook on life. My outlook on life is exactly where it needs to be - neither despairing, nor paralyzed with joy. Go find someone else to make assumptions about, you insensitive clod!
...I'd come up with the idea myself. I must have thrown out so many computers in my time that could have been converted to the Linux cause with just a tiny bit of work. I applaud this guy, not only for spreading Linux to as many people as possible but also for kicking the drugs. Way to go.
When did I realise I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly realised I was talking to myself.
If you read his blog you'll find an entry that identifies the State is working with him to come to a sensible conclusion so it appears that sanity has prevailed in this situation (probably generously assisted by the bad press the situation had created, but that's only an assumption).
So it's not as grim as it appears.
I also think his stance on the CNN vote is admirable - he has a very good point.
Insert
I think one of the most important aspects of what your man is up to is turning people's lives around. Sounds like he's not only turned his own life around but the project has also created employment and helps provide skills and training for a number of people that were in a bad way and might otherwise have just continued to mess their own and other people's lives up. It's obviously not the only project doing that, plenty of other worthy projects working with ex-prisoners and drug addicts, community gardens, furniture workshops, etc, but as geeks I reckon we've got to applaud somebody's who's refurbishing computers and also helping people as part of the process.
I use the hell out of that. My wife and I love it, we give away stuff all the time and we also get a bunch of good things too. Really a great program, I encourage everybody to give it a shot.
"Some books contain the machinery required to create and sustain universes."-Tycho
While I admire what he's doing, I don't find it as important as what the other three people are doing. They are the real heroes.
You can't win with a government regulator. In my experience, the best bet is to just appease them until they leave you alone. Forget arguing on the basis of technical expertise, the spirit of the law and simple logic.
Stories like this really hit a sore spot with me. Having grown up working in a small family business, you get ENDLESS streams of these fools prying into every aspect of your operations, trying to shape the world into some bureaucratic model they dreamed up in their air conditioned offices. A power-tripping regulator is worse than a power tripping cop. In my experience, the most important thing is that you bend to their POWER and threats. If their mission was REALLY workplace safety, environmental protection, consumer protection, etc. they would exercise some common sense in applying the letter of the law. e.g. It's probably better to have some Atari 2600 cartridges sitting on a shelf for longer than 30 days than to have them tossed into a landfill.
How can this be? http://www.american.edu/TED/ice/congo-coltan.htm The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, formally Zaire, is complex, complicated by the struggle for power over the country's vast resources by actors within and outside Congo. In recent years, one particular mineral, coltan, has been at the center of the fight. The precious ore is mined in rebel-controlled areas at the expense of national parks and depletion of wildlife. Coltan is a key element in cell phones, computer chips, nuclear reactors, and PlayStations. The market for the mineral has greatly increased in recent years, exacerbating conflict in Congo. Sorry - I have read all the details of the guy, but is he is helping to stop new computer purchase, his is also helping the Gorillas as well!! MX
Major Donor beats Private Initiative.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
hiro from heroes.
A number of large international companies including the one that I work for destroy computers that are being replaced by newer ones instead of donating them to charities or selling. The reason, according to our IT person, is that someone might sue the company if something happens to the PC it sold/gave to him. How stupid is that? A cause for campaigning, maybe?
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http://www.aftermath-technologies.blogspot.com/ cnn heroes I don't know how to do this but I disagree with those of you who are voting me up in the cnn poll. Of the four people there only one is dealing with extinction. Dead is dead, anything else is negotiable. Vote for the gorillas. 25 grand and fame that id probably just piss away anyway is not worth a specie. I don't know if it will help, but I'd feel like crap if I won and the gorillas went extinct. On the other hand there is nothing saying we can't get anything out of this. You could ask cnn to put all the other heroes videos into an open/at least not so closed codec so that everyone could see them. Being the guy who got a major media outlet to guit supporting a monopoly would be a more than adequate consolation prize.
Well I am glad that I misinterpreted your statement.
After watching TFV, I found him a hero not for installing linux (what other practical choice do you have for extremely low-end hardware anyway?), but that
1) He's helping save the environment near me (my family in the bay area).
2) He's hiring people who are discarded by society.
Either of these point are more noble to me than promoting linux...I suppose I am not fanboy enough.
The only possible interpretation of any research whatever in the 'social sciences' is: some do, some don't
inventing Sunday from which one can fuck six ways?
Huh?
Here's to you, SCO!
Being harrassed by the California branch of Fascist Corporate America: not cool.
In Soviet Africa, gorilla fuck YOU!
And give you AIDS too.