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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.
That sounds suspiciously like the "well, I wouldn't have bought that album I just downloaded anyway, so no one's losing money" argument often used about file-sharing which many sharers proclaim and the entertainment industry strongly denies. It's not quite the same thing since nothing is getting pirated, but I wonder if the software industry would try to make a similar claim.
-Rob
Biblical fiscal responsibility
>
>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...
Even if he wins, he can always donate the money to the gorillas...
"This thing does science so hard, you say, 'I've never seen that much science.'" -Sam
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!
I think this might do more good than that -- these people could otherwise not afford any computer at all, meaning that sure, right now, they're unlikely to run out and buy a Windows-based machine. However, they now own a computer anyway, running Linux. Now they're getting used to it, learning to like it, and when it comes time to get another machine down the road (maybe when their lives are put back together a bit better), they'll be interested in keeping the platform they're used to (meaning they're a *new* market of up-and-coming customers, who won't be trained to seek out the latest Microsoft dreck).
Read my stuff.
From the aftermath technologies blog:
He's right. I voted for the gorillas.
All about me
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
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.