NYTimes Visits Menlo Park's TechShop
ridgecritter points out this interesting article in the New York Times on TechShop, a membership resource (a.k.a. hackerspace) in Menlo Park, CA, for building stuff. "From hammers to 3-D printers and laser cutters. Fun!" Along similar lines, and also recently in the NYT, a quick on-the-train conversation with Bre Pettis of MakerBot.
I bet you could help those people quite a bit by selling the computer you're using and donating the proceeds.
We might appreciate it, too...