[ale] Please help me give away PCs.

[Joe Knapka]

Would it be at all possible to give these machines away
to members of the home-schooling community? Or even
directly to public school *students*, who can take them
home and actually learn something from them?

Obviously the average public school system is not going to
be able to make systematic use of a bunch of crusty
machines, but I think they could be a treasure trove
for the individuals being "educated." I know I would
have killed to get my hands on free hardware when
I was 14 or so.

-- Joe
(Big fan of self-directed education, after reading my
stepdaughter's copy of "The Teenage Liberation Handbook"
by Grace Lewellyn)

Jeff Hubbs wrote:
> 
> Being a former ("escaped?") Fed myself, I presume that he's limited to
> public schools not of his own choice.  I think this other fellow's point is
> well taken - that this kind of giveaway is in effect casting swine before
> pearls.
> 
> I encountered a similar situation with the Department of Energy.  They
> wanted to make a big deal out of giving not tens but *many hundreds* of
> machines away.  I opposed the move on the following grounds:
> 
> 1.  The machines themselves would have been very hard-pressed to deal with
> the current MS OSses of the time (this was like 4-5 years ago and my Linux
> knowledge was miniscule), thereby greatly limiting their value for running
> commercial software of the day.
> 
> 2.  I asked to see any curriculum or lesson plan that would have gainfully
> utilized the machines.  I know from firsthand experience that any such
> "goodies" tend to get piled into closets and unused rooms without a cogent
> plan for their utilization.
> 
> 3.  The mere presence of these computers - and *knowledge* of that presence
> on the part of school boards and politicians - would likely make it much
> harder for faculty to justify the procurement of new, modern machines for
> reasonable and fully legitimate purposes.  I could forsee someone saying
> "COMPUTERS???  You want COMPUTERS?  The government just gave us 1,000
> computers!!!  You don't need no stinkin' COMPUTERS!!!!!" and not at all
> understanding that the distinction between a new computer and one of
> equivalent cost five years back in time is all the difference in the world
> with respect to what can be accomplished with it.
> 
> Despite my passionately-argued points, the giveaway took place, and I
> imagine that you can find these machines standing in for missing furniture
> legs, serving as load-bearing members for many a jury-rigged bookshelf, and
> holding open many a door throughout the public school systems of the Central
> Savannah River Area (Bao Ha probably used some of those very machines at
> some time in the past).  Hands were shaken for press photogs, glowing
> articles were written, life went on.
> 
> Now, I believe that an all-Linux solution could make a pallet-load of 486es
> gainfully usable, but  although I am relatively certain that examples of
> such being done exist, it requires some improbably determined, resourceful,
> and smart faculty and equally improbably forward-thinking and open-minded
> school administrators to pull it off.
> 
> I am just sorry that we didn't hang on to the machines and set up the
> biggest, baddest Beowulf cluster of its kind (some people at Oak Ridge
> National Lab did just that with the "Stone Soupercomputer").  We probably
> could have amassed a 500-node cluster over the course of less than a year.
> How we could have powered, cooled, and UPSsed such a monstrosity would have
> been a whole 'nother story.
> 
> - Jeff
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Christopher S. Adams [mailto:toiletduk at penguinpowered.com]
> > Sent: Thursday, July 20, 2000 2:57 PM
> > To: ale at ale.org
> > Subject: Re: [ale] Please help me give away PCs.
> >
> >
> > have you tried private schools and orphanages? since they're not
> > state-funded, they would probably appreciate the pc's
> >
> > or if you want to be really charitable, you can give them to me :)
> >
> > Chris
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: <tew at wiencko.com>
> > To: <nixpop at hotmail.com>
> > Cc: <ale at ale.org>
> > Sent: Thursday, July 20, 2000 2:40 PM
> > Subject: Re: [ale] Please help me give away PCs.
> >
> >
> > > Al Gore and the Federal Government is taxing my
> > communications services to
> > > death to provide state of the art PCs and internet access
> > to schools and
> > > libraries all over the country.
> > >
> > > I don't think you'll find too many public schools willing
> > to take obsolete
> > > equipment when they can get new stuff for free.  Now, if
> > you were willing
> > to
> > > support some non-taxpayer financed charatible institutions,
> > then I think
> > you
> > > might find an audience.
> > >
> > > On Thu, 20 July 2000, "Jon Rennie" wrote:
> > >
> > > >
> > > > Off topic but in line with a recent thread.
> > > >
> > > > I have between 60 and 100 PCs and almost as many monitors
> > and a few
> > other
> > > > things to give away.  There are conditions.  I work for
> > the federal
> > > > government.  I need to find a tax-payer supported educational
> > institution
> > > > (school)  somewhere in the Kindergarten through 12th
> > grade range to take
> > > > this stuff.
> > > >
> > > > The greatest number of the CPUs is Dell Optiplex 433s/L
> > CPUs (having a
> > 33MHz
> > > > '486SX chip) with 8MB RAM average and minimum 210 MB hard
> > drive.  A few
> > > > systems have better specs and I have some garbage lesser
> > systems I need
> > to
> > > > get rid of.  The 433s and better have 10BaseT cards.  The
> > monitors are
> > > > mostly Dell color 14" ones.
> > > >
> > > > Please help.  Perhaps you can interest a school in
> > teaching some kids to
> > set
> > > > up Linux routers/firewalls/whatever.
> > > >
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-- Joe Knapka
* What happens when a mysterious force meets an inscrutable object?
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