[olug] small pentiums receive a home

[Cale Lewis]

Thanks for the links. 

I took a NIC (New Internet Computer, an Oracle sponsered CD-booting 
thinclient basicly) and made a custom image CD for it so that a 60-something 
year old woman here in Glenwood could email her son stationed in Iraq. She 
did not want a computer, and the Mivo email joke from Earthlink did not suit 
her either. It was much easier to taylor something that was comfortable for 
her to use for email and a little easy web browsing. She now has a computer, 
having eased into using one with the custom-NIC experience, and it DOES have 
a Linux partition on it that gets used. 

Of course I did start her with BeOS, but some hardware incompatibilities with 
a printer and such lead us to the next best option. ;^) The NIC is now 
waiting to be used with area youth groups such as the Scouts or others.  Just 
wait until I show them how a $10-$15 or $20 Netier thin client can become a 
kick-ass portable gamestation and servicable DVD Player/computer with built-
in modem-nic-stereo sound-and even TV-out in some models!

Cale Lewis


>If you're interested in what a Scout needs to do to earn a Computer Merit 
>Badge, check out the requirements at www.meritbadge.com.   Merit badge 
>instructors for scouting must be registered adult scouters, and have the 
>troop certify them as a Merit Badge Counselor for the specific badge they 
>teach.  There have also have been a couple of interesting Linux Journal 
>articles about Linux and Scouting. 
>http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7533
>http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7813
>
>Another possibility for getting putting older equipment to good us is 
>starting 
>something like Freegeeks. www.freegeek.org, beginning on a *much* smaller 
>scale.   There are still people locally, who have very basic computer needs, 
>and are unable to fill them.  IMO, recycling and donating some of that 
>equipment would be a very positive way for OLUG to contribute to the 
>community.  
>
>And finally, don't we have a someone affilliated with Computers for Africa 
on 
>the list?  They might be able to give you a good idea for getting rid of 
>working equipment.
>
>Dave
>
>
>Dave