how to redonate an old computer to a kid

On Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:22:28 -0500, torque63 wrote (in article ):

"Re" donate? :-)

On Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:22:28 -0800 (PST), torque63 put finger to keyboard and composed:

Kids, whether rich or poor, want the latest and greatest. They will not be satisfied with someone's hand-me-downs.

You may have to "redonate" your old computer a hundred times before you find a kid that's grateful enough to take it, and unashamed to use it.

A lot of poor people are poor because they spend like rich people. Here in this country, most "Aussie battlers" are self made.

- Franc Zabkar

I've sent old ones to Africa.

I beg to differ. I don't know what the OP has, but my daughter was the ecstatic recipient of an Athlon 2.0 gig machine on her birthday. I hooked it up to her stereo system and put a PCI wireless card in so that I wouldn't have to run copper to her mom's desk for internet...doesn't even have an LCD monitor.

We had gifted her pretty heavily earlier in the day with swim paraphernalia (she's a competition swimmer). While she was at swim practice (two hours/day, five days/week), I hooked up the system in her bedroom. When she came home I handed her 'one last present'. It was a mouse in a plastic bag. 'What do I do with this?' I told her she might need it some day, and to go put up her swim stuff. (She didn't get it....)

The shrieks of delight from her room were music to my heart and ears.

Frank, you've got a jaded view of kids...at least some of them.

jak

And this happens to them :-(

On Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:50:45 -0000, "Peter Hucker" put finger to keyboard and composed:

Foreign aid to Africa is a case of poor people in rich countries giving money to rich people in poor countries. I've donated a lot of money to World Vision in the past, but never again. Africa is in a state of perpetual war, aid projects go to ruin after the volunteers leave, food convoys are hijacked and the produce sold on the black market, corrupt officials pocket aid money for themselves, etc, etc. Rampant HIV/AIDS will kill most of the population by the end of the next decade.

Better keep your old computer and set it up as a print server, or paperless fax machine, or audio/video jukebox, or dedicated standalone word processor.

- Franc Zabkar

Or they end up on carboot sales or being sold out of the back of white vans on pub car parks.

Ron

A local volunteer group has a list of over 40 kids waiting for _ANY_ used computer they can get. They are trying to find enough parts to catch up before Christmas day. They said most of the computers are Win

On Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:36:11 -0000, Adrian C wrote:=

The kids are making money selling the scrap metal. Problem?

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On Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:36:11 -0000, Adrian C wrote:=

So how come charities don't know this?

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Surely a big organisation such as World Vision would know this?

Yes, no one is teaching them how to do 419 scams. Far more lucrative....

On Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:39:31 -0500, "Michael A. Terrell" put finger to keyboard and composed:

I have two Athlon PCs, from a deceased estate, that I can't give away. My father had a 5-year-old 68cm LG TV, with no history of faults, that he couldn't give away (in the end I sold it for AU$50). I have a working dish washer that nobody wants, and a computer desk and hutch, in excellent condition, that I'll have to dump because I already have two. I take electronic gear to the Salvation Army, but I suspect most of it ends up in the trash. In fact they once told me that no-one wants "old" stuff. Nowadays I just cannibalise old TVs, etc for parts.

BTW, here's a use for old floppy diskettes:

- Franc Zabkar

On Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:01:47 -0000, "Peter Hucker" put finger to keyboard and composed:

Sorry, I should explain. World Vision sent me a newsletter in which they stated that some aid money was being used to build churches, or something of that nature, IIRC. Whatever it was, it turned me off forever. This was about 20 years ago.

- Franc Zabkar

I also avoid anything that hints at churches.

No local freecycle group?

On Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:39:10 -0500, "Michael A. Terrell" put finger to keyboard and composed:

Thanks, I found one. Looks good ...

- Franc Zabkar

ill eventually reproduce the works of Shakespeare.

well, isn't that basically where they came from in fact, assuming you believe in evolution?

eventually reproduce the works of Shakespeare.

Typewriters did not evolve, silly :-P