Jim McDermott sent me the following note. Please respond directly to Jim via a-mail or at his workshop number of 919-788-7740 on Wednesday between 10:30 AM and 5:00 PM.
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: James McDermott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sep 4, 2006 2:05 PM Subject: Re: Linux Opportunities at Purple Elephant To: Rick DeNatale <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: Dave Hinton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Donald Marsh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Gerhard Faessler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Rick, Thanks for responding to my email. I am a retired Electrical Engineer (30 years with IBM at RTP). I have been volunteering at the Purple Elephant Computer Factory for Kids in Raleigh helping out with activities including fund raising and doing refurbishments on computers. We are a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. We accept donated computers from individuals, organizations, and businesses. We wipe the hard drives and then install Windows 2000 Pro on the refurbished computers. Our clients are K-12 students, needy adults, and other 501(c)(3) nonprofits who support our clients. To date, we have provided over 575 refurbished Windows computers to schools, community centers, nonprofits, individuals, and families of NC National Guard members serving overseas. Our goal is to eventually be able to give these refurbished computers to our clients. At present, however, we are requesting a suggested donation of $75.00 per system to help cover our refurbishment expenses. I am a member of TriLUG and have an interest in Linux. Recently, I built a few machines at the shop installing Edubuntu. Edubuntu is of interest to us because it's an OS that's dedicated to education for kids and we are very interested in GCompris which comes installed with Edubuntu. My grand kids love GCompris. After exploring GCompris, we are wondering if it might be useful at local day care centers and senior centers. The website is: www.gcompris.net We have a large inventory of donated computers at our shop that includes P1-P4 Pentiums, Celerons, MACS, and notebook computers. We are wondering if we can make use of our donated P1 computers by installing Damn Small Linux or another small Linux image? We will be looking at installing Edubuntu on our donated MAC's (G3,G4,G5) and some of our donated notebooks. We are starting to think about setting up small Thin Client networks running Edubuntu for possible use in day care centers. We have a very small group at the shop (5 people), and currently I am trying to get us up and running with Linux. My experience base with Linux is limited and there are times when we have needed some help from those with more in-depth experience. We are hoping to get a few volunteers to help us build these Linux machines. Our shop is located at 6808 Davis Circle in Raleigh (919-788-7740) is open every Wednesday from 10:30 AM to 5:00 PM. If there is interest, I can be available to show prospective volunteers our shop at other times. Our shop has 6 workbenches that can be used to do refurbishment work. Thanks, Jim McDermott -- TriLUG mailing list : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug TriLUG Organizational FAQ : http://trilug.org/faq/ TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/
