I don't trust Goodwill, they are a fickle fairly
political (as in
corporate politics) group. Without a "real" charter as a museum, the
items on shelves are protected only by the grace of whoever the
current "boss" of that area happens to be. Some Monday morning the
whole lot could be in the dumpster, or the back of some scrappers
truck.
I know this since I have been one of the scrappers to show up when a
new boss takes over and wants the place cleared out.
Now the Austin Goodwill Computer Works IS a bit special, this is the
store Jag works at, and my guess is that they have a fairly deep
volunteer effort that would at least try to protect things.
************
Now on a completely personal level, I also think it sucks. Goodwill is
a powerfull magnet for sucking up all donations available in the area,
regardless of their ability to process the stuff properly, ie some big
loads of computer stuff comes in, it gets a quick and dirty dock side
sort with all the excess going to whatever vendor they have a deal
going with. The amount of damage internal handling at Goodwill and its
ilk do to computer stuff is very disgusting too.
I agree. They claim to provide job training as their charitable
offering but from what I can see, that is only as dockside workers or
sales clerks, and they suck up most of the donations in a region
that could be used for thift shops like Sally-Ann that do provide
help from the proceeds for societies casualties.
For those that missed Mikes' reference to "Jag" : He had a great
software site for users of old Macs until forced to shut down by
Apple.
ciao larry
lgwalker(a)look.ca
walkers(a)altavista.net
bigwalk(a)xoommail.com