13 Oct
2000
13 Oct
'00
10:06 a.m.
Rumor has it that John Foust may have mentioned these words:
At 10:07 PM 10/12/00 -0700, Sellam Ismail wrote:
Unforch, you seem to forget not everyone lives in sillycon valley...
Our local *high* school is still 75% 486 based... they'd *kill* for some
tossed Pentiums, no matter what RAM/HD/CDROM/etc...
As much as I hate having seemingly useless crap
like this, I still refuse
to throw it out. It's useful to SOMEONE.
Probably not. I'd collected most of these older PCs from the
trash from a local computer dealer. That doesn't mean they were
broken, it means he didn't want them and the customer didn't
want them. If I really need a new firewall or new utility PC, why
shouldn't I
spend $400 and get a new whiz-bang disposable eMachine from Best Buy?
Ummmm... because they're crap? Of the eMachines I've seen/worked on, half
(yes, I said *half*) of them needed to be returned to the company because
they didn't last a week (under the lightest of loads).
I'm not truly reformed, though. I saved a couple
known-working
486/66s to revive for my three kids. They're sharing an eMachine
now, but it would be fun to have one in each kid's room. But I'm
sure that ten minutes after installation, I'll be asked by a
five-year-old why he can't get to ToonDisney.com, which requires
a browser with Flash and who knows what else.
And my answer to my 10 year old son is "because you don't need it." Just
like my father's answer to the snowmobile use was "if you can't start it or
help fix it, you can't ride it."
Two weeks ago, the school superintendent asked me where
*he* could
dump old PCs. They've got too many, and their technology director
would never allow such mutts in the classroom. Have you been to a
school or a library lately?
This morning. It was *ahem* pitiful, what the kids around here are forced
to "learn" on. Oh, and our (Michigan's) Govenor just *cut* technology
funding for hardware for schools. :-(
[[ And if you don't think this is your problem (in the U.S.) - he was in
high consideration for running for President a few years back... ]]
Anywho, just my other side of the coin...
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger --- sysadmin, Iceberg Computers
Recycling is good, right??? Ok, so I'll recycle an old .sig.
If at first you don't succeed, nuclear warhead
disarmament should *not* be your first career choice.