[G4] Sound and other concerns

[Ronald Steinke]

On 16 Jun, 2007, at 11:27 PM, H F wrote:

> Are you working for Butte Environmental Council or have they been  
> supplanted by something else?

The program I am involved in is not part of Butte EC, but we are  
affiliated with Cal Dept of Waste Management and other agencies. I do  
volunteer work with Computers for Classrooms, Inc., of Chico, CA. We  
receive donated equipment from various California agencies like  
CalTrans, CHP, Dept of Health Services, etc, and some county agencies  
and private corporations.

When we get equipment, we categorize the units and then do a DoD wipe  
of the hard drives before doing anything else with the cpus. The cpus  
get read using MicroScope for the PCs and OS-9.x for the Macs. They  
also get 'read' for video card, RAM, network cards, etc, and a note  
put on the front of the case. If the cpus are good enough, they get  
sorted by processor speed and put in the warehouse until a school  
puts in a request for that type machine.

When a school calls and requests machines, we grab them from the  
warehouse, configure them with an OS, install certain free programs,  
and charge the out-of-district schools around $90/cpu with monitor,  
keyboard, mouse, and cords with a one-year warranty.

The program has been operating for over 12 years now, and I have been  
with it for almost 8 years now. I'm retired from State of California  
Dept of Corrections, and this keeps me off the streets at night and  
out from under my wife's feet during the day. Plus, I get a lot more  
satisfaction out of this work than my previous job at San Quentin  
State Prison. Working to help kids is a lot more pleasing than  
working with inmates!

We have a program for volunteers who want to earn a computer. If a  
person volunteers for 50 hours with us, we provide a PC that is  
configured for Windows 2000-XP and internet capable, usually  
something like a P-III 600MHz machine with a 17" monitor.  If the  
volunteer wants a Mac, it would be either a high-end iMac slot loader  
model or a G3 B&W tower. The time does not have to be consecutive  
hours, it can be an hour at a time. Most of the volunteer workers  
come in for at least three hours a day and get their computer within   
a month. For families that can't afford to buy a $500 PC at Office  
Depot or Circuit City, this is a good deal and we get many volunteers  
during the summer vacation months.

Don't want to tie up the bulletin board with too much bragging about  
the program. If you want more info, contact me off-line at  
ronsteinke at mac.com.