[aklug] Re: Third world projects

From: Jim Gribbin <jimgribbin@gmail.com>
Date: Tue Jan 15 2008 - 00:36:13 AKST

All that being said, I hated to knock the project idea that way.

A couple of years ago, there were people lauding and posting links to
projects along these lines being done in other states.

It's just with the prices on some of these.newer systems out there, and
if you haven't had much in the way of first hand experience with
shipping costs between here and the contiguous 48 states, you just have
no idea what kind of logistics problems/costs you're letting yourself in
for.

When my Rotary Club wants to ship stuff to the GIs in Afghanistan and
Iraq. Or relief goods to an earthquake or what-have-you. The MOST
valuable contribution we get is one of the airlines offering to
transport the goods. That is generally of a higher dollar value that of
the items being sent over.

You also can't discount the costs to package that stuff to survive the
trip. None of that stuff is going to have the original packaging.
Someone will have to fabricate packaging.

Richard Moore wrote:
> Jim,
> You are correct it cost Aproximately $159, to ship a 15 in CRT monitor
> down south. That is only shipping it regular ground from USPS, which by the
> time it got down there it would probably be broken into a million peices.
> specially since you would be shipping it out of the US. They tend not to be
> very nice will mail that once it has gone out of the US.
> Rich M.
>
>
> On 1/13/08, Jim Gribbin <jimgribbin@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I think the stuff you're talking about has been discussed before, it's
>> just been a couple of years.
>>
>> LinuxUser&Developer tends to run somewhat behind. They're announcing on
>> their "News" page the release of Fedora Core 6. It's only the 4th
>> article down. Stand by for their announcements of Fedoras 7 & 8.
>>
>>
>> http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=18&Itemid=59
>>
>> It's been my experience the last 2 yrs that you can't give away a CRT.
>> I'm under the impression even the Salvation Army doesn't want them
>> anymore. I don't think it would make any sort of economic sense to ship
>> them across the state, let alone another country. It would probably cost
>> over $100/per to get your CRTs to the Mexican border from Alaska.
>>
>> Your t20 laptop or other PIII laptop would probably be at the bottom
>> end of what might make sense. Between current shipping costs and the
>> price point on things like the OLPC, the EeePC, and the Everex Cloudbook
>> that is just being released, I don't see the economic sense in
>> attempting to do much more with the hardware you're talking about
>> further than across town. You could probably fund an OLPC for some kid
>> in South America for less than the shipping cost of a CRT.
>>
>> Nice idea anyway, just a couple of years late. Sorry about bursting any
>> bubbles.
>>
>> Jim G
>>
>> Nathan Templeton wrote:
>>
>>> Evening Gentlemen,
>>>
>>> Truly sorry I missed the meeting tonight. I was looking forward
>>> to the presentation. However had to help the wife get ready for
>>> deployment. Oh the fun of life right?
>>>
>>> At any rate I was reading through the new LinuxUser&Developer and
>>> say an article about a project to bring older hardware to Africa. That
>>> got me thinking.. Has something like that ever been talked about with
>>> the lug here? Maybe a bit closer to home? Say Mexico or South America?
>>>
>>> I have to say I don't know a lot about non-profit and
>>> foundations, but I'm learning now. I just see all these CRT's that are
>>> perfectly good, but no longer the tech "want" of the average American
>>> user. PIII machines that would be wonders in the hands of kids that have
>>> never seen a computer. Hell, I'm typing this on a think pad T20 (PIII
>>>
>> 800).
>>
>>> So if this has been addressed before, and I have yet to see it in
>>> the archive, I apologize, but I see this as something that if there is
>>> enough passion, drive and people behind it could be a hell of a thing to
>>> be a part of. But then again, that might just be me.
>>>
>>> All thoughts, ideas, constructive or against are welcome. I'm all
>>> for open discussion of ideas. Let me know what you think..
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Nathan
>>>
>>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>> When you are Sierra-Oscar-Lima. I'm Hotel-Tango-Hotel.
>>>
>>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
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>
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Received on Tue Jan 15 00:37:24 2008

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