Free Geek and New England Tech Recycling Day

One week from today Free Geek Providence and New England Tech are teaming up to recycle your old computer* equipment. It helps you clean up the environment by keeping old computers from going to the landfill. It also helps you reclaim your closet or basement from old electronics. HOT 106.3 FM and Pawtucket Red Sox mascot will be joining the event.

The event is to be held at New England Tech, Saturday July 25, 2009.

New England Tech

2500 Post Road,Warwick, RI

9am to 1pm

*a $10 fee is applied to CRT type monitors

Laptop Hunters saga

I have to admit I’m a bit behind on the latest round of MAC versus PC(Windows). I find much of it silly and funny. I do know many MAC users can be very defensive about their choice of computers. I once posted a short post about their Safari browser and was soon barraged by hate mail/comments from MAC users. Maybe this post will also incite some of them too.

I’m not to sure what makes MAC users so rabid. I’m a PC but, I don’t hate Apple owners. To be honest they make high quality computers but, along with that goes the high price. It’s like comparing Porsche to Ford. One builds high performance sports cars which are pricey but other markets to the masses with vehicles ranging from trucks to small cars. Both will get you from point A to B.

The ad points out a simple thing which points to one thing I don’t understand. Why pay for high priced computer when something of a lower price will do what you want it to. Is it the image? I agree in many circles as video and graphical artist and such prefer MAC’s and that’s fine. Does everyone need that capability? No.

Most people just need a computer to surf the Internet, check email, play games, and some small office/school stuff. All the stuff a relatively inexpensive Windows based computer will do. Well I just thought I’d add some fuel to the fire of the debate.

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Free Geek Box

Free Geek of Providence is starting to distribute Free Geek Boxes in order to the public. First you might say what is Free Geek Providence? They do a better job of describing themselves. Here’s an description from there website:

Free Geek Providence is a non-profit grassroots organization dedicated to addressing the digital divide by providing computer training, redistributing computer technology and providing volunteer opportunities to our community while maintaining relationships with responsible recycling partners.

For a small donation you can receive a Free Geek Box. What will it have in it? From what info I gathered from the website it’ll usually have a Pentium III,256 MB RAM, network card and some other options available at an extra cost(minimal). For an operating system they loaded with Xubuntu (Linux based) which is free. For more detailed information you can check them out the Free Geek Providence website.

Technorati Tags: free geek,providence

What is Free Geek?

Technorati Tags: freegeek,free,geek,computer,recycle,electronic,recycling,providence,rhode island,ri,donate,reuse,linux,pc,personal computer

You may have noticed in some of my past posts mentioning “Free Geek” . I’ll attempt explain a little further. In a short and simple explanation they “Help the needy get nerdy” .  Here is the official mission statement from Free Geek of Providence "Free Geek Providence is a non-profit grassroots organization dedicated to addressing the digital divide by providing computer training, redistributing computer technology and providing volunteer opportunities to our community while maintaining relationships with responsible recycling partners."

They are a non-profit group that helps those who perhaps can’t either afford or uninitiated get acquainted with computers. The goal is to provide both training in both building and using a PC. They use free Linux operating system that is both free and relatively simple to use. On top of that they can walk away with a PC they build themselves or earn by volunteering  for the group for certain amount of time.

They do this using donated equipment. Computer stuff that is donated is gone through and tested. If obsolete is it is sent to a local responsible recycler rather than just sent over seas or dumped in the local landfill. Here is a video of what can happen to your old stuff from 60 Minutes. If it is reusable it is used for building units either for the volunteers(to earn) or for sale in a thrift store or online.

This is just a small snippet of what they do for the community. If your in the Rhode Island area and are interested in donating unused computer equipment click here to see more. The Free Geek that started it all can be seen here. Thanks for coming by and have a geeky day. What do you do with your old computer stuff?

Free Geek A Learning Experience

More about Free Geek

Welcome to Free Geek

I just volunteered for this. I can't wait to start. Here is the website for Free Geek Providence which is just starting up. They don't even have a actual location yet. They are looking for donations and volunteers. I'm looking forward to helping out.

Befriend a geek this holiday season

As a sat watching this I wondered is that how I look like in my basement typing away on the PC late at night. How sad. I am a geek.

Befriend a Geek from White October on Vimeo.