Re: FW: [plug] Re: Computer Bank - please dont give them away.

[Sam Reid <netexp@warehouse.net>]

I'm sorry, but if this is the attitude this project is going to proceed
under I am not the least bit interested in participating. The tone of
your post seems to indicate that you assume that we are just going to
give out machines to anyone who asks for one. Bzzt! Wrong.

> hand dealers. The low prices in op-shops are enough to stop such
> waste,
> but not too much for the poor to afford.
>   Just giving away PCs will lower their value If they wind up in
> cash-converters the next day, you will be lucky, because the buyer
> will probably be a poor person getting a cheap computer and _wanting_
> it. 
>   Who are the beneficiaries? Poor kids who make it to University might
> be
> sufficiently motivated to just need the kit you describe.
> Are you thinking of single parent families, Aboriginies, unemployed,
> disabled, the "working poor"?


Secondly assuming that anyone 'poor' enough to recieve a computer from
this is dangerously likely to run down to the nearest porn shop and hock
it (probably for those 'drugs' you keep hearing about on 'A Current
Affair') is one of the most arrogent (not to say moronic) things so far
posted to this list.

Yes, of course there must be training involved, yes of course there
should be some kind of criterea for who gets equipment, but in the end,
if you can't feed your family, and the dole won't pay you, and you have
some equipment sitting in the corner which might raise you $100 or so
from a pawn shop (and I speak from bitter experience here from times
when I was not doing so well that one of the gear so far discussed would
raise much more than that in a pawn shop) who the hell are you to say
that someone can't pawn their ComputerBank machine? 

Are we giving these machines away, or are we just loaning them? And If
we are going to sell them for a nominal price, what's going to stop all
those greedy poor people from hocking them at a profit anyway?

(By the way, Op-Shops don't sell most of their cloths to the poor, they
sell freely donated clothes to others in order to fund their charity
operations.)

I apologise if this post is a little harsh, but this list really needs
to get on track... enough chat about applications already. All major
distributions have sufficient programs to cover all needs thus far
discussed.

 Let's figure out how to promote ourselves, collect parts, organise
voulenteers, and actually _do_ something.

-Sam Reid

P.S., As far as I'm concerned, your sig file says it all..
> Mike Holland <mike@golden.wattle.id.au>            Perth, Australia. 
>                           --==-- 
> For perfect happiness, remember two things: 
>         (1) Be content with what you've got. 
>         (2) Be sure you've got plenty.