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<TITLE>RE: [plug] Re: Computer Bank - please dont give them away.</TITLE>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Some good points - especially regarding the "op-shop" idea... will raise for discussion...</FONT>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">1. Persons actually interested in learning how to use a computer (as you say, no point in giving a computer to someone only for them to hock it the following day.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">2. One of the guidelines needs to be one-pc-per family to avoid people taking as many as they can.</FONT>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Consider how the better charities operate. Goods are sold at low</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">prices in Op-Shops. If they were given away, I can assure you people</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">would take as much as they could get and sell it for peanuts to second</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">hand dealers. The low prices in op-shops are enough to stop such waste,</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">but not too much for the poor to afford.</FONT>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Who are the beneficiaries? Poor kids who make it to University might be</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">sufficiently motivated to just need the kit you describe.</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Are you thinking of single parent families, Aboriginies, unemployed,</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">disabled, the "working poor"?</FONT>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">All of the above...</FONT>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Most "lower socioeconomic" kids will have real problems, and need</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">lots of support if they are ever to get into Linux. The home environment</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">is likely bad. They would need somewhere to go. A computer room in the</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">community hall? Perhaps with lockers for their PCs, and shared monitors</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">(bolted firmly to heavy tables). Volunteers from Computer Bank to help and</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">supervise.</FONT>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">This depends... certainly, this is true of _one_ of the groups included amongs what might be termed "disadvantaged groups", but is not necessarily confined to this group alone... (nor are the problems you mention above confined to low-income persons... some kids go nuts in a "rich" family where abuse is rife too....</FONT></P>
<P><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">One of my contacts is a group called KAGY that works with such kids - especially teaching them motor-mechanics... am considering offering this as another area for potential employement along-side the more traditional "working-class" job-skills.</FONT></P>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial"> </FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Or would the strategy be to seek out those who only need financial help?</FONT>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Strategy yet to be defined in detail... this is the reason for discussion... thanks heaps for these pointers... certainly, I will be taking these into account... need to consider all aspects of what we intend to do...</FONT></P>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial"> I fear that getting hardware is the easy bit, but may achieve little</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">more than a warm feeling by itself.</FONT>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">agreed.</FONT>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">But there must be huge numbers of unused 486s out there in industry,</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">which companies might be persuaded to see as a cheap way to get some</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">good publicity.</FONT>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">agreed.</FONT>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">regards</FONT>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">David Buddrige.</FONT>
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