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Major Linux Hardware Donor Is a CNN "Hero"

Posted by kdawson on Tue Oct 02, 2007 04:52 PM
from the making-a-difference dept.
Hardware Hacking Linux Business The Media
christian.einfeldt writes "James Burgett of the Alameda County Computer Resource Center calls himself a 'tattooed freak' and a recovering drug addict, but CNN is calling him a hero (video) for diverting tons of computers from landfills, installing Ubuntu Linux on them, and giving them out to schools, non-profits, and poor people. Burgett's filmed interview is currently leading a CNN contest among videos of 'ordinary people' whom CNN considers everyday heroes, narrowly edging out the video of a man who is saving gorillas from extinction. In his interview, Burgett points out that the people working for him are also recovering drug addicts or recovering mental illness patients." Update: 10/02 23:46 GMT by KD : Reader stefanlasiewski posted a journal article describing how, bewilderingly, the state of California is threatening to shut down Burgett's ACCRC.
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Submission: Major Linux hardware donor is a CNN "hero" by christian.einfeldt (874074)
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  • Anyone that distributes Linux to the masses (Score:3, Insightful)

    by CaptainPatent (1087643) on Tuesday October 02 2007, @04:54PM (#20829751) Journal
    Is a hero in all of our books!
    • Heroe? Oh... I understand... his name was robert paulson, his name was robert paulson, his name was robert paulson

    • Re:Anyone that distributes Linux to the masses (Score:4, Insightful)

      by jmashaw (1099959) on Tuesday October 02 2007, @05:29PM (#20830271) Journal

      Is a hero in all of our books!

      Well, I believe that your sentiment is having an apparent effect on the voting:
      /.ed!

      Ironic, he did not want to win, but now thanks to us, he will probably win in a landslide.

        • Re:Anyone that distributes Linux to the masses (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Yetihehe (971185) on Wednesday October 03 2007, @01:57AM (#20833975)
          There are people needed on every front. On fighting mountaintop mining AND fight for reactors. With Noguchi, maybe nobody wants to pick up trash? Would you pick up trash? Rutugarama does what he can. There are other people which care for other biodiversity pieces. One man can't do anything for everyone, he must care of what he can.
    • Apparently he's only hero to 1402 of us
      He's winning, but I expect more from a /.ing

      46% 1402 James Burgett
      repairs discarded computers and gives them away

      16% 482 Larry Gibson
      is fighting to protect his land from mountaintop mining

      6% 176 Ken Noguchi
      leads "litter brigades" on the slopes of Mount Fuji in Japan

      33% 997 Eugene Rutagarama
      is dedicated to saving mountain gorillas from extinction

      Maybe we can keep track of the poll's progess here

  • Weird (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Captain Splendid (673276) <capsplendid@@@gmail...com> on Tuesday October 02 2007, @04:55PM (#20829767) Homepage Journal
    A guy actually doing something useful is beating out another guy doing something equally noble but less practical? Checks outside Nope, clear skies, no cats or dogs...

    • Re:Weird (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Otter (3800) on Tuesday October 02 2007, @05:07PM (#20829953) Journal
      How do you figure protecting half the world's mountain gorillas, at constant risk of being killed himself, isn't "useful"? With all due respect to Ubuntu, that strikes me as at least as important as supervising a bunch of Linux installs.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        How do you figure protecting half the world's mountain gorillas, at constant risk of being killed himself, is "useful"?

        Noble? yes.
        Useful? What use do you plan to put these gorillas to? Personally, whatever you have in mind, I think it is wrong. These gorillas should be allowed to live in peace instead of being enslaved or turned into fashionable yet durable manufactured goods. You are a bad person.

        • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

          by Otter (3800)
          Useful? What use do you plan to put these gorillas to?

          What use do you plan to put thousands of new Linux users to? At least no one is outsourcing gorillas.

          (Yet, anyway. I suppose if the Rwandan economy continues to pick up, they might get undercut by orangutans.)

      • Re:Weird (Score:5, Funny)

        by SeaFox (739806) on Tuesday October 02 2007, @06:24PM (#20830893)

        How do you figure protecting half the world's mountain gorillas, at constant risk of being killed himself, isn't "useful"? With all due respect to Ubuntu, that strikes me as at least as important as supervising a bunch of Linux installs.

        Maybe Ubuntu will find some way to show their appreciation to the runner up in their "Gracious Gorilla" release.

      • Re:Weird (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Nyeerrmm (940927) on Tuesday October 02 2007, @07:16PM (#20831449)
        I think the real utility of it isn't just that he's install Ubuntu, but the fact that he's doing the gruntwork to collect old computers, put them in a usable state, and redistributing them to those in need. Evangelizing for linux isn't necessarily the point.

        • Re:Weird (Score:4, Informative)

          by Hatta (162192) on Tuesday October 02 2007, @05:31PM (#20830299) Journal
          Except that they do [bbc.co.uk]. That's kind of the problem.
        • Letting a unique species go kaput is a bad idea, especially if they're moderately intelligent (and primates). Psychologists, anthropologists, and people who study communication benefit a lot from these guys, and that translates into benefit for humans.

          There are also emotional/ethical angles that you may or may not care about. Even if you're purely practical, though, there are reasons to keep gorillas around.

  • He realized he'd hit bottom... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 02 2007, @04:56PM (#20829781)
    ...when he found himself in a public washroom installing Vista for $20.

    (just kidding...keep up the great work!).

  • Good for him. Good for the schools. Good for Linux (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Chas (5144) on Tuesday October 02 2007, @04:57PM (#20829801) Homepage Journal
    Getting off drugs, both him and his assistants. VERY Cool.

    Helping out schools. Cool

    Helping the environment. Cool (though some in the "movement" would gripe about the electricity consumed).

    Linux. Uber cool!

    • If this man is the one I'm thinking of, he's saving a lot of computers from landfills. Even those of us in the movement have heard what an ecological disaster [silicon.com] that can be. "Reuse" is often the best thing you can do with a used item, even better than recycling.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by lpangelrob (714473)
        I have no idea where this is from, because the quote was IM'd to me, so it'll have to go unattributed for now. But I think it's appropriate:

        I guess these are endangered. I dunno... seems strange to say endangered when everything is endangered. I like to say they are losing the Darwin race, but people that are really into endangered stuff don't like to hear that.

      • Re:But (Score:5, Insightful)

        by hazem (472289) on Tuesday October 02 2007, @05:56PM (#20830617) Journal
        It's not like his installing linux on old computers is keeping the other guy from saving gorillas; or that every computer installed leads to a gorilla not being saved. Rather it's merely that the video of the guy installing linux is slightly more popular than the video of the guy saving gorillas.

        And it's not like he's hurting the knowledge about the gorilla program because I hadn't hear of either until today. If it weren't a guy installing linux (but instead a woman making sandwiches for hungry orphans) then it would have never made it on slashdot.

        So, we can call it a win for both.

        • Re:But (Score:5, Funny)

          by cez (539085) * <cezsolutions.gmail@com> on Tuesday October 02 2007, @06:04PM (#20830697) Homepage
          hear hear... and you can bet your ass someone at gorilladot.org just learned what Ubuntu is!

        • Re:But (Score:5, Insightful)

          by MollyB (162595) * on Tuesday October 02 2007, @06:31PM (#20830963) Journal
          >So, we can call it a win for both.

          I see it that way, too. But the (American, at least) culture is focused on Winners and Losers to the extent that such rich meditations as yours are easy to miss. Slashdot clearly (witness the comment list) reflects this attitude, but it is nice to see more light and less heat on occasion. Thanks.

          • Re:But (Score:5, Insightful)

            by grammar fascist (239789) <neil.toronto@gmai[ ]om ['l.c' in gap]> on Wednesday October 03 2007, @01:18AM (#20833789) Homepage

            I see it that way, too. But the (American, at least) culture is focused on Winners and Losers to the extent that such rich meditations as yours are easy to miss.

            Definitely just Americans. Or something. What was that all about?

            Anyway, here's the real issue: humans have a natural bias to assume a zero-sum game first, even where none exists. It's the source of all envy. Maybe it was a good survival trait back in the poor, nasty, brutish, and short days when competition over resources was fierce, but it's clearly maladaptive now.

  • You don't have to be crazy.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by onkelonkel (560274) on Tuesday October 02 2007, @04:59PM (#20829821)
    You don't have to be crazy to install Linux

    but it helps!

    sorry... old joke...couldn't resist

  • I know (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 02 2007, @05:04PM (#20829897)
    Get the gorrillas to start using linux. That would surely win the top prize then.
    • Yes, but what of the gorilla children. Surely as the future generation of gorilla - kind we must start them out at an early age. Some one needs to design a low cost/ low power gorilla proof laptop for third world gorillas. Like the one laptop per child, but for gorilla children as they are cuter, more endangered, and would make a better plot to a movie co-starring Clint Eastwood.

  • Good for him (Score:5, Insightful)

    by avm (660) on Tuesday October 02 2007, @05:08PM (#20829967) Journal
    Good for him, on a number of levels.

    First, on a personal level, for taking control of his life back.
    Second, on an environmental level, for saving unnecessary rubbish from a landfill somewhere.
    Third, on a charitable level, for donating the results of his work.
    Fourth, on an economic level, for using free software and cast-off hardware to do something useful.
    Fifth, on a geek level, for using Linux to do it.

    My hat's off to you, sir.
  • Interestingly, James is asking voters to vote for the other folks [blogspot.com]:

    "Vote for the gorillas. 25 grand and fame that id probably just piss away anyway is not worth a specie.".

    Nice honest opinion from the Hero.

  • California doesn't like him.. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by nsanders (208050) on Tuesday October 02 2007, @05:12PM (#20830035) Homepage
    He's in a bit of trouble with the law too: http://www.boingboing.net/2007/09/16/computer-recycler-th.html [boingboing.net]

    The Department of Toxic Substance Control of the California Environmental Protection Agency has issued the ACCRC a violation that could make it very hard for the group to stay in business. And, quite frankly, that's a damned shame.

    • Life imitates art. Unbelievable. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Tackhead (54550) on Tuesday October 02 2007, @05:36PM (#20830357)
      > He's in a bit of trouble with the law too: http://www.boingboing.net/2007/09/16/computer-recycler-th.html [boingboing.net]
      >
      >The Department of Toxic Substance Control of the California Environmental Protection Agency has issued the ACCRC a violation that could make it very hard for the group to stay in business. And, quite frankly, that's a damned shame.

      And when I wrote Natalie's Restaurant [slashdot.org] more than two years ago, I thought it was fiction. Shit, the only thing I got wrong was that I imagined a San Francisco bureaucrat, as opposed to a Berkeley bureaucrat, and that my imaginararily-awkwardly-named "California Computer Recycling Use Fee Commission" wasn't long enough to match the actual bureaucracy's name (namely the "Department of Toxic Substance Control of the California Environmental Protection Agency").

      Because nobody, not even in the Bay Area, could be so dumb as to suggest that tossing a bunch of working hardware into a container ship bound for a crusher/smelter in China, was somehow a "more green" solution than reusing (and giving away) perfectly functional hardware so that it doesn't go into the waste stream in the first place.

      But then again, that's the difference between recycling as done by folks like the ACCRC - which is interested in reducing and reusing as well as recycling - and recycling as done by a government bureaucrat, to whom the only "green" that matters is how many taxpayer dollars can be milked out of an operation.

      So we'll sing it again when it comes 'round on the guitar.

      Can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day, diggin' through their closets and attics, findin' somethin' that still works, and givin' it to someone who ain't got one? And friends, they may think it's a movement...

      • Re:Life imitates art. Unbelievable. (Score:5, Informative)

        by E-Lad (1262) on Tuesday October 02 2007, @07:01PM (#20831301) Homepage

        Can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day, diggin' through their closets and attics, findin' somethin' that still works, and givin' it to someone who ain't got one? And friends, they may think it's a movement...
        It already exists. It's called Freecycle [freecycle.org].

  • Similar... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Phroggy (441) <slashdot3@phrogg[ ]om ['y.c' in gap]> on Tuesday October 02 2007, @05:24PM (#20830203) Homepage
    Anyone in Portland should check out FreeGeek [freegeek.org] and consider volunteering.

  • I donated my 486 (Score:3, Informative)

    by MichaelCrawford (610140) on Tuesday October 02 2007, @05:35PM (#20830355) Homepage Journal
    ... to the Yellow Network Coalition. They don't seem to be around anymore, but they would install Linux on old PCs and give them to low-income people.

    Their name was inspired by the yellow bicycles in Amsterdam, which I understand are freely available for anyone to take and ride around on.

  • He wants you to vote for the gorilla guy (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ChaoticCoyote (195677) on Tuesday October 02 2007, @08:31PM (#20832021) Homepage

    From the aftermath technologies blog [blogspot.com]:

    I don't know how to do this but I disagree with those of you who are voting me up in the cnn poll.

    Of the four people there only one is dealing with extinction. Dead is dead, anything else is negotiable. Vote for the gorillas. 25 grand and fame that id probably just piss away anyway is not worth a specie.

    I don't know if it will help, but I'd feel like crap if I won and the gorillas went extinct.

    He's right. I voted for the gorillas.

  • "Liberal" California (Score:4, Interesting)

    by OrangeTide (124937) on Tuesday October 02 2007, @08:33PM (#20832035) Homepage Journal
    Generally I've found that Californian "liberalism" does not tolerate people who are poor. From putting officers on duty to confiscate shopping carts from the homeless, to pushing homeless out of town. If you want to run a business that gives ex-cons and ex-addict a real job they can come to every day and make a better living for themselves, you get shut down.

    Pro-environmentalism California is entirely about special interests. If you're not a lobbyist, then your voice won't be heard. The environmental issues are driven entirely by special interest groups managed by the Elites, people and business with the money to make or break a representative's future campaign.

    It's curious that California is pro environment with it's complex and confusing beverage recycling program. When compared to states like Michigan that take 10 cent deposit on a soda can, and you get all 10 cents of your deposit back. while California has a "redemption value" which you almost never get the same amount back that you put into it. (it's taxed, and the value the recycling centers pay is sometimes below what you paid at the store). Also huge expensive recycling centers are subsidized, and are generally in bad neighborhoods so most people don't even try to collect their refund value. While in other states you simply drop off your empty cans at a participating grocery store, and they print you a receipt (at no additional charge) that you can exchange for cash or just apply to your grocery bill. Private companies foot the bill but in return they get foot traffic to their stores, so they are more than willing to pay.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Rakarra (112805)
        "He repairs discarded computers and gives them to people who otherwise could not afford one."

        That sounds suspiciously like the "well, I wouldn't have bought that album I just downloaded anyway, so no one's losing money" argument often used about file-sharing which many sharers proclaim and the entertainment industry strongly denies. It's not quite the same thing since nothing is getting pirated, but I wonder if the software industry would try to make a similar claim.

        • If they do then how long until a MacDonalds complains that they spent all that money on making the air outside their store smell *really* good only for someone to "steal some of the smell without coming in for a burger as they passed". The TV broadcasters tried it "Tivo should be illegal to use because we spent all that money on programs only for people to choose not to watch the advertisements".
      • I think this might do more good than that -- these people could otherwise not afford any computer at all, meaning that sure, right now, they're unlikely to run out and buy a Windows-based machine. However, they now own a computer anyway, running Linux. Now they're getting used to it, learning to like it, and when it comes time to get another machine down the road (maybe when their lives are put back together a bit better), they'll be interested in keeping the platform they're used to (meaning they're a *new* market of up-and-coming customers, who won't be trained to seek out the latest Microsoft dreck).

        • You are plain wrong. (Score:5, Informative)

          by tux_deamon (663650) on Tuesday October 02 2007, @09:34PM (#20832515)
          Wrong. All electronics recycling is FREE at the ACCRC. That means, if you bring your old computer and monitor to this facility, and you are a resident of California, you pay nothing.

          Furthermore, the refurbished computers that are granted by ACCRC to nonprofits and needy individuals are granted free of cost. Zero. No dollars.

          If the recipient is not happy with the free computer they received, they can return it for no charge. Again, it's free at the ACCRC.

          There's no mandatory recycling fee either for disposing or receiving a recycled computer. There is a recycling fee assessed to the purchase of new monitors by a reseller. You basically pay your recycling fee when you buy your monitor. This is similar to car batteries. That said, if you don't buy a new monitor, and instead say receive a free monitor from an organization like ACCRC, you pay nothing.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Rakarra (112805)
      Maybe it's because the word "hero" is referring to a specific title instead of a description of the person? Hero == someone called him a hero. "Hero" == given some title "hero" that an organization made up. To avoid confusion he should have used double-quotes around the phrase "CNN hero" instead.
    • James Burgett was featured on the front page of Digg.com [digg.com], where he got 2906 diggs for his blog entry about his dispute with the government (spam warning: I dugg that story). James has subsequently told me that he and the government are working things out. He is not entirely satisfied with the government's approach, but at least he will be able to continue operating his excellent Ubuntu box giveaway program. So it seems as if the attention from the popular media (Digg in that case) has taught the government that James was doing something that was sufficiently meaningful to the community that the regulators should really try to work with him. His fans in the community will continue to watch his operation to make sure that if the government does exercise poor discretion in its oversight of his operation, at least we can give them an earful.

      Full disclosure: I do not work with / for James or CNN. I do volunteer for a public middle school in San Francisco, California that benefited from a donation of 30 Ubuntu fat clients for our Linux chubby terminal lab.

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