Major Linux Hardware Donor Is a CNN "Hero" 341
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.
Anyone that distributes Linux to the masses (Score:3, Insightful)
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You're missing the important part. 90% of everyone is working with Windows, but GP has made the rare accomplishment of being happy while doing so.
Re:Anyone that distributes Linux to the masses (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, I believe that your sentiment is having an apparent effect on the voting:
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)
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Poll Results (Score:3, Interesting)
He's winning, but I expect more from a
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
Re:Anyone that distributes Linux to the masses (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Anyone that distributes Linux to the masses (Score:5, Funny)
Or as we call them on Slashdot, 'Linux System Administrators'.
Re:Anyone that distributes Linux to the masses (Score:4, Funny)
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Bah... recovery recursion... headache... need scotch.
Re:Anyone that distributes Linux to the masses (Score:5, Insightful)
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Weird (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Weird (Score:4, Insightful)
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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.
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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.)
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If life is not useful to you, it may be destroyed.
That is a text book definition of species-centristic.
I'll tell that the marvel of life and nature was richer before his was born. Be happy with the gorilla stuffed animal toy.
Re:Weird (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe Ubuntu will find some way to show their appreciation to the runner up in their "Gracious Gorilla" release.
Re:Weird (Score:5, Insightful)
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Better than leaking heavy metals in a landfill, if you ask me.
Besides if those knee-jerk, tunnel-visioned religious zealots, I'm sorry, environmentalists, would get behind nuclear power, there wouldn't be a frickin' carbon dioxide problem from more computers. But of course, that would mean not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good, which violates their
Re:Weird (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Weird (Score:5, Funny)
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And don't think that animals don't screw things up. They just don't seem to be as efficient as humans are. But they will eat everything out of existence and then move on looking for more food. They have even done this to the point that some fish have developed ways to walk to the next pond supporting life. The examples are endless if you really look at it. Humans are doing nothing that isn't somewhat natural- Using the stuff
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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.
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There are some things even starving children won't eat, though.
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He realized he'd hit bottom... (Score:5, Funny)
(just kidding...keep up the great work!).
Re:He realized he'd hit bottom... (Score:5, Funny)
Good for him. Good for the schools. Good for Linux (Score:5, Insightful)
Helping out schools. Cool
Helping the environment. Cool (though some in the "movement" would gripe about the electricity consumed).
Linux. Uber cool!
But (Score:2, Insightful)
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Re:But (Score:5, Insightful)
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)
Re:But (Score:5, Insightful)
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)
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.
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Re:Good for him. Good for the schools. Good for Li (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Hero to the public, Villain to the industry... (Score:2, Funny)
Wow, think of all the PC hardware and Windows sales he's thwarted.
Ron
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My conclusion? Not many.
"He repairs discarded computers and gives them to people who otherwise could not afford one."
Seems like that means that he's really not diverting that many sales because the people that are taking these computers wouldn't have got one anyway. I'm not saying what he's doing isn't great, but I doubt it's a thorn in Microsoft's foot.
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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.
Re:Hero to the public, Villain to the industry... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Damn you, Garth Brooks!
Re:Hero to the public, Villain to the industry... (Score:4, Interesting)
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That's right, what he's doing is awful. By providing all these free computers, he's depriving major manufacturers of a lot of sales, which hurts the economy and causes hardworking Americans to lose their jobs. This communist is taking food out of the mouths of starving children whose parents can't find jobs. He should be locked up!
(I hope it's really obvious that I'm kidding, but sadly some people do believe that sort of crap)
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Which means that the crackhead is billing the schools at least $60 per each piece of junk he 'fixes.' This has to be paid even if the school is unhappy with the computer and wants to get rid of it!
You are plain wrong. (Score:5, Informative)
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.
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You don't have to be crazy.. (Score:5, Funny)
but it helps!
sorry... old joke...couldn't resist
I know (Score:5, Funny)
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I doubt you'll ever get Steve Ballmer et al. to start using linux.
How about monkeys? (Score:2)
SCENE 10
(Back in the barn. FROHIKE carries PEANUTS in and sits him on the table.)
FROHIKE: All right. Time for a meeting of the minds. Talk, you thief. Say something.
BYERS: Please, Peanuts.
LANGLY: Speak.
YVES: He can't. He's a chimpanzee, he doesn't have the vocal cords for speech. Haven't you figured that out yet?
LANGLY: So what can he do? Besides Grand Theft Auto.
(YVES places a laptop in front of PEANUTS, who immediately begins typing.)
FROHIKE: It's gibberish.
BYER
Computers cause crack addiction? (Score:2)
Come on man... just one more refresh...
Good for him (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Wait a second... (Score:2)
Overall, I agree with you, but isn't this stuff going to end up in the landfill eventually, anyhow?
When folks talk about "landfill", I presume you mean it like a "resource", and therefore care about "conservation"... so it seems to me this guy just gives a few extra years of life to these computers before they end up in the landfill - but consuming energy before they do.
So, ...on an economic level, for using fr
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Wouldn't the "carbon footprint" be smaller if you just trashed them now?
If you're looking purely at carbon emissions, maybe, but an old computer uses about as much electricity as two to three incandescent light bulbs. Not very much carbon to be had there. Nothing like the modern 350-500W power supplies and video cards that need their own power plug. Any time one of these recycled PCs fills a role that would otherwise be taken by a new PC, we save masses of energy from manufacturing as well as a small amount due to lower power consumption.
On an economic level, we now have a s
He says vote for someone else ;) (Score:5, Informative)
"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.
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Re:He says vote for someone else ;) (Score:4, Funny)
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Oh, and this is my favorite pic of the bunch [seattlest.com]. It reminds me of me in the morning after a long night of drinking, wild drugs and some coyote love.
Re:He says vote for someone else ;) (Score:5, Funny)
This guy really is heroic!! James, you have my vote!
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California doesn't like him.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Life imitates art. Unbelievable. (Score:5, Interesting)
>
>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...
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I imagined a San Francisco bureaucrat, as opposed to a Berkeley bureaucrat,
This threat came from a State agency, who just happen to have an office in Berkeley--- not a Berkeley agency.
Sadly, I'm not sure if the City of Berkeley is doing anything to help the ACCRC.
Re:Life imitates art. Unbelievable. (Score:5, Informative)
No, he's resolving that issue with the gov'mint (Score:2)
Isn't he at risk of violating non-profit status? (Score:2)
I thought that it is a violation for a charity to allow its workers to claim any donation for their own personal use? It is an unspoken perk often given to volunteers, but it is a violation to do so, from what I've read in other articles about charity work.
Re:Isn't he at risk of violating non-profit status (Score:3, Insightful)
It's pretty clear to me that he's talking about a museum (or some other organization) finding it useful for display.
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CA EPA not playing nice? (Score:2)
I hope they come out of it OK, good to see them getting more positive publicity. Reduce, Recycle Reuse!
Yes, he is resolving it with the gov'mint (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Similar... (Score:5, Informative)
I donated my 486 (Score:3, Informative)
Their name was inspired by the yellow bicycles in Amsterdam, which I understand are freely available for anyone to take and ride around on.
I worked there one summer (Score:2)
It was a great experience, lots of cool old hardware (I got to actually see and touch a NeXT cube!) and if you are in the bay area and have weekends or a summer to spare, I recommend checking them out.
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One day I went out on a nice 5-hour bike ride up and down the shoreline trail. I stopped by the ACCRC at 5:00PM to volunteer for an install fest. In one evening we churned out 200 PCs with 5 people, SuSE autoyast and some shipping-plastic wrap.
I helped to carry the fridge up three flights of narrow stairs. Were you there for that?
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bewilderingly trying to shut him down? (Score:2)
Fat Crackhead (Score:2)
He wants you to vote for the gorilla guy (Score:3, Interesting)
From the aftermath technologies blog [blogspot.com]:
He's right. I voted for the gorillas.
"Liberal" California (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
recycling not linux evangelism (Score:3, Interesting)
Microsoft spin on it (Score:3, Insightful)
The state is not that harsch (update) (Score:3, Insightful)
So it's not as grim as it appears.
I also think his stance on the CNN vote is admirable - he has a very good point.
Re:Terminology (Score:5, Funny)
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Well, no, there's not really "Linux hardware", but I guess it depends on what "Linux" is meant to be doing in the headline. I assumed that it was acting as an adjective, not modifying "Hardware" as much as it was meant to modify "Donor".
As in, "What kind of 'Hardware Donor' is he? Oh, he's a 'Linux' Hardware Donor." I mean, it's not exactly a correct use of language anyway, but it's a headline. Headlines always abuse words in order to save space.
In any event, the point is pretty clear. He's a guy who
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Clearly you've never had a hinge break [dreamstate.eu] on your Windows laptop because you installed Linux.
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Hardware has nothing to do with an operating system.
Let me first get this out of the way...
HAHAHAHH
*ahem* ok, now, I would suggest you recheck (or, in this case, just check for the first time) what an Operating System actually is.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=operating+system&x=0&y=0 [reference.com]
operating system
-noun Computers.
the collection of software that directs a computer's operations, controlling and scheduling the execution of other programs, and managing storage, input/output, and communication resources. Abbreviation: OS
The last three of those five options all are hardware based.
Or if you prefer the 2nd entry down
operating system
n. Software designed to control the hardware of a specific data-processing system in order to allow users and application programs to make use of it.
Re:Terminology (Score:4, Informative)
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Americans correcting english - how cute!