Re(2): RE: [SunRescue] a sad, sad day

[Tim Hauber]

rescue at sunhelp.org,Internet writes:
>Let us not also forget that we are in competition with various schools
>around the country that accept broken and/or obsolete hardware for their
>curriculum.  I know that I have trouble getting hardware from companies
>that I deal with for this very reason - they have policies of donating to
>schools.  I think there's even a foundation for this purpose, though I
>don't know what it's called.

This is a really curious concept, schools keep getting these donations of
junk (mostly) and the schools that actually have Tech people are begging
companies to quit giving them stuff.  In reality, what is a school going
to do with a stack of non-PC hardware, that they don't even know how to
turn on, let alone use.  I have found that schools are often caught in a
quandary of what to do with the stuff to avoid the political damage of
telling a large company "no" and yet not stick useless junk for which they
have no legal software in the classrooms.  At least that is the situation
in my part of NY.  

I think these "programs" of old computers for schools were started by
company execs, looking for good publicity and a tax write off, and school
superintendents and board members with no tech knowledge, trying to
advance their schools.  

If this sounds a little vehement, I am a tech at a k-12 school, who
fortunately has a superintendent who asks for tech advice.  It's bad
enough keeping computers running when they are being used by novices
(sometimes malevolent) who all want the computer they use that day to
sound and look like they want. WE DON'T NEED IBM XTs!