[rescue] Mac rescue

[Jeffrey J. Nonken]

First of all, it's been pointed out that there is a typo in my
message. Damn me for being human! I'll fix that critical problem now:

<snip>
Dear Parent/Guardian:

At the conclusion of this school year the district will be retiring
many of our old Macintosh computers in service in our elementary
schools. New PC's will be installed in our elementary computer labs
and upper grade classrooms this summer. The models being retired are
5260 and 5400 All-in-One Mac's that have been in service for seven or
more years. Many of these computers remain in good working order but
are no longer able to operate the software that we use on our school
network. The district will give away some of these computers that
remain in working order with the original software bundle that came
with the computer to district families on a first come, first serve
basis. If you have an interest in acquiring one of these computers

etc.
<snip>


I hope that has cleared up any misunderstanding or other problems
that might have arisen from my carelessness. Of course, I didn't fix
any of the problems from the original letter (such as pluralization
by adding apostrophes). I hope everybody will forgive me for
attempting to type it verbatim, rather than correcting those errors.
I also hereby apologize for any other typos I might have missed.
Please don't flood me with e-mail messages detailing them; I've
already promised a messy suicide. I wouldn't want to have to make it
messier.


Second, I should have been more clear as to the nature of my message.
Comments on whether the school district are going to PeeCees aren't
really what I was looking for. If they actually mean they're going in
the direction of Wintel, well, I'm as disgusted as the rest of you.
Well, maybe not literally, as some of you are probably pretty awfully
disgusted. Also, I was not offering this information for the general
public to take advantage of; the letter clearly states that it's for
families of the school district. (At least, that's how I read it.
Perhaps my interpretation is also flawed. Oh well, it's a messy
suicide already, I can hardly kill myself MORE.)

No, I was looking more for advice and information. I've never paid
much attention to Macintosh, sticking pretty much to PeeCees simply
because that's what all my employers have used (not counting the
years Before PC, and yes, I was around then -- don't let my emotional
immaturity fool you). However, I might be interested in picking up
one (or more) of these machines, if they're worthwhile.

On Thu, 12 Jun 2003 09:53:17 -0400, Kurt Huhn wrote:

>
>Grab as many as you can?

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Unfortunately, I then read this
clause:

"If you have an interest in acquiring one of these computers..."

which to me suggests "one per customer." However, I've also
considered an addendum to my letter (they want me to forward a letter
to a certain person to obtain one of these) suggesting that I might
make a good home for any leftovers, including non-working and
partially-non-working leftovers.

>Oh, wait!  You meant on the fact that they're going from Mac to
>PeeCee.

Not really. If there's one thing this group is likely to agree on,
it's that going to PeeCee from other platforms would not necessarily
be optimal. I really don't feel a need to solicit opinions on that
particular subject. :)

I found a little bit of info by Googling, I'm not sure how
definitive. I was hoping for a list of options, speeds, and so on
that were available, but I'm getting mixed information. (One site
suggested that they had 15" monitors. Another says 14". I suspect the
latter to be true. Or perhaps the former was talking about whatever
has REPLACED these models, and I've merely misread it.)

In any case, at the moment I see no reason not to pick one up. But
I'm still soliciting information (if anybody is willing to share) and
other comments.