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Published on 07/29/1996 All articles from this issue

Old computers never die, they retire to Los Altos non-profit organizations

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Town Crier Staff Report

The Los Altos Community Foundation (L.A.C.F.) has, as one of its goals, providing support to Los Altos Community Organizations to encourage community building. By a coincidence, the L.A.C.F. Community Computing Project was born when the availability of some obsolete business computers and the need by two local organizations for starter computer capability coincided.

The Community Computing Project combines the availability of donated, used business computers, the need of a non-profit organization to computerize its operation, and the assignment of a volunteer computer advisor to continually guide and implement the organizations total computing needs.

Volunteers collect, test, and repair the donated equipment.A volunteer computer advisor is assigned and meets with the requesting non-profit organization to coordinate the equipment placement and installation, obtain needed software and do the training at no cost to the organization.

The donated equipment is usually IBM compatible type personal computers of the 286/386 non-Windows class computing power. The complement of installed equipment includes a processing unit with memory, hard disk drive, two floppy disk drives, keyboard, monochrome monitor, a dot-matrix printer, a supply of floppy disks, basic software for word processing and spread sheet applications, necessary cables and manuals. Needed parts to fix a donated system are taken from other non-working donated systems to keep repair parts costs low

No Apple computers or equipment have been donated to date, but there has been a desire expressed by some organizations to have Apple equipment.

Any donated equipment not used by L.A.C.F. Community Computing is delivered to the Computer Recycling Center Inc. to be made available to local public schools.

If you have a business or know of a business interested in donating obsolete or used computer equipment -- working or not -- or if you are a member of a non-profit organization in need of basic computer equipment, or if you would like to participate as a volunteer advisor, call 941-6397.