[LUAU] More Storage and two New Projects for HOSEF

R. Scott Belford scott at hosef.org
Mon Dec 13 22:44:41 PST 2004


With so much stuff coming in recently, it has been harder to see how we 
could get all of it to schools.  Not wanting to throw stuff away, I have 
been looking for another solution.  We have found it.

For now on, the Girls and Boys who graduate from my Computer Guts class 
will be given a computer.  The way it works is that after they have 
successfully taken apart and rebuilt our lab computers, as so many have, 
they move on to installing software.  Many have made it to this point 
already.  Graduation means helping other kids remember what CPU and RAM 
stand for, and playing educational games.

With the extra computers we have, kids who have reached this point will 
now be assigned their own computer.  We will again go through the drill 
of naming the parts, stripping and rebuilding the hardware, then 
installing the OS.  At this point we will learn to type a letter about 
what they will do with the computer.  With success, I will drive it home 
for them.

As I have learned, all but 1 of the core group of kids who come to see 
me each week are foster children.  One of my favorites is the trouble 
kid that no one gives a chance to, until Computer Guts 101.  Not willing 
to play into the stereotype, I made him my buddy.  He mastered the whole 
hardware thing immediately, and now helps other kids.  Mastering means 
naming *all* the parts, and stripping then re-assembling everything, 
including the motherboard.

When I told him that a computer that someone had brought in would be 
his, he shined like a child.  He asked if the scanner would be his.  I 
said yes.  He immediately started *imagining* *the* *possibility* that 
could come from scanning pictures into *his* computer.  He asked if he 
could open the scanner, then carefully removed it for examination.  He 
was even more careful to put it and the manuals back in just right, even 
asking for tape.

At any rate, the BGCH is not big enough for this.  McKinley is full, and 
Honolulu Community College is full enough.  I asked Dr. Gail Awakuni, 
Principal of Campbell High School, if we could store these and the 120 
computers that we are giving Campbell's math and science classrooms 
(project 2), and she has found the space.  A lot of space, and we are 
very grateful to her.  Now, the 80 monitors coming from Aloha Airlines, 
and the countless random computers from the public are going where they 
belong: building hope for our kids.

--scott



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