50Imacs

Project instructions:

1. Read the Project background info, comments on the Make Site, comments on the photos in the flickr set.
2. Choose one of the suggestions listed in the comments
3. Find out more information about the suggestion
4. Check with Mr. Connors before proceeding
5. Start a page on your wiki called [50Imacs]
6. Write a brief proposal of what you intend to do with one or more of the imacs
7. List the people involved, link to their [50Imacs] page on yours
8. Do a ReportontheComputer to start your documentation, call it ReportontheComputer50Imacs
9. Do the project, document your efforts
10. Add a tag to your del.ico.us account called 50imacs
11. Save your reference websites with the 50imacs tag
12. Send a link to your project to duxtech at gmail dot com
13. When you are done, do a followup ReportontheComputer
14. check out your classmates' documentation on this project 50ImacsStudentWork

Project background and call for information:

In the fall of 2006, there were a bunch of Imacs in the old girl's locker room of the middle school. Nobody wanted anything to do with them, and since there were enough of them, it seemed like there might be something interesting we could do with them in the Build Repair class. Enough kids were interested in trying it out that we turned it into an event. The whole class went over to DMS to harvest the imacs. Two machines per kid, it seemed like an easy thing. Imacs are a bit heavy. It was a physical struggle to get them across the street. We survived.

Many of the machines were used for the computer keyboarding class. It was a class that didn't really fit into any particular department. There were as many as 6 teachers instructing as many sections. Mostly, the sections were taught by teachers with not quite full time loads. The computers were generally left on for months at a time, in part because they took so long to start up. At the end of their service, they had optical pc usb mice with two buttons and a scroll wheel. Those mice did not come with the computers, but there are a few of the irritating puck mice with rolly balls. Most of the balls are missing.

So what would you do with 50 Imacs? They are mostly G3's, some have OSX, some have OS9.

The deal with taking stuff of the loading dock or anywhere in the waste stream of the IT department is that if they don't want it, we can have it. They don't want to maintain it in the future if they chuck it. So they are free machines and have to leave the school. Not a bad deal.

Since these machines all have CRT's, they have to be handled very carefully. If one of them pops, the heavy metals and other badness inside gets spread around. For that reason, all of the monitors must be recycled in an environmentally conscious manner. If the machines get opened, students have to exercise great care to ensure their own and their classmates' safety.

Photos:

http://flickr.com/photos/connors934/sets/72157594388509862/

This photo has a lot of comments: http://flickr.com/photos/connors934/304241836/in/set-72157594388509862/

Make Blog reference to the project:

http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/11/wwydwfi_what_wo.html

Digg picked up the story:

http://digg.com/apple/WWYDWFI_What_would_you_do_with_fifty_iMacs

Find references to the story on Google:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=%22What+would+you+do+with+fifty+iMacs%22&btnG=Search

Here is how it shows up on del.ico.us - http://del.icio.us/url/4dc1b71457a808a3643c2d32f8602fb9

Here it is on the unofficial apple weblog - http://www.tuaw.com/2006/11/24/flickr-find-what-to-do-with-50-imacs/

Here is how it shows up on Technorati Lots of links and comments here....

If you don't like macs, try out the 80pentiumIIIs project.