> > I'd be interested in constructing units that can handle Win95 on a
> > network. Each unit would use an external hard drive. In fact, I
> > can
> > imagine one standard desktop case that contains 6 complete units
> sharing
> > one power supply; it would sit on a table with 6 monitors &
> > keyboards.
> Interesting. I know old slow motherboards are *cheap*, I just
> bought 7
> 386's for $6 total, delivered, and I've bought bunches of 486
> motherboards at $3 apiece. You can make a 386 or 486 machine about
> 3"
> tall if you work at it a little - get 2" tall video cards and HDC
> cards,
> take the "backplane" connector off and bend it to make it shorter,
One note -- he mentioned that he wanted W95 capable machines,
which implies a minimum of a 486/50, and preferably a machine
that's a lot faster.
These motherboards, with RAM (8-16 meg) and processor, regularly
come up at swap meets for $3-10. But that's here, in the US, where
these are considered old and slow.
In fact, I purchase entire 486 systems, complete with 300M hard drives,
for $5 on a regular basis.
He's setting up a lab in Ghana, which is a country over in Africa, where
these machines would not necessarily be considered so out of date.
Parts availability would be minimal, relative to what we are accustomed
to.
We could certainly just fill up a shipping container and ship a few dozen
complete machines to him, with relative ease -- cost is the major factor.
Full desktop systems are heavy, and weight is all important when shipping
things overseas. This is probably why he is asking about wearable
components -- the extra cost of shipping to Afica probably evens out the
price difference between "traditional" 20 pound monitors which we would
buy for $100, and HMDs which we would buy for $500.
> "fanout", I need to research that. We were talking on another list
> about making Beowulf clusters this way, multiple motherboards in a
> stack! <G>)
Why am I picturing something akin to a NeXT cube, as a final
product?
Of course, a passive backplane with multiple CPU cards (shades
of S-100) might make a good arrangement.
> > PS: this school is not affiliated with any NPO, so it is difficult
> to
> > obtain funding beyond personal contributions. But: if I can get
> more
> > equipment to the school the children will benefit enormously in
> terms of
> > learning basic computer/office skills and understanding web/email
> usage.
> > The school is in an economically-depressed region, so the impact
> of this
> > computer lab is absolutely incredible. Right now there are 12
> workstations
> > yet 1500 children.
What types of computers would you like? If each member of the
list donated some of their "old" equipment, I'd be willing to bet
that we could come up with at least several 486 and Pentium desktop
units at little to no cost.
Shipping would remain, though...
How would y'all on the list, feel about this type of collective effort?
-- Chuck Knight
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