We've completed the first phase of our donation to the Rhoads school. As of this morning we've given

them eight of the 30 requested computers as well as all needed peripherals for those eight to be

used in the classroom.

Under our new inventory system, these machines were numbered TechServ-0000

through TechServ-0007. Work on the next batch will begin when classes resume in the winter term.

Well, we're done with the cleanout event. I'd say it was pretty successful; we took care of

everything we had planned for today plus a little bit more. Stop by the workshop and be amazed!

Fall term has started and we're back to our usual meeting schedule - Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7

pm to 9 pm.

We've also got a major project in the works, so we need as many hands as possible,

and not just for refurb. So come to meetings and bring your friends :-)

In the past few weeks we've managed to clean out a lot of the unusable and non-functional items that

have been sitting in the TechServ room collecting dust and taking up valuable space. There's still a

lot to be done, but we've definitely made progress. Come check it out for yourself!

Everyone,

keep an eye out for other events/facilities where we can dispose of computer electronics and cathode

ray tube (CRT) displays. Today we got rid of two cars' worth of junk, but there's still plenty

more.

Although we didn't get everything out like I'd hoped, we now have enough space that we can

get most of the functional monitors and the computers we're not currently working on under the

tables, whic means we should have a lot more space to work now. We've also found a space efficiency

expert to help whip us into shape.

In the past two weeks we gutted a whole bunch of unusable

boxen to separate the metal and plastic from the electronic components requiring special disposal.

The electronics we set aside for later disposal and the plastic and sheet metal were tossed. This

includes that tremendous stack of shells and frames that I'm sure most who have recently been in the

workshop of remember. We still have a bit more, including one special project for later this week

(does anyone have a tool for undoing rivets?), but the amount of space we recovered is

amazing.

Among the things we were able to dispose of today were a whole bunch of ancient

motherboards, memory, hard drives, expansion cards and power supplies as well as similar items that

were more recent but couldn't be salvaged. Some of that came from stuff we gutted in the past few

weeks, but most of it has just been sitting in the workshop. We also got rid of most of the pre-VGA

monitors and pre-PS/2 mice and keyboards - if we can't use it and there's nobody who needs it then

there's no sense keeping it. We still have a but more special handling items that we need to get rid

of, but at the moment I don't know of any disposal opportunity until November. I'm going to keep

looking and I'd like all of you to as well - please let me know right away if you find

something.

~Jonathan

With the help of Peaches & Dan, TechServ is finally a recognized student org. Kurt Schmidt is now

one of our advisors. I invite him to take as much interest as he likes into the happenings of

TechServ. Kurt Schmidt and Bruce Katz are going to knock it up a notch.

-Zenko