Parts gathering and computers refurbishment for a good cause

(Gaetan Penotet) #1

Hi fine ladies and gentlemen of the Open Labs.

My name is Gaetan. I am French and although I have lived here for a few years I have yet to speak Albanian properly.
I am a developer and a graphic designer, specialized in multimedia and video games. I am not especially bound to open source software (I have been a Flash developer for years) but I sure do fancy them. Gimp, Blender, Haxe, FFMpeg and many more are my weapons of choice and I am now a full fledged HTML5 fanatic (RIP Flash).
I am also convinced of the befits of crowd sourcing and the public domain.
So I don’t think we’ll have much problems getting along ^^

Now that the presentations are done:
@rskikuli invited me here to expose an issue I have.
You see, somebody I know was asking around, with no success, for some computers they are not using anymore. The goal is to give them a polish and use them at the public center for mental health she’s working at. The patients there could really use the distraction, and more importantly maybe the computers can be used for therapeutic means.
I wanted to give a hand and asked Redon for his help because I know he is very involved with the community (a.k.a. you).

We don’t need a lot of computers apparently, 2 or 3. So I hope you can help me collect parts. Desktops are the way to go I think, as laptops are hell to fix or upgrade.

The content is also an issue. The place doesn’t seem to have internet… Playing minesweeper for hundreds of hours might not help mental issues… But I guess having a few smart games, some tools that allow them lo learn typing, drawing, making sounds…
But of course hardware is the first issue to solve.

I hope you can help me help them.
++

(Redon Skikuli) #2

Hey @Members did you have the time to see this?

R.S

(punkish) #3

Wonderful idea and noble cause. Go for it

(Gaetan Penotet) #4

Thank you for the UP, Redon.
The project hasn’t moved, I have no clue where to gather parts.
Any suggestion is welcome.

(Edlira XHEMO) #5

Hi, there,

You can’t use computers for mentally disordered patients. It’s medially prohibited.

If the computers would be for the center’s administration, then it shall be for a good cause.

(Redon Skikuli) #6

Edlira, the goal is to use them for the administration. I hope we could find some computers/laptops to help them.
Thank you.

R.S

(Gaetan Penotet) #7

I’ll be perfectly honest, I’m just the “geek” who was asked for some help.

But to quote the lady who asked for my help:

It’s about two or three computers and a printer. Our center currently has only one computer for 20 center specialists. Their absence has become a barrier to our work in the function of patients. At the center we have a group of patients undergoing occupational therapy. A part of the work that the therapist deals with these patients is their teaching and training in the computer. Because of their lack (computers) this work is not done with.

This lady is the director of the Qendra Shendetit Mendor Tirane n°2.

I asked the company I work for and they have only very old pieces to discard. There might have a few things worse considering there ( case, power unit, CD drive ) but it’s till far from enough.