Saturday, November 13, 2004

Computers for friends in need

I got off on a tangent this evening instead of my regular routine. My friend Chad is deeply interested in trying out this internet thing. He is stuck at home with no car and nothing to do but watch television all day. We reacquainted recently out at the mental health clinic where I am volunteering. He gets his meds and sees the doctor out there.

I was talking to him about blogs and all the neat things you can do with a computer nowadays this evening on the phone and he badly wanted to get involved. I managed to piece together a computer out of parts that I had lying around. My ex-wife recently brought a whole box of my old spare computer parts. I was an avid computer builder when I had my truck driving job and a good income.

Here is the box I put together and got running. I feel very satisfied with my accomplishment tonight.

AMD Athlon 1600+ processor
Old Antec case and power supply
512 MB DDR266 ram
Maxtor 7200rpm 10 GB hard drive
Abit nforce2 motherboard
ATI Rage pro 32 MB video card
Sound blaster Live! sound card
Old generic 56k modem


Everything is working perfectly and I got windows installed. I even managed to find drivers for that old modem. I cannot wait to get him hooked up and on the web. I also cannot wait to see his face when I bring over the computer. It will be a big surprise for him as he is on a very limited income as I am. The only things he will need are a keyboard, speakers, and a monitor. I am going to hit the local thrift stores and goodwill and see if I can find some used ones Monday. If not, maybe I can persuade him to spend a little money at Wal-Mart for a cheap monitor, keyboard and some speakers.

Who knows, we may have the next blogging hit on our hands. Chad has an interesting story to tell and has had much life experience. I think the internet will be time much better spent than sitting in front of the TV drinking beer and smoking cigarettes all day. At least he can interact and learn via the web. I look forward to showing him the ropes and helping him start out exploring the internet. I also look forward to sharing some of the wonderful blogs I have encountered over this past year as a new blogger user.

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