[NPMUG] Goodwill CRC update February 27

[Robert A. Donaldson]

Dear Mac friends:

Many thanks to Charlie Hutchens, Rich Fitzgibbon, John Hamill, Tucker  
Trainor, Bob Wray, John Bauerlein and Dave Sevick for joining me at  
the Goodwill Computer Recycling Center today.

Our production remains at a high rate with 25 Macs refurbished, 5 de- 
manufactured, and 2 re-imaged today. Our all-time refurbished total is  
now 1,733.

It is still a bit disconcerting to survey the work benches and watch  
13 iMacs being remotely re-imaged at the same time from one disk image  
on our Xserve :-)

We were surprised on our arrival today to find an astonishing number  
of iMacs sold from inventory. For example, when we left last Friday  
there were 12 600 mhz iMacs on our side of the store. Today there were  
only two. We've pulled as many as we could find from our remaining  
unprocessed inventory, but could only find eight more to work on next  
week.

An institutional purchaser bought a pallet of 27 of our 400/500 mhz  
iMacs this week. It feels good to watch them go out by the truckload.

We'll have another work day next Friday, March 6.

As a gentle reminder, please note Goodwill has finally re-instituted  
the security procedures they were using in the Lawrenceville facility  
before the CRC moved to the South Side. Security cameras have been  
activated, and the metal detector at the exit has been switched on and  
staffed.

Entry is only from the South 26th St. entrance. We cannot enter the  
ComputerWorks Store and go through the back door as we used to.

We are asked to stop at the reception desk at the main lobby to sign  
in to get a volunteer badge, then sign in to the log book at the CRC  
entrance at the metal detector. The log book now has a separate tab  
section just for our members to sign in and out.

We followed these procedures when we were in the Lawrenceville  
building, and it's taken Goodwill some time to re-install all the  
devices to cover the area with video surveillance.

These measures are to make sure data on disk drives does not get out  
of the building before the drives can be securely erased or destroyed.  
Goodwill is serious about this, as everyone should be. Any incident of  
data from the drives they are entrusted to wipe or destroy getting out  
would destroy the credibility of their operation, and lead to people  
sending computers elsewhere for recycling.

So please, check in. It takes two minutes, and we're not in any hurry.

Please note the special event being presented by MacOutfitters at  
their new One Oxford Centre location in Downtown Pittsburgh on  
Saturday, March 7, from Noon to 2:00 p.m. Apple's Dave Marra's seminar  
will be on the new iLife 09 and iWork 09. The NPMUG regular monthly  
meeting will not be held so members can reschedule their time for this  
seminar.

Hope to see you there!


Robert A. Donaldson
radonaldson at mac.com
(H) 412-922-3303
(M) 412-477-9188