[NPMUG] Goodwill CRC update, March 6

[Robert A. Donaldson]

Dear Mac friends:

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

We continue to be amazed at how many Macs our NetBoot system allows us  
to do. Today, we refurbished 27 Macs to go along with two refurbished  
G3 iBooks from the Marty Swartz workshop. Our all-time refurbished  
total is now 1,762. Six iMacs did not survive their stay on the work  
bench and were de-manufactured into components for recycling.

Rookie Roberta Jones deftly cleaned 75 keyboards to help keep pace  
with recent production. She also learned of the failing of RAM chip  
labeling by major memory manufacturers :-)

Goodwill ComputerWorks Store continues to sell our refurbished Macs at  
a brisk pace. As of this afternoon, there were just three OS 9 tray- 
load CDs left in the store, and just four eMacs remain. We refurbished  
11 more 600 mhz iMacs which went directly to the store. They actually  
had two customers arguing over who had the right to buy the only 600  
mhz model in stock last week.

We'll have another work day next Friday, March 13.

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 tomorrow
(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.

Most of the Goodwill volunteer crew will be there. Feel free to stop  
us and ask any questions you may have.

Hope to see you there!

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