Spare computer gear for old neighbour?
Hi all,
my old neighbour (whom I'm looking after a bit) has her birthday at the beginning of October, and I want to make it a bit memorable - I don't think she had a proper birthday in a very long time.
I will bake one of my breads (see picture below) for her and bring a bit of a spread, but I also want to set her up with a computer system so she can watch some movies (I have DVDs that I can lend her), listen to music, might be able to get internet at some point and stay in contact with her friends and especially her sons in Wellington a bit better.
I managed to buy (sight unseen) an old 24in Core2Duo iMac from 2007 (that can't run the latest Mac or Windows system software any more so wouldn't be secure) very cheaply as it was considered defect. Turns out that everything works fine, it just needed a clean (especially behind the protective glass in front of the screen) and a new system installed, and as a bonus it unexpectedly had its memory upgraded to 4 GB of RAM (the still original 320 GB HD isn't big but should do).
I installed the latest Linux Mint (which IS secure) as it is specifically geared towards desktop users (so even has commercial multimedia codecs that other Linux distributions don't have) and has low system requirements (eg 1 GB of RAM even with a really nice desktop) - and after less than 1 hour (incl googling how do do some things) everything is done and it runs very fast indeed. I'm quite impressed.
What I don't have is a spare USB keyboard and mouse for it. So if anyone has some old ones around that they no longer need (Apple would be ideal but PC ones will do) then I would appreciate them for my neighbour.
Other things she could need:
If you happen to have an old external 250 or 500 GB hard disc for backups then that would be fantastic - I always feel uncomfortable when people don't have backups of their data as computers can be replaced … your data though - which is the important thing - would be lost when the hard disc dies.
And if you feel REALLY charitable and have an old-style 2.5in 250 GB SATA SSD that you would be happy to donate then I would dare go inside the iMac, replace the hard disc (which is a bit a pig of a job, but I have done that before), and redo the installation of everything.
A small USB stick to bring official letters in pdf form (to me or the library?) for printing out or sending off (until she has internet herself) would also be useful … 1 GB should be plenty. Companies used to give them away, so maybe you have an old one somewhere?
Thanks in advance.
Markus
P.S. One more thing: I can no longer drive for medical reasons (occasional dizzy spells) so unless you are close by would not be able to pick something up. But we are opposite Green Bay High School, so if you happen to come past and could drop it off that would be fantastic.
Rock'in with Elvis by Mike Cole
The Memories of Elvis Fan Club invite you to our 1st Elvis Social for 2026. We are excited to have our own Mike Cole back at the Te Atatu RSA on Saturday 28th February at 7.30pm. Cost only $20pp. Tickets are on sale at the RSA or reserve through Jackie 0274901126. So lets see you with your dancing shoes on and that great smile as we start off 2026 with a bang.
Poll: As a customer, what do you think about automation?
The Press investigates the growing reliance on your unpaid labour.
Automation (or the “unpaid shift”) is often described as efficient ... but it tends to benefit employers more than consumers.
We want to know: What do you think about automation?
Are you for, or against?
-
9.4% For. Self-service is less frustrating and convenient.
-
43.6% I want to be able to choose.
-
47.1% Against. I want to deal with people.
Even Australians get it - so why not Kiwis???
“Ten years ago, if a heatwave as intense as last week’s record-breaker had hit the east coast, Australia’s power supply may well have buckled. But this time, the system largely operated as we needed, despite some outages.
On Australia’s main grid last quarter, renewables and energy storage contributed more than 50% of supplied electricity for the first time, while wholesale power prices were more than 40% lower than a year earlier.
[…] shifting demand from gas and coal for power and petrol for cars is likely to deliver significantly lower energy bills for households.
Last quarter, wind generation was up almost 30%, grid solar 15% and grid-scale batteries almost tripled their output. Gas generation fell 27% to its lowest level for a quarter century, while coal fell 4.6% to its lowest quarterly level ever.
Gas has long been the most expensive way to produce power. Gas peaking plants tend to fire up only when supply struggles to meet demand and power prices soar. Less demand for gas has flowed through to lower wholesale prices.”
Full article: www.theguardian.com...
If even Australians see the benefit of solar - then why is NZ actively boycotting solar uptake? The increased line rental for electricity was done to make solar less competitive and prevent cost per kWh to rise even more than it did - and electricity costs are expected to rise even more. Especially as National favours gas - which is the most expensive form of generating electricity. Which in turn will accelerate Climate Change, as if New Zealand didn’t have enough problems with droughts, floods, slips, etc. already.
Loading…
