Merry Xmas, Happy Holidays, or just gratitude

 Good morning,

Here's hoping that all of you are safe, warm and surrounded by love this holiday.  If you aren't, please ask and I will do my best to help.  Perhaps in giving whatever you can, however you can, we can all find joy this season.  

I'm here with an estimated 30 laptops feeling badly about having not finished them.  Maybe during this holiday time I can make some progress, and help somebody who needs it.  

I also find, in reflecting, that I want to be the ebullient, gregarious, joyful person I can be.  More Hagrid, less grinch.  It's hard being alone on this holiday, thinking of the family I have had in the past.  For anyone feeling that way, I'm glad to lend a listening ear or a shoulder to cry on.  

My life overall is pretty full.  I have parents, a sister and brother in law, a niece who's about to turn 1, and good friends.  I can't help missing being santa for the kids that I was a stepdad for . . . . that love doesn't just turn off for me.  I have a dog and chickens that depend on me, I'm a fireman now, but it isn't quite the same as having a tree and decorating it with kids, sharing the magic of that season with them.

But.  I am safe, warm, healthy and able to help my family and friends.  

Gratitude on Thanksgiving

 Hi all,

Happy Thanksgiving, for those who celebrate!

I try to stop every year and be grateful for something, or many things.  The easiest might be, I woke up this morning, in a bed, in a warm house.  I added a few logs to the fire and got it stoked up, and used the internet to watch some funny videos on youtube.  I discovered a few comedians I wasn't aware of - Liz Miele and Orny Adams.  Hot water for a bath and coffee, plumbing and electricity, and even solar panels and a battery backup.  I have family who love me and a dog and chickens.  I even have friends and job(s) that I like, most days.  

I still run my charity as I'm able, and help folks in that way, I hope.  To that end, if you have an old computer I can make it helpful to someone else, with Linux and maybe some replacement parts.  Someday, maybe I will get a grant or finish the 501c3 so I can do that full time, but for now, I help who I can.  

I'm also grateful for nature and the power and beauty of that.  I see stars every morning, taking Jake out, and deer and birds in my yard.  

Have a great day and I hope you can find things to be thankful for, today and every day.

~Mark

Gratitude (in general)

 Good morning all,

I just saw a post from Khan academy which quoted Daria (an MTV show) about getting pizza and complaining, and how that would make us feel better.  The science says not, apparently (I will do the Khan lesson later).  However, what it recommends, in short, is gratitude instead.  If we shift our focus to the things we're grateful for instead of the things we could complain about, we might achieve more happiness.  

So, here goes:

a) I'm grateful that we have the technology to still reach students while Corona is here.

b) I'm grateful to every single person who has donated a computer or their time/energy to the @gr8fullyfeclub, or shared or liked it on social media.

c) I'm grateful that the pandemic hasn't removed the ability to take care of Maslow's hierarchy of needs (food, safety, warmth) for myself and my family.

d) I'm grateful for my hobbies (fly tying and fishing) that keep me socially distanced

e) I'm grateful that I can express all of this digitally

f) I'm grateful for people that check in on me 

Have a great day all, and I hope you can find gratitude for things in your life.  

~Mark

Commitments

 Good morning all,

I have a very hard time keeping up with both the requirements of my job(s) and the needs from the charity.  I think I need help, and I think I need funding so that my part time gig could be @gr8fullyfeclub.  I received an email from someone promised a laptop months ago who slipped through the cracks - and I feel terribly.  It would not have taken much for me to get it done, I just forgot because of my other commitments.  Maybe I need to only do this seasonally - in summer when I have the time.

Hope you all have a great day and remember all your commitments :)

~Mark

Teacher technology (aka what would happen if we adequately funded this)

 Good morning all,

I'm teaching from home today.  I have a district that provides a chromebook and desktop to each of us, as well as a good webcam and peripherals.  However, I have supplemented like crazy to make my classroom fully functional during this pandemic.  I have my own macbook pro from like 2012, a newer lenovo yoga i7 running ubuntu, a new huawei "macbook killer," a 17 inch gaming computer, a wacom tablet, ipad, touchscreen large monitor that will be my jamboard replacement, standing desk, biking desk, and a 1000 mbps internet connection that actually does about 500 mbps over wifi to those devices.  I also purchased an $80 gaming keyboard and a great, rechargeable logitech mx master 2s, as well as a plantronics rig headset.  

I can't help but think about what would be happening in education if every teacher was so well equipped.  If they had the technology that made them comfortable, made them effective, could keep up with their minds and their fleet fingers when they were planning lessons.  This is one of the overarching goals of the @gr8fullyfeclub, but it should not have to be.  Teachers should not have to depend on charity to have the supplies they need.  There are well funded branches of our government, and we in education feed every industry in this nation.  We can teach 21st century skills with chromebooks and 10 year old desktops, but imagine how well we'd do if everyone was as well equipped as I am?  The things I just listed indicate a $3000 investment I've made in my teaching infrastructure.  None of those things were provided by the school(s) I've worked in. I've done some donorschoose.org things, and gotten a laptop and good mice and keyboards and printers, but we shouldn't have to ask family and friends to fund our unfunded mandates.

Anyhow, I don't mean to say that I'm ungrateful for what I have.  I have functioning technology and I can make it work.  I add what I add because it makes me even more functional, because I use this technology every day and I want it to supplement my efficacy not get in the way of it.  What if every teacher had what they would like from their wishlist?  What if we were funded at a level that meant that the tools we need to most effectively deliver instruction were readily available, we received training in it and we could use it effectively?

Maybe I can start this with some donated linux machines, and by helping students who don't have their own devices.  But it's a problem we could solve as a society by deciding to fund education appropriately.

Have a great day all and a wonderful holiday!

Mark

Gratitude for the best year we've had

 Good morning all and happy Turkey-day!  Or Thanksgiving, or turduckenpalooza, or just a day that you are vertical and ventilating.

On thanksgiving every year, I try to pause and think about the things I have to be grateful for.  This charity, the @gr8fullyfeclub, has been one of the most powerful things that has happened this year for me.  I like to think that we have touched a lot of lives, and I now have a few folks that are following my lead.  Out of Coronacation and some job and family issues, I was able to make this into a real thing, collecting north of 80 computers, fixing and redistributing over 50 (so far), and really helping some folks who struggled with Corona, job insecurity, food insecurity, and the soul crushing isolation of the "covid winter."  My friend who is very familiar with trauma informed instruction says that everyone right now is suffering trauma.  All of us are alone more than we would like, restricted more than we would like, unable to connect in ways that we would like.  

We had a Hartford Courant article, the support of the Little Red Barn Brewers, many monetary donations (my favorite was from Jimmy Carter's foundation) and computer donations.  The charity is not sustainable (yet) but it is moving slowly in that direction.  If every summer can be as successful as this one was, I can keep it moving forward.  I was at the point of looking at retail spaces, since one of the biggest things we needed was cash flow to buy parts with.  I could apportion some of the donated machines to be sold to buy parts to fix other machines to donate.  In other words, this could a) pay rent on a storefront and b) afford to continue to exist in the absence of a big donor or more donations.

There are other ways to make it sustainable, of course.  I could teach students to do what I do, and promise them a computer for taking the course.  If I charged for this, it would still be a cheap way to gain knowledge and a computer.  

At any rate, this has been the best year yet in my charitable organization.  It is almost to the point where I need to make it officially a 501c3, do separate taxes and run it like a business.  I don't need more work to do (I already have 3 jobs - 4 if you count tutoring) but it would certainly be nice to have a TIN so that we wouldn't be paying taxes on the computer parts.  Hope you are all well, and can find things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.  If you need a machine, please fill out the request form on the website or comment on this blog, and I will do my best to help.

With gratitude,

Mark

Thank you notes

Good morning all,

I'm on my 3rd cup of coffee and I suppose that makes my brain work faster.  So I began thinking about how to ensure people who donate hardware, software, money etc. get a thank you note from @gr8fullyfeclub, as well as from the recipients of the technology.  I want to model this after #donorschoose, which requires a thank you note and pictures of students using the technology to give back anonymously to their donors.  They have a website that facilitates this, so I need to hone my web design skills to automate as much of this as possible. 

I've started by putting the admin account on every laptop I donate as gr8fullyfeclub (username) and Grateful as the password.  Next, I could make the homepage my blog, so people could leave comments to people who donate that way.  This doesn't enforce it the way that #donorschoose does, but it might lead to some thank yous from recipients.  Further, I could ask that the recipients, when they are on their feet and can donate tech or $, would "pay it forward," someday. 

If anyone has any web design tips that could make this an automated form, where recipients have to fill out a thank you before they could use the laptops or tablets, I'd appreciate it.  I want to ensure that those who donate receive thanks for their donations, and that the recipients appreciate what the donors are doing.  Over the years I have had thousands of dollars of equipment donated by #donorschoose through the generosity of my friends and family and matching donors like the #BillandMelindaGatesFoundation, and many others.  I hope that they saw the pictures of the supplies being used by my students, the heartfelt thank you notes from me, and my own heartfelt thanks and felt good about what they did for my students and me. 

I'd really appreciate any feedback you have, please share this if you're willing.

Sincerely, and always gratefully,

~Mark

DBAN and data security, gratitude and what I'm worried about going forward

Good morning all,

In response to the Hartford Courant Article, I get the same question pretty often.  Many people are worried about data security, so I should have included a link to Darik's Boot and Nuke.  I believe that it would keep my data secure, because it overwrites the hard drive several times, and when I install linux it overwrites the hard drive one more time.
https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-erase-a-hard-drive-using-dban-2619148

The only way to be absolutely sure that the data is gone is to remove the hard drive and destroy it yourself.  But short of that, you can be 99.9% sure that the data is gone by using DBAN.  To recover the data after DBAN, one would have to be an incredible hacker.  I've never tried, but I think it would be nearly impossible for me to get at data that has been wiped that way. 

I am overwhelmed with gratitude - people liked it on facebook over 200 times, donated money and about 10 laptops so far.  I hope I can keep up with the stream and repurpose them all, and that there are enough people who need them.  My other worry is that the learning curve for linux will be too steep.  I really hope that it's intuitive enough.  Mint looks a lot like windows, and the guide that pops up on startup gives people a pretty good tour.  Once it's on the internet, there are tons of youtube tutorials and people willing to help.  I suppose I can also serve as tech support to get people started.  I think once people see the benefits of open source software they will like it, or they're free to install windows if they want to.  Anyway, I hope that we can overcome these concerns and people can make good use of the machines.

Thanks for listening,

~Mark

Tablets?

Hi all,

I think tablets might be the way to go for the quickest/cheapest way to get people connected.  They also have the ability to get on a mobile network (Sprint, ATT, Verizon, etc) if people don't have the money for internet service at their home.  For instance, with Sprint, $25 a month gets you a Samsung Galaxy tabA for free, with $25 a month service fees to keep it connected.  This is cheaper than internet service at a house, which usually costs at least 60 for cable internet, plus the cost of the device. 

So to compare: a donated linux mint laptop will do much more than a tablet, but it costs $60 a month (at least) for basic internet for the house.  If their household already has internet, it's a better deal.

A Sprint TabA costs $25 a month, but it can go anywhere, with service in most places.  This allows for privacy for people taking video appointments.  For instance, I could take my doctor's appointments in the back of my field with no wifi access.  People could take their calls in a park if there was no privacy at home.  For $44 a month it could be an ipad, if people preferred that.

Thoughts?

Gratefully,

Mark

Bigger dreams (chromebooks)

Good morning all,

If given the capital, I think I'd buy a bunch of chromebooks to get as many people connected as possible.  It costs me $30 and an hour or two to get a donated laptop ready for a client.  Usually I have to buy and install a screen, or hard drive, then get linux to install.  I'm wondering if chrome OS would install as easily on old hardware as debian.  But for $105, I can get used chromebooks that already work.  Maybe a hybrid approach, where I keep repairing old stuff but also buy as many used but working chromebooks as the grant/my gofundme would allow.

gf.me/u/xxdhrw  if you want to help.

Then, the next question is where to send them.  I think my friend in Winsted who does lots of charity work (food banks, referrals for mental health services) can help me.  In school, I always asked the person donating the computer who they'd like it to go to, or asked the school social worker or the counselors.  For Covid, I think the kindles and tablets that can't do phone calls or video conferencing should go to nursing homes where seniors are bored and need reading material.  They could also go to the Little Free Libraries in town, so kids or whoever visited them would have online books to read.

The mistake I've made in the past is to buy things with my own money and put myself in credit card debt trying to help others.  I can't do that again, I have to ensure that the charity has the funds BEFORE helping others.  My family has to come first.

Status of donated machines:
Celeron Asus: needs a hard drive, then will accept Mint and be fully functional
4 donated machines from my house: need power supplies and wiping/linux installs.  One needs a screen, one needs a hard drive.
Surface: donated yesterday, can't get it to run windows (yet) or ubuntu or mint (yet).  Researching, will take some hours.
4 Kindles: all reset, testing for video conferencing.  Not all have cameras, zoom doesn't work (not in amazon app store).  Need to research to see if they will work with any telecom (hangouts, facebook messenger etc.)


Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you are all well.

Gratefully,

~Mark

Learning new things

Hi all,

I just learned from my uncle how to create a live bootable ubuntu.  It's so nice having a guru on my side as I keep learning about linux.

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/14912/create-a-persistent-bootable-ubuntu-usb-flash-drive/

In essence, it will let me put the usb in any computer and boot it into ubuntu, but the kind of ubuntu I want, with chrome and any apps and things I want.  If I understand correctly, this means I can also install that better version of ubuntu on whatever donated laptop I get.  So it saves me from customizing every install.  This should save time.

Hope you're all having a great day,

Mark