I fix computers.

Recently, someone gave me a Dell desktop system they no longer wanted. Sadly, the processor was bad. Luckily, it took an old 1.6GHz Pentium4, of the correct core revision, that I had here. It booted right up.

So I cleaned it up, inside and out, cleaned and tweaked the WindowsXP that was on there, added security software and got it running well. It was nice: had both WordPerfect and Word on it.

Now, what to do with it?

I called the local rape crisis and domestic abuse center. I knew that a computer can be a powerful tool to help women coming out of bad situations re-mainstream, especially when it comes to a job search. After a week, they found it a home. An aside: Being a guy and dealing with women from a domestic abuse and rape crisis center can be a little bit on the weird side. Let us say that I found an endemic and institutionalized wariness and distrust of males. I also find that quite understandable. Illustration: I was told to goto the center's office which is right across the street from me, to drop something off. They would not open the door for me. I had to talk to someone through the glass and push some materials through a mail slot. As I said, it is still understandable, but if you are a guy, be forewarned.

If, in this holiday season, you find yourself sitting on old computer stuff, please call up your local social services agency and see if they have service consumers who could benefit from your donation of that working computer stuff. You could be making a huge difference in someone's life and giving them a powerful tool in their recovery from bad and hard times.

On edit: I will be doing this sort of thing again, when I get a working or repairable system. I will also be using a Linux distro, where appropriate, as a replacement OS. Saves money.