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Category Archives: Recycling

Server retired after 18 years & 10 months

As part of our network upgrade work, Bristol Wireless has recently retired a couple of Pentium III-powered Compaq Deskpro EN machines that were acting as network gateways and performing other roles too. As these CPUs were only produced for 4 years between 1999 and 2003, that means our hardware is rather long in the tooth. […]

UWE supplies recycled PCs for internet cafés in Africa

Bristol’s University of the West of England (UWE) has announced that a shipment of refurbished computers and office furniture has just arrived in Togo after an eight week voyage. The recycled equipment was refurbished by UWE student volunteers. The equipment is now being installed in 2 internet cafés in Lomé, the Togolese capital. Both internet […]

Meanwhile back in the lab…

Bristol Wireless was donated* some redundant laptops yesterday that were surplus to requirements. Their arrival has encouraged volunteer Acesabe to try experimenting, as about an hour ago he tweeted: Think I’ll have a pop at installing ChromeOS on one of those old laptops we got donated @BristolWireless yesterday http://chromeos.hexxeh.net Please let us know how it […]

Another occasional lab report

Your correspondent arrived at the lab last Friday to find there was – initially at least – nowhere to sit down. We had a full complement of volunteers present – both old and new – and a couple of customers too. Looking at our volunteers, I’d like to draw your attention to 2 of them. […]

Green ICT and Bristol Wireless

A couple of days ago, Bristol24/7 reported that Bristol is entering the race to be Europe’s top green city in 2014, so it’s perhaps appropriate to have a look at what Bristol Wireless can do as regards green IT (although, of course, we’re not the only people doing stuff like this in Bristol. Ed.). The […]

More LTSP

Just after your correspondent had published yesterday’s LTSP round-up post (news passim), Acesabe got busy with his Twitter client, tweeting: #LTSP 4.2 & 5 running as #vserver clients on host laptop, old lappers get to live another day! He also posted the picture below online at Twitpic. The hands on the keyboard on the far […]

The pizza box laptop

Bristol Wireless are advocates of green ICT and constantly urge people to refurbish and re-use hardware where possible before recycling or buying new kit. Nevertheless, we were most intrigued to come across the laptop in a pizza box illustrated below – a fine example of recycling both consumer electronics and disposable food packaging. Eagle-eyed Linux […]

Welcome volunteers old and new

A pleasant surprise awaited your scribe on his arrival at the Lab yesterday: one of the happy smiling faces lurking there was Mark, who had to bring a halt to his volunteering activities last year to find a job to pay the bills. Anyway, Mark now has some spare time on his hands again and […]

Lab life – disc wiping

A couple of days ago, we received a donation of a rather smart machine; this will be refurbished and offered for sale as part of our refurbishment project, for which we currently have a selection of machines complete with a full set of software (internet, office, entertainment and multimedia applications) available starting from £30. The […]

Bristol Wireless reopens City Farm Computer Room

Bristol Wireless will be officially reopening the Computer Room at Windmill Hill City Farm, Philip Street, Bedminster on Thursday 21st October after a brief period of closure. To mark the reopening, we’ll be holding an open access drop-in session from 10am-4pm on that day to encourage new internet users to get online as part of […]

Last day to register for BarnCamp 2010

Today is the last day to sign up for BarnCamp 2010, which will be staged in the beautiful Wye Valley from 11th to 13th June 2010, courtesy of Hacktionlab, a regular convergence space where activists interested and/or working in the areas of alternative media, renewable energy, online video distribution, free software or any other form […]

1 roll-up keyboard, 2 ukeleles and 3 speakers – it’s Connecting Bristol’s Green, Open and Social event

Earlier this week on Monday, Bristol’s Watershed (“home of the laptoperati” – event quote. Ed.) played host on Monday evening to Connecting Bristol‘s Green Open & Social event. The event was so well attended there was a waiting list for tickets due to over-subscription. As with many Connecting Bristol events, it was also streamed live […]

Lab report – close look at refurbishing

It’s 3pm on Friday afternoon (aka POETS Day. Ed 🙂 ) and the lab is in the capable hands of Jim, Stefan & your ‘umble scribe. Jim & Stefan, both freshly supplied with a hot drink are busy working away on machines for our refurbishment project, whilst yours truly is catching up on paperwork, but […]

Bristol Wireless helps out student campaigning group

When Bristol Wireless heard about the recent break-in and theft of computers at UK student campaining group People & Planet, who are based in Oxford, they were more than happy to help by donating two snazzy refurbished Linux desktop systems complete with flat panel screens. People & Planet (P&P) are already using the machines in […]

Hardware recycling – the UK’s rubbish

vnunet.com reports that almost 2 years after the WEEE disposal rules came into force, the UK is still lagging behind the rest of Western Europe in recycling electrical goods. Research by Dell found that 13 per cent of UK consumers do not recycle electrical goods at all – more than four times the figure in […]

The migrating adventure of a Linux newbie

Being on a low income it’s virtually impossible to find the money needed to gain access to the latest computer operating systems and software. Many times I’ve found myself angry at being denied access to software simply because of my economic status. I was therefore presented with two options: the first being to use pirated […]