Kids on Computers is, I think, a great non-profit organization in terms of impact-per-dollar. If you have a working laptop that you need to replace with a Microsoft Surface Book
The 501(c)(3) charity also wants to redesign its web site. If you’ve got experience with WordPress and all of the modern client-side languages… perhaps this is your volunteer job for 2016! It is a great group of people and there are trips to Oaxaca. Combine Day of the Dead with Linux!
[Separately, when are they going to cut the price of the Surface Book? I don’t want a laptop where I will have to cry if I drop it. Does it actually need to cost $1900 with a feeble 8 GB/256 GB memory/SSD configuration? Lenovo does that in a Yoga 900 for $1200.]
Thank you, Philip!
Readers: Please email me at avni at kidsoncomputers dot org if you are interested in donating equipment or working on the Web site. Help us do more! Thank you!
The Surface Book comes with a free stylus pen – that is surely worth $700 (or it would be if it was FAA certified).
Why not just buy the Yoga (900)?
Lenovo quality is not what it used to be – I bought a Lenovo “workstation” laptop for my daughter and the build quality is flimsy – it feels flexy and no better than an Asus or an Acer or any other Chinese made laptop (which is all of them). I bought it as a refurb from their online outlet for a very handsome discount. The previous customer (I later learned) had returned it because the trackpoint (keyboard mounted pencil eraser) mouse wasn’t working. Apparently “refurbished” in Lenovo speak means “clean the glass on the monitor” because when I got it, the trackpoint STILL wasn’t working. Lenovo very helpfully offered to overnight a new keyboard to me together with a nice little screwdriver and an instruction sheet so I could act as their unpaid technician. Or else I could mail it in and in only 7 weeks (or something like that) they would repair it and mail it back to me by a slow freighter. My choice.
When I opened the keyboard (unlike some laptops, this one came out from the top and was relatively painless) the cable for the trackpoint was totally disconnected so now I have a spare keyboard in case my daughter spills her drink into her laptop (would not be the 1st time).
The way I learned that the previous customer had returned it was that when I called support and gave them the serial number they said “are you Mr. Smith from ABC Construction – I see you have had this problem before.” The good news is that Mr. Smith bought a 3 year transferable warranty. Also Mr. Smith put another stick of ram in the machine which Lenovo didn’t charge me for. So Smith’s loss (he apparently opted to sent it back to Lenovo instead of fiddling with tiny little screws and ribbon cables) is my (my daughter’s) gain.