OT: Novel uses for old hardware?

Mon Aug 30 04:19:23 UTC 2004

      On Sun, 29 Aug 2004, Ryan Lackey wrote:
    > The things which I think will help the most:
    > Old enterprise gear is probably the least useful assistance
    > available right now, at least in general, but there are probably
    > exceptions.  Shipping is pretty expensive, about USD 4/kg by air.

We see a lot of folks on the US side trying to donate 7500s and Cat 5000s,
which are next to useless for people in countries without much network,
particularly when kitted out with FDDI and ATM blades.  What we see a lot
of demand for from countries that don't currently have much network are
1760s, 2600s, 3725s, 2950s, and 3500/3550s.  Not least because that's
what's affordable to ship, and affordable to pay the customs bribes on.
Try getting a half-rack piece of gear through customs in a lot of
developing countries, and you'll have a bit of work on your hands.

    > We should have an Iraqi non-profit org soon, but for US tax purposes,
    > I'm sure there are US non-profits which could be used to channel any
    > kind of contributions.

NSRC (http://www.nsrc.org/) does that, as does PCH.  Both are 501(c)(3)
non-profit in the US, which means that donations can be written off
against taxes at fair market value.  I presume that they're a little picky
about what they take, as we are.

                                -Bill