An Update and Look Forward to the Summer

Once again I wanted to take the opportunity to thank everyone for reading the blog and giving us a chance to talk about what MacRecycleClinic is all about. The stats say we have had more than 7,000 hits – just amazing for an occasional blog. So thank you!

The Clinic is only open Mondays (save holidays) from 7 to 9 PM which makes it a challenge for folks to find us or take advantage of our services. We only work on out-of-warranty machines but love to answer questions and can help install software or hardware on any Mac. We have also been asked to help grab information from older machines (going WAY BACK in fact to original Macs and even Apple IIs and ///s) or just help keep older machines working.

Recycling Memories: 2002

These early Bondi iMacs were refurbished by the old Washington Apple Pi "Tuesday Night Crew" that is now MacRecycleClinic. They all went to good homes. Note the G4 towers providing support!

As I have time – I will reprint some articles about recycling that I (or others in what is now the MacRecycleClinic group) wrote about our efforts over the years to refurbish and return Macs back into the community. I’m doing this not only to preserve the articles but to show just how far back MRC and our old Washington Apple Pi Tuesday Night Crew goes – how our efforts to recycle have gone back to Apple II days in fact. I’ll add photos as well when possible.

Note that in 2012 MCPS – Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools – basically only supports PCs these days. That said, MRC has had luck working with school counselors and PTSAs to get computers to students and families that don’t have computers.  If you have a group that is trying to recycle computers, be sure to check and see what your local school district will – or won’t – accept. But there are many non-profits, students and families who would appreciate a refurbished computer. I just read the newspaper, work with local churches and school groups and never have a problem finding someone who could use a recycled Macintosh.

Apple /// DVD Goes Public Domain

Folks – I’m happy to report that I’ve made my DVD full of information about the Apple /// computer public so that it can be useful to all. Talk about recycling and reusing! The Apple /// was Apple’s FIRST computer as a company. Designed to be a business computer with a new OS (SOS – not the Apple II DOS) it was too expensive, had many early problems and few programs. It lasted just a couple of years and despite an Apple remake it was discontinued in 1983.

That said, there was a real core group of users who continued to use the machine for literally decades – and there is still a dedicated group of enthusiasts even today – you can find them on FaceBook. Here’s a link to the archive.

We’re all “hobbyists” these days but many ///s continue to work and can still do basic things we all expect computers to do – word processing, email, spreadsheets and databases. For a long time, you could even dial in to the Internet to get info from Compuserve and other services that offered text-only access.

If you are interested I have also posted a series of video tutorials to my personal YouTube site (MRC doesn’t have one) – check it out here.

MacRecycleClinic – A Busy Time for Mac Recycling

The Monday Clinic is always busy these days.

It’s been awhile but I wanted to bring all our readers and supporters up-to-date on how things are going at the MacRecycleClinic. As you’ve read in past blog posts, it took about two years for the MRC to move from being a part of Washington Apple Pi to become a 501(c)3 non-profit and to find a new home.

Our space at Marvin Memorial United Methodist Church is already crowded but has become perfect for our needs. We have workspace for our donations and to refurbish computers that will ultimately find their way back into the community. We have a “clinic space” in Room 204 at Marvin where we hold our Monday clinics.  And we have taken some space downstairs at the church to create a storage space and more importantly – a Mac Lab for use by students from Blair High School and the community. It should be ready to go on-line soon.

I’ll have to say it took awhile for folks to learn that we were “back in business” but I’m thrilled to report that most Mondays we are busy – a good thing! We want to help Mac owners get the most out of their machines – whether it means replacing or repairing a hard drive, adding memory, installing software or just doing some troubleshooting.

But our bread and butter is taking newer PowerPC G4 and G5 computers (and hopefully Intels soon), refurbishing them and then returning them back to the community. We continue to take donations and have worked out an agreement with Montgomery County to scavenge Macs that have been sent for recycling to the Shady Grove Transfer Station.

In just the past few months we’ve reached out to a number of Washington Area groups, as well as Blair and Northwood High Schools. We have given computers to families and students and we are starting to get more calls for donations as well. In all cases we look for referrals from organizations – non profits, schools and other groups are in the best situation to know who would benefit most from a computer. In all cases, we are happy to work with these groups and get these computers out the door. In some cases we can also provide a printer – though basic printers these days are very inexpensive (and you can find them at Goodwill and other thrift stores).

If your organization would be interested in creating a Macintosh Lab we can also likely help with that so please let us know.  All our contact information is right here on recyclmac or you can go to our MacRecycleClinic home page for more information.

MacRecycleClinic is a small non profit trying to help the ecology by recycling Macintosh computers. For companies like Apple, this kind of effort should be welcomed (they do have their own recycling program in fact) because a student who uses a Mac now could well become a customer in the future. And everything we can do to keep these machines serving productive lives for a few more years is a worthwhile endeavor. These machines can surf the web, send and receive email and help find jobs, fill out resumes and create term papers. We do appreciate your support as we work on this effort – something our members have felt passionate about for decades.

Maryland Recycles Website – Worth the Visit

Looking for new links for RecycleMac and what should come up than a great website that focuses on recycling in Maryland – mdrecycles.org. Our links (on the right side of the blog) offer a lot of resources, including one from Montgomery County where the MacRecycleClinic operates. But this site comes from the state and offers a ton of great information.

As it says: “Whether you’re at home, at work or somewhere in between, recycled materials are present in almost everything we use. In fact, recycled material is so common, it’s easy to forget that recycling is a conscious decision, a choice we make based on a variety of factors. On mdrecycles.org, you’ll discover which materials are recyclable, find companies that will pick up recyclable material, and learn how to reduce your waste management costs while helping to create a cleaner environment for all of us.”

It Takes a Family to Recycle

A new shelf goes up in the MacRecycleClinic workspace at Marvin Church.

I took a look back at this blog and realized we’re closing in on six months since we got RecycleMac started. MacRecycleClinic was reestablished earlier than that, of course (after a two year hiatus). But it feels like we are really only now getting everything finally back together. It’s taken awhile to get the word out – we are finally starting to get more customers (guests/patrons/Mac aficionados) and making some progress on some other projects like the Mac Lab at Marvin and making community contacts.

We have added more shelving to the office space to get our refurbished computers off the floor. We donated a Mac laptop to the Blair High School AfterProm Committee for senior Daniel Naval to take to college. And we’ve helped some wonderful people get their Macs working again. Our agreement with the county to take Macs that would otherwise be recycled at the Shady Grove facility is also starting to bear some fruit – we find there are parts we can use if nothing else. The other day, a machine came in that had no memory or hard drive, but the Airport Extreme wireless card had been left in! It was easily the most valuable part.

Macs being refurbished for donation. Come see what we're doing any Monday night!

We continue to look for ways to work with the Silver Spring and Montgomery County communities to get computers into the hands of folks who don’t have them. We remain open to suggestions and will gladly take referrals from non-profits who feel someone they work with could use a computer. In many cases, we can also provide a printer so there’s a complete solution (just provide the Internet and ink cartridges!)

We look forward to the future as we are able to make more alliances and get the word out that MacRecycleClinic can, in a small way, make a difference in our community.

Looking for Old Software for your Recycled Macintosh?

It can be hard finding older versions of software. Whether you have an older Mac (OK or PC or computer running Linux) or just need to go back a version (like I did recently with Firefox) you don’t always know where to go.

That’s why I was happy to find a website called oldapps.com – which offers quite a few choices (tho not commercial software) you might need. Check out the Mac site at : http://mac.oldapps.com/.

Software Update – June 29, 2011: From MacInTouch:

TenFourFox 5.0 is a port of Firefox for PowerPC Macs (G3, G4, and G5) that “uses modified Firefox source code, rewritten to remain compatible with Mac OS X v10.4 and the Power Macintosh. It also contains specific optimizations and special features for PowerPC processors.” This release includes “All new standard features of Firefox 5.0, including CSS animation, multiple bug fixes, improvements to canvas and graphic display, and a faster browser core.” TenFourFox is free for Mac OS X 10.4.11 and up (PowerPC).

And one more from the TenFourFox website: Are you looking for a web browser for Mac OS 8.6-9.2.2 (and compatible with 10.1.5-10.3.9)? Try our sister project, Classilla.

Let us know if you have other suggestions and we’ll create a list for everyone to enjoy!