The YTC program at Evanston Township High School has been working really hard lately, and we’re so proud of them.  A few weeks ago, they donated refurbished computers to a nearby community center.  Here’s what one of the students, Alex, has to say about the experience as a whole:

 Installing Computers at the Sunlight African Community Center

OK, so here is the whole story about the Sunlight African Community Center.  They are a great place that helps with the community of African immigrants.  They had 3 computers and we donated 3 more.

here’s how the process of donating works:

First we chose 3 computers that fit the right specifications.
They have to have at least 1 gigabyte of ram and a certain kind of processor (pentium 4 or higher).  They need to be fast like this because we install windows 7 on them. Windows 7 is cool and all, but it is bloatware (which means it is stuffed to bursting with way too many features.). this makes it hard to run on older computers.

After we get the computers picked out, then we make sure they are working. (some needed new ram or disk drives).

Once the hardware works, we then put Windows on them, which is fairly easy, because we have special installation disks that let you do the setup on one computer and then burn the setup to a disk so it is automated on all other computers.

We can install the software using a mode called audit mode that lets us “seal the computer back up” and go back to the installation screen. we do this so whoever gets the computer can set it up their way.

We only had a little bit of trouble getting the sound to work, and then the computers were ready to deliver.  We loaded them into vans, and drove them to the community center. the people there were very nice and we helped them set up the computers, a network, and a firewall which protects the computers.

the entire thing was very fun and I am glad that we did it.

made by Alex B.

http://ytcb.blogspot.com/