Freedom Toaster Project - My USA project!

So, some of you may have seen the http://www.freedomtoaster.org/ project. I have been to Surplus Exchange recently where they have an old phone card dispenser for very cheap. My plan is to go down there tomorrow and buy it to convert the case into a Freedom Toaster. Then, I'll donate it back to S.E. for use by their customers to make OS CDs as needed. It's a great idea, IMHO. S.E. already gives out Ubuntu and Redhat CDs, and one of the two techs there is really getting into Ubuntu. I'm very sure he'd go for the Freedom Toaster idea very happily. They have to charge extra for including Winders on machines they sell, so generally they come with wiped HDDs. If we can setup a way for customers to get a recent OS without having to have access to a broadband connection, it will likely help those on very low budgets and those who can barely afford a computer. S.E. is so stocked with stuff that if you buy a barebones computer there, they will include a 15" CRT for free. Thus, you can get a whole computer system for under $50 in many cases. Having to drop $199 on XP Home for that system is simply nuts. And, it having a wiped drive also means that you have no OS to use to download an OS image anyway... This idea keeps getting better and better the more I think about it. The Freedom Toaster may have been thought up for Africa, but it might just work great for the USA too. Woo!

31 July 2006 - Picked up the machine from S.E. over the weekend. It'll make a great enclosure. The only main issue is that in the days since I first saw it and the day I picked it up the main panel got locked. They had had 8 more of these that got scrapped because the panels were locked. This was the only one that opened. Some doofus playing with it managed to lock it it seems, and now I'm in a bit of a bind. If I'm lucky I can elicit the help and skillz of ax0n to get the durn thing open. Then it's a technical run through a-la his ATM run down for 2600, which I feel has a good chance of being published. Then it's a gutting and refitting for the project's purposes. I'm even considering a WiFi connection so that one might wonder near and download an ISO image to burn at home. That would be great for people who don't carry blank CD-Rs with them, but happen to have their WiFi laptop with them for work/school etc.