Rotary Club
From the April 1, 2010 Rotogram (the newsletter of Ferndale Rotary)
Todays Program
by Amelia Roll
Our speaker today was Kenneth Grunberg, an engineer and inventor. In 2008, he started the process of launching Motor City Free Geek, which was an experiment with open source (free) software. An issue that came up again and again is electronic waste - this issue sparked an idea for promoting the use of open source software in refurbished computers would help alleviate the problem of electronic waste. Motor City Free Geek accepts gently used computers, refurbishes and installs open source software and then donates them to deserving organizations for continued use.
Some Facts about Electronic Waste:
- electronic waste is the fastest growing segment of the waste stream in the U.S. E-waste includes, computers, televisions, VCR's, DVD players, cell phones and other electronic devices.
- according to the EPA, Americans generated more than 2 million tons of e-waste in 2007. Less than 14% was recycled and the rest found its way into landfills and incinerators.
- each year 400 million used ink cartridges are discarded into our nation's landfills.
For more information, please visit www.motorcityfreegeek.net
Upcoming Events
| Tuesday May 14, 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM Work meeting |
| Wednesday May 15, 7:00 PM - Linux SIG |
| Thursday May 16, 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM Work meeting |
| Saturday May 18, 12:30 PM - 5:00 PM Open for business |
| Tuesday May 21, 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM Work meeting |
| Thursday May 23, 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM Work meeting |
| Saturday May 25, 12:30 PM - 5:00 PM Open for business |
Get Our Newsletter!
At Motor City Free Geek we install Ubuntu Linux on computers we build.
Ubuntu Linux is created by a worldwide team of expert developers and has all the application programs most often used: a basic office suite; web browser; media player, and more.
OpenOffice.org is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more.
It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.