[wplug-board] wireless router from Mike O'Connor

[Bill Moran]

Patrick Wagstrom <pwagstro at andrew.cmu.edu> wrote:

> Folks,
> 
> So I got the scoop on the wireless router from Mike.  Apparently it's an
> 802.11b (only) wireless access point/router that is still in great
> condition, but Mike has just retired because he doesn't use wireless
> anymore.  While I appreciate Mike's desire to donate it as a raffle
> item, I'm wondering how valuable it really is.  This isn't a model that
> is easily hackable for linux, and considering that you can get a WRT54G
> for $40 (or the linux version for $60), I'm wondering how much of a
> prize it really is.  Is it worth it to have WPLUG give this away?  Your
> feedback is appreciated.

It seems nice to have giveaways, but _donated_ giveaways are far too
often crap that nobody else wants.  It would be nice to giveaway stuff
that people are really interested in having (like _new_ hardware).

I think we should encourage Mike to put the unit on wplug-market and
or find another way to unload it.  In my opinion, the practice of
"donating to charity as a method of unloading shit you don't want" is
not an honorable thing.  Far too many people get the impression that
charities want worn out crap -- this is encouraged by the few charities
that can actually make use of worn out crap, such as Goodwill.

-- 
Bill Moran

When I point out limitations of one technique as a motivation for another, I
do so in the context of specific problems; for different problems or in other
contexts, the first technique may indeed be the better choice.  Useful
software has been constructed using all of the techniques presented here.

    Bjarne Stroustrup, _The_C++_Programming_Language_