Spare computer gear for old neighbour?
Hi all,
my old neighbour (whom I'm looking after a bit) has her birthday at the beginning of October, and I want to make it a bit memorable - I don't think she had a proper birthday in a very long time.
I will bake one of my breads (see picture below) for her and bring a bit of a spread, but I also want to set her up with a computer system so she can watch some movies (I have DVDs that I can lend her), listen to music, might be able to get internet at some point and stay in contact with her friends and especially her sons in Wellington a bit better.
I managed to buy (sight unseen) an old 24in Core2Duo iMac from 2007 (that can't run the latest Mac or Windows system software any more so wouldn't be secure) very cheaply as it was considered defect. Turns out that everything works fine, it just needed a clean (especially behind the protective glass in front of the screen) and a new system installed, and as a bonus it unexpectedly had its memory upgraded to 4 GB of RAM (the still original 320 GB HD isn't big but should do).
I installed the latest Linux Mint (which IS secure) as it is specifically geared towards desktop users (so even has commercial multimedia codecs that other Linux distributions don't have) and has low system requirements (eg 1 GB of RAM even with a really nice desktop) - and after less than 1 hour (incl googling how do do some things) everything is done and it runs very fast indeed. I'm quite impressed.
What I don't have is a spare USB keyboard and mouse for it. So if anyone has some old ones around that they no longer need (Apple would be ideal but PC ones will do) then I would appreciate them for my neighbour.
Other things she could need:
If you happen to have an old external 250 or 500 GB hard disc for backups then that would be fantastic - I always feel uncomfortable when people don't have backups of their data as computers can be replaced … your data though - which is the important thing - would be lost when the hard disc dies.
And if you feel REALLY charitable and have an old-style 2.5in 250 GB SATA SSD that you would be happy to donate then I would dare go inside the iMac, replace the hard disc (which is a bit a pig of a job, but I have done that before), and redo the installation of everything.
A small USB stick to bring official letters in pdf form (to me or the library?) for printing out or sending off (until she has internet herself) would also be useful … 1 GB should be plenty. Companies used to give them away, so maybe you have an old one somewhere?
Thanks in advance.
Markus
P.S. One more thing: I can no longer drive for medical reasons (occasional dizzy spells) so unless you are close by would not be able to pick something up. But we are opposite Green Bay High School, so if you happen to come past and could drop it off that would be fantastic.
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Jetstar Christmas sale launches with 45,000 cheap fares from $48
Jetstar has launched a Christmas sale with 45,000 discounted domestic and international fares across 13 routes.
The airline’s Christmas sale began just after midnight, with one-way domestic fares available from as low as $48 and international fares from $142.
Travel dates vary per route but include early March to early September for domestic and early February to late August for international.
Jetstar’s head of New Zealand, Shelley Musk, said the airline was prepared for a record summer of flying in New Zealand.
“We’re gearing up for our busiest Christmas and New Year peak ever, with almost 700,000 customers expected to fly to and from New Zealand over December and January,” she said.
Air New Zealand estimated 1.6 million passengers will be travelling domestically around New Zealand this summer season.
“Queenstown will see 260,000 customers travel to and from the region while Nelson is gearing up for 150,000 customers, and Dunedin 110,000,” Air New Zealand general manager airports Kate Boyer said.
Boyer said the busiest day for domestic travel is Friday, December 19 with up to 32,000 travellers expected to fly, followed by Sunday 21, Monday 22 and Tuesday 23, with up to 31,000 customers taking to the skies each day.
This year, Jetstar launched five new domestic and transtasman routes, including Hamilton to Sydney and Christchurch to Cairns, while Hamilton to Christchurch and Brisbane to Queenstown flights will commence next year.
Jetstar’s domestic routes on sale
============================
● Auckland to Wellington from $48
● Christchurch to Wellington from $52
● Christchurch to Hamilton from $53
● Wellington to Queenstown from $53
● Auckland to Christchurch from $59
● Auckland to Dunedin from $72
● Auckland to Queenstown from $72
Jetstar’s international routes on sale
==============================
● Hamilton to Sydney from $142
● Auckland to Sunshine Coast from $162
● Hamilton to Gold Coast from $169
● Dunedin to Gold Coast from $179
● Auckland to Rarotonga from $189
● Christchurch to Cairns from $199
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