The HeliOS Project is now.....

The HeliOS Project is now.....
Same mission, same folks...just a different name

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Monday, March 14, 2016

Be Careful of What You Wish For...No, Seriously.

It was a month ago, give or take a sol or two, since the Taylor Housing Authority contacted us at Reglue to ask for our help. Seems that there are a lot of school-age kids living in that government housing tract and as we might imagine, a computer isn't one of the things you might find in that household.

Now this is where I had to just shake my head. In 2013, someone from that neighborhood contacted me and asked if I might be able to assist them in providing a computer for their kids.

"Well sure, that's the job Reglue came to Taylor to do"

We went on to make an appointment for the first of the week and parted ways until then. When I showed up at the door, I was invited in but told that the housing authority had to ok all major appliances before installation and that included computers.

Really? Appliance inspections for a computer? That was the last I heard from her or anyone at the housing authority. Until about a month ago.

It was then that we were asked to provide computers for the kids in that exact same tract. At first, we were informed that we could plan on doing about 40 in a year's time. Yeah, we can do that. But after The Taylor Housing Authority did a door to door inventory on those with families that need a computer, we're now looking in the neighborhood of 125 machines.

"Houston, we have a problem."

Oh we have the machines. We've stockpiled about 170 for the 2016 year. We also have enough flat panel monitors, mice and keyboards. We have all of that. What we don't have are speakers and wireless usb receivers. In fact, I did my 9th install in 4 days today and I set the last pair of speakers we had. But that's the problem we face and the help we need. The wireless adapters we use, and use because they work first time, every time can be seen below. they are without a doubt the best we've ever used.

Time Warner has agreed to provide these housing units with "adequate" wireless connections and from what I am seeing, these folks are getting a bit over 20Mbps down and 1Mbps up. And that's being provided as a service to the community. Just about the time I'm ready to declare war on Time Warner, they go and do something nice like this. And that's not all. They tripled the speed for Reglue and set us up a hotspot for our neighbors...and they did this to retain our contract without us paying a dime extra. Did I mention that they tripled our speeds?

So with Time Warner providing these folks free wireless service, it's up to Reglue to get them hooked up. Without the adapters, we can't do that. So if you can help and send us a couple, we would more than appreciate it. the wireless adapters we use can be found here.

The speakers we use are pretty good, given their size and cheap price, but these found on Ebay are excellent as well...for the price anyway. So either Ebay or Amazon have the speakers we need

Our shipping address, should you want to purchase from Amazon or Ebay and send them directly, is:

Ken Starks
C/O Reglue
319 Sloan #110b
Taylor, Tx 76574

If you would rather just leave a donation, you can do so via the Donate button under our thermometer at the top left of this page. Or, just paypal us via ken@reglue.org. Any amount will be greatly appreciated.

So, finally...after a tough couple of  years with health issues, it feels good to be back to work on a daily basis, even with jarring surprises like this. I attribute my high spirits and outlook to you folks. You've helped me when you didn't have to and I appreciate that more than you know. So yeah, stuff just got real for us in Taylor Texas. This is the way it's supposed to be. I'll show you in dead-tree print in the coming days.

For now, thanks for all that you do for us. These kids wouldn't have computers without you. I don't think many of you realize just how important your contributions are.

Stand by for NEWS!

All-Righty Then...


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