Donation drive for a friend...

[seawasp]

ETA: The drive is over. Thanks very much to everyone who participated! The funds covered what was absolutely needed.


I have a friend named George Green (kharaku). He's made some... pretty bad life decisions, and he's stuck at the bottom right now; check his LJ entry here if you want details of the problems that make this an acute issue. To a great extent he's gotten himself in this mess, but at heart he's a good guy and some of his current problems are NOT his fault, so I'm going to do this for him once.

Short version: George's stuck in the Ukraine with essentially no money, and his laptop -- the tool he uses to do whatever work he can get as a web designer, writer, etc. -- was stolen from him.

He needs a new laptop; his ideal would be a Mac Powerbook but he's used others; the last one taken was an ASUS P50IJ.

I have set up a Paypal donation button below for people to contribute towards getting him a replacement laptop, probably from craigslist or some similar used location unless people are extraordinarily generous; any excess will go towards helping him have some resources to get the heck off the streets/out of charity places. If someone HAS an appropriate laptop they would like to donate, contact me and I'll arrange to get it to him.

I will leave this up for two weeks; if insufficient funds for a laptop  are given, I'll send whatever I have to George to at least give him something to work with.

Comments

[melchar.livejournal.com]

Hi hi. Good wishes to your friend. I live in Campbell, Calif - and can pass along some karma. A chum who needed help gave me his laptop for the help last year. It's a Mac and my main desktop & laptop are PCs, so it gets like no use. If someone can pick it up or pay for the shipping, it's his if he wants it.

It is a 1.67 ghz Power PC G4, running Mac OS X 10.5.8
- or if he'd rather -
I can give him my old Dell laptop [a Dell inspiron 5150, running WinXP with 2 gigs of RAM & a 200 gig harddrive] It's more than 10 years old and is still nice, but can't run MMO's any more

[kharaku.livejournal.com]

a g4 with 10.5.8 would work for the development stuff I do. It would definitly help me get back on track! How much ram does it have?

i've been asking people for a few bucks for food on the street to make ends meet lately so having a mac to develop on would be amazing in terms of helping me get back on track!

[seawasp]

Just realized you may not see the question in my reply to Melchar -- what address that you TRUST can this be shipped to?

[seawasp]

Since that obviously works for George, I'll pay for the shipping -- let me know how much it costs and I'll pay you back immediately, unless you need me to pay up first; if there are donations I'll use those to offset the shipping costs and then if there's any left send it on to George.

George, what address that you TRUST can it be shipped to?

[kharaku.livejournal.com]

My BEST advice is to send it DHL to Lviv and have them hold it at the DHL office; DHL has more English speaking employees than it does Ukrainian or Russian ones (try speaking to a Russian in Ukrainian some time if they seem like the same language) failing that the US post office does garuntee deliver and insurance but it's flakey about refunding for a lost shipment and replacment value of 'lost' objects.

I trust Yuliya's address completey but hold at office wither DHL or Post Office is a smarter option.
Yuliya's addess is Serdyuk, Yuliya 79066 Ukraine, Lvivska Oblast, Lviv 26 Syhivsk Apartment 66

It could be better to call DHL quote wise, I do need it badly but next day would be absurd I am sure

USPS (which is really fedex) Express Mail® International Flat Rate Boxes are 75 dollars, priority mail is 69 so express seems to make more sense.

[kharaku.livejournal.com]

Serdyuk, Yuliya 79066 Ukraine, Lvivska Oblast, Lviv 26 Syhivska Apartment 66

again in ANY option please try to use Pick Up At Post
I will get you the ukrainian for that phrase in latin and cyrillic letters before we ship.


This sounds amazingly exiting!

[kharaku.livejournal.com]

I'm assuming the machine is this:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/specs/powerbook_g4_1.67_15.html

do you know
current ram installed
current hard drive installed
whether the battery seems to still hold a charge
?

this is about the best a non intel mac that would 'do the job' for getting me back on track to projects

[melchar.livejournal.com]

It's got 2 gigs of RAM, a 15" screen, a 50 gig harddrive - and your link looks like the same laptop. It has a 'meh' battery. The battery will keep a charge for at least an hour, but I wouldn't guarantee it to go much past an hour unplugged.

I will admit that I use an OS9 clamshell macbook [because it can run a MAC OC7.5 program that this other - newer - on cannot]. I really haven't used the G4 much at all.

Give me an address to send it to [plus any conditions I should make with the shipping] and I will try to get it mailed Monday.

[kharaku.livejournal.com]

The Two options are
US Post Offiice Express International (the price difference between priority and express are nominal given the difference in tmes)
if you box it yourself it's around 69 bucks.

DHL says to use DH Express International but doesn't show a price when I do a rate quote, and I don't know much about how to send with DHL.

My address:
George Green and Yulia Serdyuk
Sykhivs'ka St, 26, Kvartira 66
L'viv
Ukraine

Україна
79066
м. Львів
вул. Сихівська, 26,
квартира 66

Try to write both addresses.
If it's DHL just writing in English "Hold at Lviv Office" should be fine.

If it goes through the post office it will enter into the Ukraine Post which is across the street from the apartment and they'll leave a note so there is no need to write hold at post office for USPS shipping.

The USPS option is safe; the Post Office here gets anything from the US from Poland (In the Europeon Union with very strict laws) so it should get here with no problems safely.

DHL sends through their own network so it'd go to Kiev then Lviv but they are rock solid reliable and they actually speak English

2 Gigs is the max ram for the machine so that works great! (i might have a buddy with a bigger hard drive, 50 is kinda small no big deal) if you have a bootable OS X cd it'd be handy because finding a ppc version of os x would be a challange here if i run into problems.

This is a really amazing find!

[kharaku.livejournal.com]

if anyone happens to have an old usb webcam it'd be handy to have also (not being nitpicky; a lot of odesk clients refuse to workm with people who don't have one... i can try to find a reasonably priced on here but they are still considered cutting endge in ukraine :/ )

[melchar.livejournal.com]

Like I said, I accepted it from a friend who felt bad about me just giving him money. ^_^ I'll try sending it by USPS [at least in part because I don't know anywhere close that does dhl]. I don't have a webcam, but I will check to see if I have OS X [at this point, I don't remember if I did anything there].

[kharaku.livejournal.com]

sounds great my friend says someone probably has a wevcan on the cheap (no one gives away technology here; it could have a past fresh date and they'd still charge the original price but my friend thinks I can borrow it long term with no worries).

This is truly a life saver! I already have links saved so I can do XCode/native iOS apps on a g4 mac!!!!

This is AMAZING!

[kharaku.livejournal.com]

is there any more info you need to get a dhl quote? does dhl online in america give a price? i think ryk has the shipping cost sewn up

[melchar.livejournal.com]

Okay, it's in the mail. ^_^ Sent via the US Post, Priority mail [medium flat rate box]
customs form = CW092326350US
for $56.15 [sent insured]

However there is bad news. As of May 16th, US Homeland [in]Security no longer allows laptops batteries to be mailed internationally. [The Postal worker agreed with me that this is stupid.] I had to open, remove the battery, rebox the laptop. So you will need to get a = 15 inch powerbook G4 rechargeable battery. Sorry. I also checked and was not given the OSX software.

[kharaku.livejournal.com]

strangely there's been no movement of it for 2 days :/

at least if the tracker is correct

[kharaku.livejournal.com]

it has reached ukraine, I am anxious about receiving it!!! :)))

thanks!!!!

[melchar.livejournal.com]

Yay! Slowly but surely. ^_^ If it gets to you in the next 2 days, then it really does fit the '6-8 day' window the USPS advertises.

[kharaku.livejournal.com]

Got it today! Haven't got it to accept wifi yet (which my old MacBook had problems with free wi fi here) but other wise perferect condition and I'm making sure to not take it with me anywhere that could present a problem!

[seawasp]

Excellent. So you're now in a position to leave if that's your plan.

[kharaku.livejournal.com]

beyond stashing it safely anytime i'm uncertain what might come I don't yet have a plan ; trying to find work atm...

[melchar.livejournal.com]

I'm very much relieved that you have it! Use it well and I hope it helps you a lot! [whew!] Best of luck!

[melchar.livejournal.com]

And please let me know when you get it, Okay?

[kharaku.livejournal.com]

will it work plugged in without a battery? finding anything for a G4 would be a joke aside from MAYBE going to kiev, they have an open market that might have something...

@Ryk
Is there enough in the shipping fund to send a battery?

@melchar
Will they allow you to ship the battery seperatly?

[kharaku.livejournal.com]

crossing finger it'll boot on AC power with no battery.

internet forums seem to be 50/50 on that

@ ryk is there anything in the fund to buy a battery from someone in the EU off ebay?

ideally i would hope it just boots without a battery.

i almost have never used my first or second stolen laptop not plugged in because the batteries on both held very little charge...

My Asus P50IJ would boot with no battery... I would HOPE a Mac can do the same...

I appriciate the laptop though! I'm sure we'll figure out something on the battery (I have no idea how, but I'm going to scamper off and pray about that).

@melchar again thank you for the help!!!

[kharaku.livejournal.com]

looking into prices for a power end converter. Forgot about that. (the official apple one is absurdly priced, and I threw the power adapter from my original mac out about 2 weeks before the ASUS was stolen.

that has to be buy not too far from here.

[seawasp]

To convert between our plugs and theirs with power? That shouldn't be too expensive.

As far as money, there's enough (almost) to pay for the shipping in there. Not enough for anything else, though.

[melchar.livejournal.com]

Is it there yet? [hoping]

[melchar.livejournal.com]

Since this is just a US gov't stupidity, if you can get an apple battery locally [or in the European market] -they- should be able to get it to you.

I'm still rather annoyed about this. I'd even found an anti-static bag for the battery and now it's sitting here on the desk. o.O

[melchar.livejournal.com]

Do well - be well - and visit if you ever get to the Bay area of California someday. ^_^

[melchar.livejournal.com]

I asked and couldn't ship the battery with the laptop or on its own. IMO this is just annoying.

The charger/power cord is with the laptop, so I hope it will work when plugged in.

[dragoness-e.livejournal.com]

Word of caution here: can you confirm to yourself that this absolutely, positively is your friend and he really is in trouble?

Because this has the earmarks of a classic Internet/telephone scam: pretend to be a close friend or relative stranded overseas who needs cash wired to them right away to get unstranded. Money gets sent and never heard from again. When victim checks on friend who was supposedly in trouble, they were safe at home the whole time. It was a scammer pretending to be them who sent the appeal for money.

Be careful, and double-check. Scammers can use LJ, too.

[seawasp]

This isn't a sudden development; I've watched it all develop. (If you scripted George's life for a soap opera, no one would believe it, including normal soap-opera fans). So yes, I'm sure it's George. I know the way he writes, where he's been, and why he's in this situation.

[kharaku.livejournal.com]

http://www.thirdrome.com/passportnew_smaller.jpg