?? .. do you mean the retractable beer can holder or what ??? <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Actually, that's a pretty cool idea. Use butcher paper as a screen and a video projector. You can get decent ones for around $1000. Heck, I might try it... if I could figure out a way to determine the location of the holes, I could play Quake or Unreal, but using a real gun...

<img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Toster pastries don't go in the slot on the front of the computer. <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

No wonder ETS has a one billion dollars computer budget...

...can't...breathe... barely... type... too...funny..

Seriously, ROTFLMAO.

The shiskabab one is awesome.

Oh, man, this is the day I sent the car incurance payment in two months early. So much for getting ahead of myself. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> Sorry, Chris. If we are still taking money in a few weeks (I pray not), I will chip.

I'll chip in even if we aren't, I owe this place that much. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

What I can do, is pimp the guys we buy from here. We just got 200 off-lease machines from these guys, about a year old in specification, which is certainly powerful enough for anything but hard-core gaming and CADD.

www.hcditrading.com

Screens are available from them, but if he has one, he can reuse it. AV can be free- there are a couple of good ones, I've used AVG. The best household firewall, IMHO, is ZoneAlarm, also free. OpenOffice from Sun is very comperable to Office, and can handle everything that Office makes except for Access, and again, is free. If you get something sans-OS, and have a legal copy of XP, you can toss it in- that will save you a little.

As for tech support, are there any ETSers who are geeks around Chris? If I wasn't on the east coast, I'd be willing to do what I could over the phone.

My computer was out of action for a couple weeks recently, so I know how frustrating that is. <img src="/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> Check is in the mail.

I have bought well over 40 computers from Dell over the years, business and personal. My advice is to call them, not online, talk to a rep, and do a lease through the Foundation. The entity expenses it, and it's is the best deal around.

Doug/Chris:

The check is in the mail !

Always wanted to have a reason to say that <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Michael