This year we prepared 350 computers to go to eastern Turkey. Fifteen students from the Bellevue School District were sent to live in the Turkish cultures with Turkish families and help to wire up computers in various schools and a hospital for paralyzed students.
In 2006 we did not have the luxury of being able clone computers because of license issues. The goal was to take over 180 computers, but we could not pre-load the software. We checked hardware and placed the computers on palettes. The packing density increased in 2006 because we did not use separate boxes. The crate was shipped in early February.
"The preparation was a long process. We had to check all of the computers to make sure they were usable and to format the hard drives. This made it much easier to install the software once we got to Slovakia. It was also necessary to keep a running inventory of all of our equipment. Once the container arrived, we only had four days to pack the entire thing. Our last piece of equipment arrived about 30 minutes before the container was supposed to leave. Overall, the packing and preparation were the most stressful parts of the process." -Colton Ostermiller
In 2005 we prepared 120 computers to be shipped. After solving hardware issues and organizing like models we created a perfect software installation for each set of computers. We then took this clean configuration and cloned it to the remaining computers. Windows 2000 was the operating system installed and essential software was added to that base. The computers were boxed up with monitors, keyboards, mice, and other cables. The boxes were loaded into a crate and shipped in February.