We succeeded in our goal of obtaining over 200 computers for Austin-area children in need. The actual number is probably quite a bit higher. Many of the donations for the install fest were received a month before the event, and had already been refurbished and delivered. Nevertheless, thanks to everyone's generosity, we still had a truckload of computers on the day of the event. Yes, a truckload.

I'm still recovering from the event, but I wanted to go ahead and and share some of the first batches of pictures.

The Venue - Union Park

Thanks to our friends at BuildASign.com, we had some excellent signage. How could you this miss this?

Seriously, how could you miss this?

When I was planning the install fest, one of my major concerns was location. I went to my friend, Greg Bodle, at Union Park, and said: I want you to open your club up 7 hours early, so that I and 50 other folks can come in, haul a truck up, rearrange all your furniture, and repair a few hundred computers. By the way, you won't make any money on it. Greg, being the community-minded guy that he is, said yes. Furthermore, he opened his kitchen up so that there would be food for the army of geeks.

The fine folks at RGM Advisors picked up the tab for a buffet spread in the Boom Boom room. All day long fresh platters of food came out. As soon as one was empty, another followed.

The Setup

As promised, Greg was there at noon on the dot to open the doors, and we immediately began to transform Union Park into a 5000 sq ft. computer workshop.

Ken Starks, of The Helios Project has some shots of the truck being unloaded on his blog.

The Patio

Let start the tour on the patio.

We turned the front patio of the club into a receiving area.

Look at all those Dells. A special thanks to Jher for the donation of 60+ machines, and Thomas Mahler for the last minute donation of 20 machines.

We advertised curbside pickup, and all afternoon, people drove up and dropped computers off.

The front patio also served as a place to check machines for parts -- like RAM and harddrives. It was the initial testing area.

Come join us inside to see the rest

The Main Room

Tom King of the The Helios Project supervised the install teams. Tom was a little overwhelmed (can you tell?) by the idea of preparing 200 machines in one day, but he came through like a champ. I imagine that, with the first install fest under his belt, 200 computers will be a piece of cake for Tom next time.

Thanks to Andy Krell, Warren Kamealoha, and a few other generous folks, we had an image server and KVM switches -- better for installing 10 machines at a time.

Machines that had problems went to the back of the room where diagnostics and repairs could be performed.

These geeks weren't joking around. Many came with their own toolboxes.

To assure that everyone had plenty of energy, Brad Bannister from Red Bull came by the night before to drop a few hundred cans of Red Bull off for the crowd. By the middle of the afternoon, almost everyone had drank as least one Red Bull. Weeee! It was really funny.

I'll be writing more about the Austin install fest, and what's next for Linux Against Poverty, in the days to come. In the meantime, check out Ken Stark's take on the install fest at Blog of Helios.

A special thanks to all the folks who took photos and shot videos: Benn and Lani Rosales, Jonathan Arehart, Chris Almond, Beth Carls, Arthur Kendrick, and Don Bender. If anyone else has photos of the event, send me a note at lynnbender@geekaustin.org.

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