Tag: Charity
Facebook reaches out to those bullied on the site with 'trusted friend' feature
Now Facebook users can report problems to a "trusted friend" if they receive an unpleasant message, or they can report nasty comments or pictures directly to Facebook's moderators. The new feature was presented at a White House anti-bullying conference…
The Red Nose Day app: Games, gossip and charity
The Red Nose Day app will keep you in the loop on Comic Relief events, not to mention all the latest gossip. Available free of charge at the App Store, the software will give you all the latest news…
Facebook's Zuckerberg to give away over half his $6.9 billion wealth
Following in the footsteps of the philanphropic work of other tech billionaire Bill Gates, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has revealed that he is to give away over half of his $6.9 billion wealth to charity either before or following his…
Virgin Media World Cup microsite teams up with Sir Bobby Robson cancer fund
Virgin Media's World Cup microsite isn't just a great way to hype yourself up for the world's greatest football tournament, it's also doing its part in the fight against cancer. Every time a user watches a video on the…
Kindle e-reader gives Third World schools an educational boost
While the Kindle may have been dealt a big blow with the recent release of the iPad, the device is making big waves in schooling in Third World countries. A new initiative by Barcelona-based charity Worldreader.org has shipped a batch…
Nokia planning insane cricket match on top of Everest
File this one under ‘WTF’. Finnish phone manufacturer is planning the world’s highest cricket match, on the slopes of Everest. Two teams will trek nine days up the slopes of the world’s highest mountain to play a game of Twenty20 cricket.
Team ‘Hillary’ and team ‘Tenzig’ will converge on Gorakshep, a frozen lakebed at an altitude of 17,000ft, on the Queen’s birthday – 21st April. They’ll all be carrying Nokia N85s and N79s, which will track their location, heart rate and let them blog.
The whole endeavor is in aid of charities The Himalayan Trust UK and The Lord’s Taverners, and the teams hope to raise more than £250,000. On their way down again, they’ll be teaching cricket to kids in a village called Khumjung, and donating their kit. It’s unclear if sweaty jockstraps will be included in that donation. If you’d like to find out more, donate, or follow the team’s progress, then hit up www.theeveresttest.com.
UK Government donates a thousand old PCs to charity
Fancy a bit of a feel-good story for Friday afternoon? The UK Government’s Department for International Development has decided to ship a thousand laptops that it doesn’t use any more to Africa. It’s all being done through charity Computer Aid, who we’ve covered before.
The laptops, previously in use by civil servants, aren’t OLPCs or any other low-cost, low-spec machines – they’re proper full-on laptops. They’re going to organizations like the Prof. Iya Abubakar Community Resource Center in Nigeria, which helps local people start their own businesses.
Rumours that each laptop is chock-full of confidential documents and databases are so far unsubstantiated.
Computertan, the web-based home tanning system powered by LCD rays
Oh dear. Today is a sad day. We have been amused and entertained by a marketing campaign 🙁
The marketing campaign in question is that of ComputerTan, a supposed online tanning system that uses the deadly rays output by your PC monitor to bring a healthy orange glow to your face while you work.
It is, of course, a joke – perpetrated by UK skin cancer charity Skcin and designed to raise awareness of how bad it is to pursue the tanned look. The Times says some…
Computer Aid isn't a big fan of smashing up hard drives, either
It would be an understatement to say that I wasn’t a big fan of Which?’s suggestion that you safeguard your personal data by hitting it with a big hammer, and it turns out that Computer Aid agrees. Computer Aid is a charity which refurbishes old and unwanted computer equipment for the third world.
Instead, the charity wants you to opt for safe, environmentally-friendly alternatives when disposing of IT equipment. They also recommend a data erasing program over total destruction, though it’s the paid-for Blancco.
Of course, what they really want you to do is give the old equipment to them, promising that any data you leave will be wiped clean before it’s reused. A much better solution than a claw hammer, I’m sure you’ll agree.
Related posts: Which? magazine’s solution to data privacy – a big hammer | Security watchdog the ICO is currently looking at 277 “data breaches” in the UK
Lenovo to give away more 2008 Beijing Olympics V200 notebooks for charity
Lenovo is reprising their competition from August which showed several of their limited edition Olympic Torch-inspired notebooks, by launching three online charity auctions in the UK tomorrow to commemorate it being six months until the 2008 Beijing games.
Each of the Lenovo 3000 V200 12.1-inch widescreen notebooks will be signed by the British silver medalist Gail Emms, and features…
