***UPDATED FOR THE FINAL TIME***
Alright, this is going to be a bit of a longer post than usual.
I’ll try to keep this as short as possible because I know that the person/people reviewing this post have a LOT to read through.
My name is Chris and I’m a 15 year old Aussie who is a tech ADDICT, I admit it, calling me a geek is a compliment! A lot of my viewers and friends know that I make tutorials for people on youtube, I don’t charge for these tutorials, nor do I put advertisements on them, so I am pretty much doing all these tutorials for free, and helping people in the comments section with them too!
I have been making websites for well over five years now and am also into video production, animation, practically EVERYTHING in multimedia. I am also into building computers that friends want me to build (I COULD charge them for letting me build it, but hey, I enjoy it so I honestly don’t care! I obviously charge them for the hardware though :P)
If I won this package, I would use just ONE of the laptops for school and business. As many of you know, I have quite a number of ideas for technology products that I want to get on the market (one of them required that surround sound system that I bought. That took me MONTHS to earn.) I have figured out almost everything to do with the products. Even though I haven’t built one yet due to financial restraints, I DO know that I’ve planned out how to build these items and they WILL work, I’m 100% sure. Every issue with them that has come across my mind when I visualise the final product, I have been able to fix, JUST by thinking about ways to fix things, or improve things.
I have been in contact with a patent attorney for the past few weeks and we are trying to get some patents pending (which is surprisingly cheap - $50 USD, roughly), so I can present these ideas to other companies (with the protection of a patent pending), such as AMD for example, and to see if we can create these products in a joint-venture, where we both work on the product. These ideas have a LOT of potential, even my patent attorney thinks so - even if he didn’t think it was a good idea until I fully explained it to him. I know, I’m only 15, but these are seriously great ideas. I really do need the assistance of a light weight computer.
The thing is, I don’t care all that much about the money, so I want to make these awesome products as affordable as possible and give a few of them away as well. I don’t want BIG NAME companies to keep charging $7000 for a TV that cost’s them well under $1000 to make, and if you weren’t to pay the scientists, etc who improve the technology, it would probably work out to well under $100 to make one of their TV’s.
As I said, I need a computer that is also light weight (under 4.5kg/10lbs) - or something that’s not to heavy. This computer would be for school. I am going into TAFE next year. Well actually, it kind of started a few weeks ago due to my schools new system, but in any case… I am going into a TAFE course in electronics for year 10, to get certificates so that if I ever need to get a job, I can get higher paying ones, or at least have a better chance at getting a good job. In year 11, I’ll hopefully be doing IT & multimedia courses. This is the MAIN reason I need just ONE of the laptops, the rest (excluding the printer and media center) will be shared/given to others.
I have been looking to save up for the HP MiniNote for MANY months now - although, I may choose a more powerful one out of the three, but with the recent changes in the USD and AUD, the prices have gone up 35% and the prices are now out of my reach. Just look at the new macbooks, they went down $100 in America but went up $700 in Australia!
My parents have a job that relies on commission, and in these hard economic times, things are VERY bad. My parents need a computer for their work, so I would also be giving them one. I believe we may be selling the house we moved into, just one year ago. Somebody came over to look at the house the other day, I’m really not sure what’s going on there, but this is just to give you an idea on how bad things are at the moment.
Finally though, I would give one of the computers away by holding an online contest - the person that needs it the most (and they need to prove this to me) for their creativeness or skills would win. Whether that be art, program development, architecture or anything creative that will CONTRIBUTE to society.
I would also give away the 2 dvd’s of Kung Fu Panda, and the blu-ray version in another contest. As I already have office 2007, I would be giving that away too, in another contest, I will give away VideoStudio 11.5 (my older version of the software) on top of all this as well.
You may be asking, how is this impacting on others lives? Well, first of all, I’d be helping people get jobs if I am successful at setting up a company and second of all, this would make other products more affordable, so it would help consumers and people looking for tech jobs. I know it’s a long shot, but then again, it’s better than not trying at all, this is how big things happen!
It will impact the life of the person who wins the computer that I give away and it will impact on my parents lives, because never before have I been able to give them something for Christmas… even though due to financial struggles, past the last seven years, I, myself haven’t had any Christmas presents either. Even so, my parents work so hard, so this would be a BIG surprise to them which will ALSO help them with their job, it would take a LOT of stress off their backs - they’ve been talking about needing a laptop for work for months and haven’t been able to get one - and now it’s harder than ever.
My end goal though, is to start this company and get through school with top marks. Oh, by the way, I am a shocking writer, and my school is now allowing students to bring their own computer along to type on. My record is 124 words per minute for typing off the top of my head. As for writing, I would say about 1 word every 2 seconds at best. This ONE computer would help me so much and the three that I am giving away will help my family and a person who enters my contest. This means that ALL FOUR computers will be pushed to their limits and used by the best people in the world… The people who support their family and the people who do something for society.
In a nutshell, here is what is happening as of January of 2009, in my life.
I am going to be holding down my own job, recording FREE tutorials for youtube, going to TAFE AND normal school, also be in talks with companies to get my idea on the market and maintaining my websites.. which by the way, pay people for their work! It’s a LOT and this would really give me that last bit of “omph” I need to put in my best on all of it, if I fall behind in school because I don’t have a laptop, then I’m going to fall in on everything!
I just wanted to add, I don’t want the financial crisis to impact much on this contest - I just wanted to tell you, it’s not like I can go out and buy a laptop. I DO NOT want this to come across as a sob story like many other entries from others, I want it to come across as a “here is what I am doing”, “here is my goal” and “here is what I need to make it happen!” story… or fact?
Thank you so much for reading and thanks so very much for this wonderful opportunity. I want to wish EVERYBODY who has entered ANY of the contests the best of luck and I wish you all a very happy Christmas!
-Chris
