Update: Please read the instructions. Entries must be submitted in the Liliputing Forums. I will delete any entries posted in the comments. Please use the comments to ask questions, or, you know… leave comments.
I’ve been talking about the HP Magic Giveaway for weeks. And now it’s finally your chance to enter. HP and Microsoft are teaming up with 50 different blogs to give away $6000 worth of gear to readers of each site. I’ll tell you how to win in a moment, but first let’s take a look at the prize package:

Disclosure: Some links on this page are monetized by the Skimlinks, Amazon, Rakuten Advertising, and eBay, affiliate programs. All prices are subject to change, and this article only reflects the prices available at time of publication.

Those of you keeping count may have noticed that the list includes 4 computers, a printer, a media cennter extender, some software, and other goodies. Now as much as I know y’all would love to have an all-in-one desktop, and a tiny, medium sized and large laptop, I’m going to go out on a limb and assume few of you absolutely need all four computers. But they’re all part of a single prize  package.

So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to ask you to tell me what you would do with this prize package. And I’m going to encourage your to share at least some of the love by giving one or more of the computers to a friend, family member, or colleague who could really use it or by choosing a charity, non-profit, or other group that you think should receive one or more of the PCs. The contest is open to anyone in the world (fortunately the sponsors are picking up the tab for shipping costs), and we’ll ship the prize package both to the winner and to whatever second site that person choses.

You can find the complete rules for the contest after the break.
OK, so here’s how to enter.

  1. Register for an account in the Liliputing Forums. (If you already have an account you can skip this step).
  2. Write a post in the HP Magic Giveaway thread explaining what you would do with the prize package. Whether you have a sob story, a funny story, or just a story to tell, let us know why you want to win and how you’ll use the prize package. Make sure to let us know if yo uplan to give away a portion of the prize.

That’s it. Becoming an active participant in the forums will make me like you more, but I’m not going to assign a point value to the number of posts you leave, because I don’t want to encourage lots of mindless posts in the forums. there’s a great community of netbook and mobile computing enthusiasts hanging out at the forums though, and I’d encourage you to participate or at least read some of the interesting discussions thave have been taking place in the forums over the last few months.

The contest will run through December 16th, when I’ll choose a winner. If the winner doesn’t respond to my message within 24 hours the prize will go to the runner up.

I’d love it if the winner would take a picture of the prizes after they’re all set up and send them to me so I can post about it on the site, but I’m not going to make that a requirement because, you know, it’s kind of hard to enforce.

There’s a bit of fine print to go over. But just for you, I’m going to write it out in normal sized font.

  1. The contest is open to anyone, anywhere in the world. But you cannot win if you’re my personal friend or family member or if you’ve won a HP Magic Giveaway contest on another participating web site. Any US citizen who wins will be required to pay taxes on the prize, but HP, Microsoft and BuzzCorps will provide you with compensation to offset those taxes.
  2. Only one entry per person please. And before you go trying to sign up for multiple forum accounts, let me remind you that I can track your IP and detect fraud in other  ways.
  3. All of the items in the prize package are new. But I have opened a few of the boxes to review the items inside, most noticeably the HP Mini 1000 which I used for about a week in order to write up a review for Liliputing. All items have been restored to their factory default settings.
  4. All entries must be received by 11:59PM Eastern Standard Time on December 16th.

If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comments. But remember, your contest entry must be posted in the forums.

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39 replies on “Liliputing HP Magic Giveaway: Enter to win $6000 worth of stuff!”

  1. I am going to be in so much trouble. I was working from second-hand information about just when the entry opportunity expires — even though I’ve ‘walked right past’ your declaration of “Eastern Standard Time”, blindly, several times at least… And SHE was waiting for ME to get OUT OF THE WAY!! (as she so delicately put it) — yet another reason, deep down but not whiny, that another system here might have a HUGE impact on saving a life — MINE!

    (weird — I am totally unable to click the “login” radio-button under the “New Comment” field, and then have my username and password be accepted… I’ve logged in here successfully quite a few times by now — all the rough edges should be smoothed over by now??)

  3. I’m assuming that my WIFE can open an account here too, without getting us both disqualified?? I never know, and it isn’t exactly specified — other than the “we track your IP address”, which WOULD be triggered by both my and her activity sharing the exact same IP address… I’d like to assume you can extract my email from this comment; otherwise I’ll check back here later today (time is a-fleeting, don’t I know)…

  4. I have three kids going to college at the same university. We really need more computer stuff so they each have their own and will not have to fight or “schedule”. Would be a welcome sight in our house. Thanks

  6. No sad story…just would love to win this prize and would split the contests with my extended family.

  7. As I approach my retirement in 2009 I will ncrease my volunteer activities. I instantly envisioned the HP Magic Giveaway as a way to launch three projects as I transition into another stage of my life. Some of these gifts will be given to support long term activities. Some donated for fund raisers and some kept for personal use as I retool. Here are three recipients/proposals for the HP Magic:

    Recipient #1

    Senior Opportunities West Senior Center
    1220 S. Seventh Ave.
    Phoenix, AZ 85007
    602-262-6610

    A Small Call Home…

    7th Avenue and Buckeye Road in Phoenix, AZ! In the 1970’s the “60 Minutes” television show once described this stretch of inner-city Projects as “the most dangerous mile in America”. Today, much has changed and, as they say – much remains the same. At this intersection sits a high minority-populated, economically challenged Senior Adult community center. This is where I will house my HP Magic project. Many of the Seniors have family/grandchildren living a distance away. With the HP Magic gift I will plan and establish a regular on-site schedule where Seniors can call home using internet webcam and VoIP/Skype technology. With the permission of family members grandparents can virtually visit with their children, connecting with grandchildren classrooms as school projects and, once comfortable with the concept, even visit online with other Seniors who are tech savvy. There is life beyond Bingo.

    Recipient #2

    William R. Sullivan Elementary School
    2 North 31st Avenue
    Phoenix, AZ 85009
    602-353-5220

    Software for Sullivan…

    The software and server will be donated to a needy elementary school to complement its computer lab. W.R. Sullivan is a Pre-K through 8th grade school located in the heart of Arizona’s desert and the “shadow” of the Arizona Capitol. This area is high in crime and unemployment and lacks expected amenities; there are no libraries, parks, and shopping centers. The school is part of the Murphy Elementary School District, which ranks third highest in at-risk students of the 20 districts comprising the Phoenix Metropolitan area. Nearly 96% of the students qualify for free meals. The school’s tax base consists of few homeowners and almost no business or industry sector. The significance of these conditions is that Sullivan School must educate nearly 1,000 of the city’s most underprivileged children with only meager monetary resources for instruction and maintenance.

    Recipient #3

    South Mountain Community College
    7050 South 24th Street
    Phoenix, AZ 85042
    602-243-8000

    HP Scholarship Drive…

    One laptop will be donated to to my employer, South Mountain Community College, to be used as a raffle prize. 100 tickets will be sold at $50 each with all proceeds donated to the general scholarship fund. $5,000 generated from this activity will support a full-time student’s tuition for one year.

    # # #

  9. Good to know about W2K and SSDs. I have a copy ready to rock, and can squeeze out a touch more oomph.

  10. Hello,

    Quick question – I just entered your super contests.
    Is it okay for my husband to enter too?

    ty

    z.

  11. I tried to join the forums, but never got an activation email. I even tried resending the activation email, and didn’t receive it. Help, please?

  12. My husband and I pastor a church in an area that has been especially hard by job losses. It would be wonderful to be able to make these tools available to those who are looking for work–as in a free work area for conducting online searches as well as receiving training in using technology.

  14. What’s going on; I can’t register (revived no confirmation) and I can’t see your email address on the contact page (I don’t see a captcha). I would hate to miss out on this because of a glitch.

    1. You should be activated now. There’s no captcha directly on the contact
      page. You have to click the … to see the full address.

          1. Yeah thanks Brad.Actually the mail came much later than i thought.Thanks anyways. 🙂

  15. First thing to do… remove Microsoft, then install Ubuntu or other (non-SuSE) LINUX.
    Why not add these applications as well.
    OpenOffice.org
    Scribus
    Gimp
    Gramps
    FireFox
    and more FOSS instead of the Microsoft software.

    1. Personally, as long as I can install Linux on something, I don’t even think of it as Microsoft lock-in anymore. 🙂

    2. Actually, the MS Office Student edition would come in handy for my daughter. Every class she is in uses Powerpoint for nearly all “written” projects. The schools have Office and the teachers like being able to setup slideshows as opposed to the student standing up and reading the paper in the front of the class.

      Yeah, I know, but if you can’t beat ’em and all that…

  16. something is wrong with your registration system. I have registered but have not received any activation code. I have checked my Junk folder but there is nothing there. I have tried resending the activation, but nothing shows up.

    1. A small number of users have had problems registering. I went ahead and
      activated your account. If anyone else has problems feel free to shoot me an
      email using the contact page.

    1. I’m going to read through the stories and narrow down the winners based on
      their plans for the prize package. If there’s someone who I think clearly
      deserves to win, they win. But as I’m already starting to see there are a
      lot of people who have plans to generously donate a portion of the prize to
      folks who can use them while keeping some of the goodies for themselves (as
      I’d fully expect anyone to do). So I’ll probably narrow down the entrants
      and then pick one randomly.

  19. I love HP products. This is quite a prize package. Many thanks for the contest. As my PC is getting aged, it would be nice to have some new technology. I also have two daughters that could benefit from the new computers for school. My wife is using a pretty old Compaq laptop that is on its last leg. Would be nice to have a technology refresh for the household. Would be glad to send in pictures of the new setup (fingers and toes crossed). I visit Liliputing daily, usually more than once and have needed a good excuse to register. Thanks for all your hard work!

  20. I’m a software developer who volunteers in the local community. I am a G1G1D1 participant of the original OLPC program. I am a firm believer in the use of technology to assist in charitable efforts. I take unused, unwanted, last-gen gadgets and make them workable for non-profit groups. And even though these obsolete items would probably be tossed away by most of us, the recipients of these items are amazingly grateful for them. (makes me appreciate what I have even more)

    The budgets for these groups are meager to begin with and there is no money for any technology to support the group itself. (the money is almost exclusively for the people they care for) These people work long hours, many are just volunteers. I would love to see them get new (or practically new) devices that would make their efforts easier.

    I’m very well set off gadget-wise, so I would be giving the entire prize away (well, MAYBE except for the HP Mini 1000… depending upon how it stacks up I might swap it for my decked out Asus EeePC 701 4G). I would also take pictures of it all in use… I think it is important for others to see how much that stuff means to those who received it.

    I can provide the names of these non-profit groups upon request. Thanks for the opportunity, and thank you for a valuable resource. Liliputing has been a daily stop for me since I jumped into the netbook owner’s arena.

Comments are closed.