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Donate to help a MySQler

mysql.com

51–60 of 67 posts

Re: Donate to help a MySQler

#51
post #9

Hmm donated via paypal but get this after reaching mysql's site: Checkout Cannot checkout because you have no items in your cart

I got the same, probably just because they've hooked it up using their default paypal options.. Got the receipt for the donation though so it goes through fine.

Same happened to me. Got the message but still got the receipt.

Re: Donate to help a MySQler

#52
post #39
post #32

Does anyone else find it a little disheartening that despite being hosted on a MySQL / SUN site, and despite this meaning that they're obviously not providing his family with health insurance, that they're not even offering to do any contribution matching? I'd hope for a little more from a small-ish company that just got bought for a billion dollars.

Yes, I admit I had the same thought. I would imagine if I was the CEO, I would maybe just pay the bill. But who knows what other things there are, maybe that kind of approach is not feasible.

The biggest issue with that is that if you pay this bill, when someone else wife gets cancer, do you pay that bill too?

I do agree though that they should be doing something other than asking everyone else to fork over cash.

Re: Donate to help a MySQler

#53
post #49
post #18

Increases in guaranteed human rights must keep pace with technological and moral development.

Guaranteed human rights reduce the speed of technological and moral development.

Moral Development isn't moral if it infringes on human rights. Therefore you are incorrect.

Re: Donate to help a MySQler

#54
post #49
post #18

Increases in guaranteed human rights must keep pace with technological and moral development.

Guaranteed human rights reduce the speed of technological and moral development.

Yeah, let's kill off everyone we don't like. They're just in the way!

Re: Donate to help a MySQler

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why?

why not? i think the OP wasn't stating a fact, but rather making an emphatic plea to the community.

Somebody has to provide what is being consumed! Suddenly just because some humans have the ability and capacity to provide something that others want, they are now entitled to it? That is a pretty bold claim that I think needs justification. I'm not saying I disagree, just that when you are suggesting that someone must do something, you provide your reasoning.

Re: Donate to help a MySQler

#56

The price quoted sounds high even for the USA. http://ezinearticles.com/?Bone-Marrow-Transplant-Costs---For... says it can be done much cheaper in India. This is not leading-edge medicine today (it was perhaps 10 years ago). But medical centers still try to charge leading-edge prices. Yet another reason we need a national health care in the USA - to get doctors out of their Mercedes, off the golf courses and back int…

"medicine for medicine's sake." Point 1: What do you think doctors are? Saints? They are human like the rest of us and would rather work for cash. They would probably also do better work if they were doing so for their own good. Case in point: Who had more food during the 1950-1980s. The US or the USSR? Point 2: What makes you think that national health care will make doctors magnanimous? Just switching the payer fro…

Let's talk about the US only for argument's sake.

Point 1: Today's doctors are for the most part motivated by $. This was not so even as early as 50 years ago. We need more doctors and need to pay them less. Part of the solution: increased specialization, reduced time in medical school and a different form of health care system. This is a complex problem. The best short summary I have found is available at http://www.strategy-business.com/press/article/07110?gko=564...

Scroll down and read especially "Redefining Competition" about Porter and Teisberg's ideas.

Point 2: By reducing the income of doctors, we'll rid the system of the greedheads currently running the HMOs, the medical centers and the cancer institutes. People who enter medicine will be people more interested in medicine and less in accumulating a fortune. The financial motivation to get into medical school is simply too tempting currently in the US. Pre-med students are the only group in whom I have seen intentional sabotage of other (pre-med) students' work. Even worse, most pre-meds expect such behavior as normal. And consider Senator Bill Frist, M.D. repeatedly strangling kittens he obtained from the local Adopt-A-Pet in the bathroom sink to get an edge in medical school. Is this normal behavior? For today's pre-med or medical student it apparently is.

Once MDs are knocked down a notch (both in pay scale and consequently in social status), PhDs will once again be able to dominate laboratory research, where they are far, far better than are MDs (who unfortunately currently dominate). We may finally get decent medical research for our government dollars. Doctors are bad researchers: their training is as scholars (i.e., they read and memorize books, books and more books) and they are good at spitting back what they've read. Training as a doctor usually destroys the ability to think independently and do good research.

PS: The original article says treatment could be in the US. I took the opportunity to make a statement about the US health care system and how expensive it is. But FWIW certain changes to the US health care system would make it cheaper for anyone who could use that system.

Re: Donate to help a MySQler

#57
post #17
post #5

I will tweet and maybe blog about this. I really can't help him much with the money part, but the least i can do is show it to people who have money.

I'm not sure why you are getting down-voted. I think some people find the idea of being poor inconceivable. Perhaps some people think that if you can post on the Internet, you should be giving money away. In any case, I know from whence you are coming. I'm sure the family would appreciate your efforts regardless. Advertising for the cause is absolutely helpful, as most Hacker News posters should know.

He should be downvoted; there's no need for him to grand stand about how hard he's trying.

Re: Donate to help a MySQler

#58
post #32

Does anyone else find it a little disheartening that despite being hosted on a MySQL / SUN site, and despite this meaning that they're obviously not providing his family with health insurance, that they're not even offering to do any contribution matching? I'd hope for a little more from a small-ish company that just got bought for a billion dollars.

I find it weird that they didn't edit the guy's note either. It's almost Borat-like in the way it lacks words like "a" in front of noun phrases or possessive pronouns. The guy probably does write like that, but it seems crude to just paste it up without editing when you know it'll sound weird. Or, has it been written in such a way as to make it /sound/ Eastern European and thus elicit sympathy?

Well, whatever, I hope it all works out for them, but please, MySQL, get some editors.

Re: Donate to help a MySQler

#59
post #23
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure why you are getting down-voted. I think some people find the idea of being poor inconceivable. Perhaps some people think that if you can post on the Internet, you should be giving money away. In any case, I know from whence you are coming. I'm sure the family would appreciate your efforts regardless. Advertising for the cause is absolutely helpful, as most Hacker News posters should know.

I really don't know why i am getting voted down. I am curious actually. I told a logical thing, I didn't have any money in my paypal because i had withdrawn almost all of it. But i also wanted to help him, so said will tweet and blog about it. Doesn't mean when i get funds in my paypal in a day or two, i wouldn't give him.

Since you're curious.. I didn't vote you down (the post is too old now) but if I were to have, it'd have been because your post didn't say anything; it just stated the obvious.

Re: Donate to help a MySQler

#60
post #48

Serious question: why should I donate for this cause when I can donate for vaccines or famine relief and literally save orders of magnitude more people?

You could help a lot if you just called or emailed Sun and told them. There are a lot of email addresses and phone numbers for Sun PR people here, I'm sure they would like to know about this story. http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/contacts/index.jsp

They'd like to know about a story from their own company?
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