Saving a Life is Easy, But I Didn't
danshapiro.com
Saving a Life is Easy, But I Didn't
1–10 of 101 posts
Re: Saving a Life is Easy, But I Didn't
#2Shit. Can anyone post the links for other countries (like Canada) to donate? I'm signing up tomorrow.
If you want to really affect someone else's life, this is a way better way than building some web-app.
Re: Saving a Life is Easy, But I Didn't
#3Ouch.
To the extent it's still relevant in the modern world, our postal system really needs to work a little more like the phone system.
I can be pretty much anywhere in the US (or really, the world, if I want to pay international roaming fees), someone can dial my well-known phone number, and my phone will ring.
For ordinary first class mail, I should be able to generate unique ID numbers on the USPS's website, and associate them with any physical US address I wish at any time. Then I can keep one or more postal IDs pointed at the location(s) I actually receive mail at, and the scanners (virtually all mail is routed by optical scanners now, even hand-addressed envelopes) can just read the ID number and stamp on the current physical address.
Re: Saving a Life is Easy, But I Didn't
#4Shit. Can anyone post the links for other countries (like Canada) to donate? I'm signing up tomorrow. If you want to really affect someone else's life, this is a way better way than building some web-app.
That's what the developer of marrow.org might have thought. And then:
> I fussed around with the website to update my contact data
If someone did a better job designing or testing the UI on that web app, who knows how many extra lives may have been saved.
When I think about it, I've worked on at least three projects where bugs or usability issues could potentially have a direct impact on someone's life. Yet we didn't reflect on it much in the course of our day-to-day routine.
Being a donor is a bold action, but don't underestimate the impact of your development work as well.
Re: Saving a Life is Easy, But I Didn't
#5Canada
http://www.onematch.ca/ http://www.blood.ca/CentreApps/Internet/UW_V502_MainEngine.n...
The first site is supposed to be more current, but isn't rendering properly for me on Firefox. On the second site, Scroll to the bottom for the button to start the process.
UK
http://www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/bonemarrow/qa/index.asp#howcan
It appears that you opt-in when you donate blood. I don't see mention of an at-home swab program.
Germany
http://www.stammzellspenderdatei.de/
Others
http://marrowdrives.org/bone_marrow_donor_programs.html
(Scroll down to see the partner organizations in many countries)
Re: Saving a Life is Easy, But I Didn't
#6Shit. Can anyone post the links for other countries (like Canada) to donate? I'm signing up tomorrow. If you want to really affect someone else's life, this is a way better way than building some web-app.
[deleted]
Re: Saving a Life is Easy, But I Didn't
#7"At the time, the only way to donate marrow was to basically have someone drill holes in your bones and drain your skeleton, which kind of terrified me. Nowadays, of course, most donations require nothing more than sitting still for a few hours with an IV watching television."
That actually isn't really true. Marrow donations still require anesthesia and a surgical procedure. In the interest of providing full information:
http://marrow.org/Registry_Members/Donation/Donation_FAQs.as...
http://marrow.org/Registry_Members/Donation/Donation_FAQs.as...
(Edit: c'mon folks...why in the world would you vote this down? It's important information to know if you're going to be a donor.)
Re: Saving a Life is Easy, But I Didn't
#8Ouch. To the extent it's still relevant in the modern world, our postal system really needs to work a little more like the phone system. I can be pretty much anywhere in the US (or really, the world, if I want to pay international roaming fees), someone can dial my well-known phone number, and my phone will ring. For ordinary first class mail, I should be able to generate unique ID numbers on the USPS's website, and…
according to the story, the post office did better than any phone provider would. he moved to a new location, maybe years later, and a piece of mail still followed him to his new address. i'm sure the registry gets notified of forwarding address changes for people on their lists, so they could in theory keep up with you even if you moved a bunch of times (as long as you forwarded from at least your last address).
if you get a new phone number, your old one probably won't forward to you, and once someone else has that new number, you will never get forwarded calls. at least with a mailing address, new people can occupy that same old address but any mail to it will still forward based on your name.
Re: Saving a Life is Easy, But I Didn't
#9Ouch. To the extent it's still relevant in the modern world, our postal system really needs to work a little more like the phone system. I can be pretty much anywhere in the US (or really, the world, if I want to pay international roaming fees), someone can dial my well-known phone number, and my phone will ring. For ordinary first class mail, I should be able to generate unique ID numbers on the USPS's website, and…
Isn't that essentially what a PO Box is? The only caveat with a PO Box is that it's specific to a zip-code, but the principle is the same.
I can't help but think that there might be a business idea wrapped up in there somewhere, or at the very least, another product for USPS to offer.
Re: Saving a Life is Easy, But I Didn't
#10Ouch. To the extent it's still relevant in the modern world, our postal system really needs to work a little more like the phone system. I can be pretty much anywhere in the US (or really, the world, if I want to pay international roaming fees), someone can dial my well-known phone number, and my phone will ring. For ordinary first class mail, I should be able to generate unique ID numbers on the USPS's website, and…
according to the story, the post office did better than any phone provider would. he moved to a new location, maybe years later, and a piece of mail still followed him to his new address. i'm sure the registry gets notified of forwarding address changes for people on their lists, so they could in theory keep up with you even if you moved a bunch of times (as long as you forwarded from at least your last address). if…
I seriously doubt the post office had much to do with tracking him down. My repeated experience with the USPS is that they pay absolutely no attention to mail forwarding requests, ever. It's far more likely that someone at the matching network did some googling.
And I don't need a new phone number, that's kind of the point. I can switch providers and still keep my number. I can move to the other side of the country and keep my number. That's what I want out of the post office.