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Microsoft Hotmail Domain Reward Check on E*Bay
Big_Joe wrote to us with the continuing story of Michael Chaney. Michael is the guy who paid the re-registration fee for the Hotmail domain name, after Microsoft had failed to over the Christmas holiday. He's auctioning the 500$ "thank you" check off on E*Bay and has pledged to donate the winning bid to charity, as well as matching up to $2,000 of that out of his own pocket.
If the money were going to go to Microsoft in some way, do you doubt in the slightest way that there wouldn't be 9 million such Linux-zealot trolls making every version of Windows-Sucks up for a username posting fake bids?
Each side has its zealots I guess, MS less than others because of various reasons (none of which a Linux zealot would admit to).
E.
BTW, is the Free Software Foundation a charity organization? I mean, technically and legally?
You're the biggest Karma Whore already, asshole!
Posting bullshit all the time, off-topic shit because you don't know what the fuck the story is about and you want your karma points anyways!
IMHO, it's no more a lie than the original poster's implication that all Linux users are saintly. There are people who give to charity, there are script kiddies. There are ones who say "Linux is good, but Windows is better for some people.", then there's the ones who didn't (or won't) read the advocacy howto. The more ludicrous the example of good, the more a ludicrous example of bad is warranted.
$3,675.00! When will it ever end!
$6,175.00 for charity and 55 million email accounts saved!
na bu eh ciao chee bye, po bwah kien.
... and a pentium, of course. (user got BSODed)
He saw a problem and its resolution, and realized that he could fix the problem and so he did. I have seen a number of people locally sincerely thank him because they are hotmail users, and were glad to have been able to get mail.
When Microsoft sent him this check he didn't know that it was going to be for more than the small amount ($35) he had paid for the renewal. Putting yourself in his shoes, would it be right to profit from an act from which helped a large number of people (and sent a wake-up call to a company which was letting the problem persist?)? He didn't believe so, and thought that donating the money to charity was a good thing -- and letting others use this as an excuse to make bigger charitable donations an even better idea.
The fact that the reason many of the (legitimate) bidders [ last time I looked there was a really suspicious looking bid at the top from what are apparently some obnoxious skriptkidz -- and IMHO any shitheads who would lie about wanting to donate to charity just to fsck up an opportunity like this have no useful role in society ] will make charitable contributions is to benefit from the press this event is stirring up doesn't mitigate the impact of their donations. The more press the better because then some charity will benefit that much more.
In short, your skepticism is misplaced, and, unless you know that something is wrong isn't there something better to spend your energies on than trying to defame a guy raising money for charity? I'm not saying that Michael's perfect and has a heart of gold, but I've never had a problem with him and I truly believe he's doing something Good here.
Unless they install a proxy and block hotmail.
Yes and what they should do is match it percent worth for percent worth..
congrats to the man!
--F
So far..
Mr. Chaney has made it clear elsewhere that he wanted a current version of Visual Studio so he could compile decss on a Windows machine.
No, what you can do is purchase the mortgage and then forclose, following all the neccessary legal procedures required to so.
For tax delinquency the city must first take title and then you can purchase it from the city.
You can't simply walk into a bank and make payment on a day late mortgage and then own the house. A mortgage is a private civil contract to which outside parties have no access. The bank can let you go years without forclosing if they want. They don't, but there's nothing theoretically preventing them.
I'm so sorry dude. Here, check out Penis Pros.
Click here!!
Why don't you just fuck off instead of posting stupid stuff like this?
This is craw watching the snow fall while still at "work".
Actually, I don't think he should have, since he was not referring to the National Socialst Party proper, just people with Nazi-esque tendencies. :)
The charity matching has been arounf for a LONG time.
Why have the donations increased in orders of magnitudes over the past year? Hmmmm?
Wonder if there's any relation to Markoff Chaney? There's a random element somewhere...
$2,550.00
That's $5050.00 for your favorite charity! Do thy bidding for $2,600.00 and choose your charity's destiny!
There's a big difference between eBay and E*TRADE. One has frenzied bidding on overpriced stocks and the other has frenzied bidding on overpriced beanie babies.
So far..
No kidding. What a clown. Maybe someone should write up a little html perl script so we can have a page to keep us updated on the running tally of his Karma as well as the Ebay auction.
I sure am glad I'm not as cynical as you. It must really suck to live in your world...
wo bu hui kan-dong ni.de post. qing yong shuiping pin-yin. Wo shi meiguo ren :(
Holy cow! Its not stopping! That charity is going to get $3,150+2,500= $5,650.00
If he's going to deduct it then he probably has to report it, although I think it'd be possible to slip by that (risking the ire of ol' sammy though).
non-karma-whoring people like you that risk their karma to spout their st00pid flames are so much more in style.
He couldn't think of anything better to do than just pay MS's way for them? And now he will send proceeds to charity? Who is this, Mother Teresa?
Fixing hotmail was a cool thing to do but is that check really that much of a valuable artifact? I suppose if it goes to charity that's cool.
Bu shi!
Dou shi wo de!
Damn those socialists always trying to help other people
Damn those MicroNazis always trying to screw other people.
Oh God. Now you've done it.
You are going to PC hell, for sure. ;^)
No, I'm not the same troll who spouts off about the "elitist white man" keeping the minorities down.
I'm here to piss him off.
I would like to see a breakdown of how
moderator points are used.
Like
60% used to downgrade
20% used to upgrade
20% used to remove high karma points
Or do you have a hardtime defining humor?
The check it currently runing for $5,000. "I'll pay shipping. Check or money order accepted, no checks or credit cards." so money orders only? ---- http://www.mp3underworld.8m.com
can we designate the charity as ourselves?
$2,500 is a lot of money to be matched by one party. What if Microsoft were to match that too? What if that other charity would be the FSF? Oh, I can see the conflict within them!
Mr Chaney was interviewed on CBC Radio's "As it Happens" this evening. He managed to plug slashdot even.. hehe. Though i was expecting that his "[Microsoft] threw in some software" would be followed by "but i had no use for it since i'm a Linux user".. oh well.
He helped M$ out by paying the renewal on passport.com not hotmail.com... Imagine if yahoo forgot to pay thier bills =)
Sounds like a chump to me.
Microsoft gives more to chairty than any company in thw world. They also match employee donations DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR.
Microsoft gives more to chairty than any company in the world. They also match employee donations DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR.
While I find the novelty of having a $500 thank-you check for paying a $35 bill rather entertaining, I am not inclined to bid on such an item. Mr. Chaney does appear to be a very charitable man.
Dont post anonymous signal.
$2,325.00!
Do we have $2,350.00? $4,700.00 to charity of your choice? Let's hear it for $2,350.00!
How did you know it's him?
"People talk about the value of generic domain names before they have been used, but what of the value of a domain name like hotmail after it has become so popular. Makes you wonder how much Microsoft would have been prepaired to pay to get it back. I know there are rules against domain sitting that allow a company to claim a domain name they have a trademark in relation to, but would this stand up in court if the name had been lost due to non payment? " First of all, yes, he would have lost the domain for trademark violation. But, more importantly, the domain was NEVER HIS. He only payed to renew it when it was on hold. Just as I can deposit money into your bank account without thereby owning the account, _anyone_ can renew your domain name for you while it's on hold, without thereby owning the domain name.
I'd like to donate to the local animal shelter. Just think of all the money feeding the starving cats in this college town! Meow!
Heh,
See the post above by fellow AC.
Yea, he's the ultimate "karma whore".
:)
(You know, the original meaning of karma
Haw Haw Haw,
Good one brother droog, that does would peesha this lighter off nadsat.
Till then let us sip some more milk...
At least you spelled "grammar" correctly.
$2,375!
Let's hear it for $2,400.00! $4,800 to your favorite charity! Raise your hands of support! Let's go for it!
I um, met to post that as AC... uh... heh... yeh...
What's peesha? Couldnt find it in the NADSAT glossary.
Does seem a little strange. The guy is giving up $2000 to an unknown charity because he recieved a $500 check.
Why?
Sure, I buy it at $2500, and my charity is the United Foundation of Axe Murders.
Mike, please make your $2000 check payable to me, as I am the chairman.
So now me and my "foundation" are up $2000.
Then I cash the MS check. $500.
Wow, I have $2500 to myself, and got another $2500 free!
Do the math buddy. He said he'll donate up to $2000. That puts it at $4350.
From the bid page:
I am also raising my matching amount to $2500. Let's see how much money we can raise for a good cause.
Well, no, it's more like they have to fight their way through a thicket of lawyers and other PR flacks to get to the microphone. It's a common syndrome of larger businesses, of course.
I don't need to post anonymously. I can post for **years** without running out of karma points
Wow 60+ comments and not one related to the article.
Slashdot Sucks!
20 million subscribers
55 million email accounts
$3,575+2500
$6,075.00 to charity!
Wo yao you hen dou qinqren! Wo de qingren shi Natalie Portman naked and petrified!!!!
Yes, The Church of Satan is a real church and has been featured on the news a great many times due to its unusual nature. As a church, its non-profit and tax exempt. Your donation at work.
Interesting pictures and members.
I um, met to post that as AC...
heh
hehhehehe
hehehehahahahahahah
bwahahahahahahahaha
OHOHHOHOHOHHOHOOHOHOHOHOHOHAHAHAHAHAHA
Nice one!
So you're the one posting all the troll material, then? Shame on you! As a penalty, any karma that you have accrued is now nullified.
The amount matched has been upped to $2500 according to an update to the auction posted on eBay. Also, it appears that some bidders are fakes, sadly. When I visited the auction a few minutes ago, the highest bidder was a 0-rated user named "linuxsux". However, a lot of the other bids appear to be legit.
Also, in one of the auction updates, he challenges MS to match the high bid for a charity donation.
E.
Not all my posts make you want to claw your brain out.
...greal...
If anyone asks, yes I did preview this. I just didn't look very hard =).
And I'm sure there are a bunch of spelling errors. I dont care.
--Nick
Since Mickeysoft already owned the domain with an established "service" *cough, cough*, doesn't this amount to squatting?
Who am I?
Why am here?
Where is the chocolate?
What is your Slash Rating?
I'm auctioning off this original e-mail in exchange for karma points on slashdot. =) The bidding starts at 20.
You're not me, silly. And it would take exactly 621 posts for me to be moderated down enough to irk me. This is why the idea of "karma whoring" is so silly - I really, honestly don't care. I'm only responding because I'm really bored at work today. :(
hook me up, homeslice.
The link for the auction can be found here.
http://cgi.ebay.co m/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=239850613
With this you could be the life of the party, impress your friends, and make julian fries in mere minutes! Seriously though, this is for a good cause.
di yi-ge hanyu post:
Ni hao ma?
Wo hen hao, ni ne?
Wo bu hao.
Na shi bu hao, weishema?
Yin wei ni mama tai bu hao kan, ye ni ba ba shi da gang men.
"Suble Mind control? why do html buttons say submit?",
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
The only reason he registered the domain name was to put Microsoft into an embarassing situation (he only beat them to registering it by a couple of minutes). Now he's just draggin it on and on... Get over it pal, it may have been mildly amusing at first, now it's just pathetic. You're 15 minutes are up, let it go.
who's Caleb Jaffa?
Jesus Christ, man!
Lay off Killing In Defense of Saints!
It's not bad!
Michael Chaney is a true socialist hero. He is using the profit of the most capitalistic corporation on Earth to help out those less fortunate than himself due to the injustices of our current socio-economic system. Let us all donate some money in his name to the charity he likes.
Every story posted today has something to do with a guy named Mike.
Once one Mike takes over, they all take over and the world ends just after the sky falls.
Katz, why aren't you on this one, huh? Is your middle name Mike?
Well, the current bid is $2,100.00. Do I hear $2,125.00?
Is Open Source really a charity? This guy is donating money to feed hungry people, not to make Apache a better webserver. I think feeding people is the more charitable action here.
:)
--
--
Just lurking, thanks!
When word of this gets around, I wonder if MS employees will start auctioning off their paychecks.
I just saw this, nearly a week later, and have no presuppositions that you will actually see it yourself later, but....
I see where you're headed, and I almost agree.
I suppose what I'm trying to say is that _demand_ for such a 'collectible,' the fact that anyone KNOWS the story, is a function of media attention. Yes, the history exists, but there are all SORTS of checks out there with much more interesting stories attached that aren't getting sold on eBay for 10x face value.
Which was the point I was equating back to a "Hype-P-O" -- demand, attention, fame, being artificially inflated around an object due to overattention to its story. It can happen to a company; it can happen to a piece of paper.
--
Ultra-rare? It's a check. From Microsoft. A company that size writes a lot of checks, probably hundreds or thousands a week. To various people, companies, institutions, and employees for various amounts and reasons. A check from Microsoft is anything but 'ultra-rare.' I'd be interested to know the check number. Probably in the six-digits somewhere.
The only thing that makes this particular check worth more than its face value or in any way 'collectible' is the story behind it, the 'well-documented history' that you point out. Which in this case is the media hype. Which was my point.
--
...can someone point me to sites registering through opensrs? or other generally dirt-cheap registries?
...j
(being a tightwad and all)
Posted by cookieman.k:
You are missing the point: not the SUM is important ! The percent of the donator's wealth wich is donated is what that matters. Its easy to donate when you have bilions but much harder when you only have money for survival (or less). You obviously haven't experienced this. Take back this *hypocrisy* thing, it only make you look like you are one. ---- Off topic and redundant - I know...
Perhaps this just means that the people who are most interested in this check are Slashdot readers that don't normally use eBay. I personally find the offer very interesting. However, I have never used eBay before, and so were I to decide to bid on the check I would probably need to create an account.
Believe it or not, there are plenty of people who use computers daily who have never felt the need to check out eBay.
Actually, he picked a charity in case noone bid for it.
Noone here must read the attached links.
Can't you see that Michael Chaney is just trying to build brand? He has already registered MichaelChaney.com (see http://www.michaelchaney.com/), and, I'd wager, is planning on selling the domain on eBay for $10 million once his fame has pinnacled.
I could not justify my existence if I were a turkey farmer. Would I terminate myself? Undoubtably, yes.
Uh, you might want to stick to NT. FYI, MS matches its employee's donations to charity. If he worked for Microsoft, MS would donate $2k to a charity of his choice if he did as well.
I could not justify my existence if I were a turkey farmer. Would I terminate myself? Undoubtably, yes.
And for his consulting business, no doubt. $2,000 is a modest investment for the PR he is getting.
I could not justify my existence if I were a turkey farmer. Would I terminate myself? Undoubtably, yes.
Do you blame them? I have mine set to 1 or Higher, and sometimes think about setting it up another notch...
I could not justify my existence if I were a turkey farmer. Would I terminate myself? Undoubtably, yes.
Since they can't seem to keep their bills straight themselves ;-)
---- "If we have to go on with these damned quantum jumps, then I'm sorry that I ever got involved" - Erwin Schrodinger
I suppose there are a lot of newly paper-wealthy people out there itching to use that money that results from their IPO investments.
--- http://foo.ca
What does pointing a bunch of people to an online poll have to do with putting spurious bids on a very expensive auction??? We're comparing apples and oranges here. There's nothing wrong with "stuffing" an online poll. I've seen it done by many different groups. I'm sure that MS zealots do it too. Anyone STOOPID enough to trust the statistical validity of an online poll as anything more than a popularity contest deserves whatever lousy data they get.
HOWEVER, if some troll comes along and puts in a $5000 bid for something they have no intention of honoring (how much you willing to wager that "linuxsux" is really going to pay for that check?) smacks of a p***k the size of Long Island.
On the other hand, if he really is going to pay up, then there's no reason why a Linux hater shouldn't be able to bid on and buy that particular piece of memorabilia. It's an auction open to all - Political Correctness not required.
(Didn't they just have a similar problem with that T-Rex they tried to auction for $5M on eBay? They had so many fake bids that they decided to move it to another site that validated the identity of the bidder before accepting. It seems like the eBay model quickly breaks down when you get over a thousand $$ or so...)
Your Servant, B. Baggins
Nah, but BAW is pretty cool too. :) I'm just out having fun on slashdot. It's pretty funny - I got 12 moderations to this post... hehe. Gotta love that.
Yeah, well, quite some time ago I did alittle experiment to see how bad the moderation system was. Click the User Info thingie above this post to see what I mean. But anyway - don't give the moderation system much credit. Just read my posts, and if you like what you see keep an eye out for other posts of mine. :) I like to follow Enoch Root and a few others. Even some of the trolls can be humorous, from time to time. Otherwise, if you wanna discuss karma and moderation in more detail, kick out an -email to me and we'll talk.
100 billion net work Gates -> 16 billion = 16%
50000 net work for that guy, donate 5k = 10%
Bye for now.
Somebody call a tax accountant, please. :-)
Oy, that reminds me I need to start doing mine. *moan*
Hey, I submitted this story first thing this morning and it was rejected! I want to see a submission time-stamp on these things. Why does "Big Joe" get the credit for this! GRRRRR. I want justice!!!!! I want equality! I want Hemos to read my submissions instead of whoever. Who rejected me this morning? Was it you Rob? Grrrr. Where are my pills...
-=-=-=-=- osjedi uses Debian GNU/Linux. -=-=-=-=-
Anyone know how much it would cost to have it converted to right-hand drive and shipped to Australia?
Personally, I believe that once your Karma reaches 25, you should be able to give one point to people, indicating that you believe they're worth listening to. However, if they start to suck, it would be nice to be able to take it back...
Quite. Remember, he's not just buying 15 minutes of fame for himself, but also for his interests - Linux and that charity. Nothing wrong with that...
I have a lot of respect for him and his decision to donate to the winning bidders charity of choice or to a charity even if nobody wins. Well, somebody wins (the charity). :)
-- 100% MS-Free as of 4-4-1999, 11:47:38 PST. "The lapdance is always better when the stripper is cryin'" Free Kevin,
The guy simply paid for Microsoft's fee. NSI doesn't care where they get the money, and the guy didn't want to make any claim to the domain name.
He's a small business guy who got priceless publicity (front page of the Nashville Fish Wrapper (ERR I mean Tennessian)). That's a nice pay back for a good deed. I imagine/home it's gotten him many new business oppertunities.
And it's very nice of him to pass on the good deed further with a charity auction.
Rather than degrade over time, I think the score needed to get the +1 should be higher..
I think it's 25 now.. 25 Karma is almost trivally easy to get.. 50 or even 75 would be better..
Look at it this way... the 25 was set when there were less than 100 moderators. Now there's hundreds of new ones every day, right? Each with 5 moderator points..
6 posts that get a rating of 5 and boom, you get +1? No, with the sheer number of people posting and number of posts reaching 5 scores, I think that needs to be increased..
---
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
I know I would be much more likely to forget to do something if it comes up every ten years as opposed to every year.
Logic ... merely enables one to be wrong with authority. -- Doctor Who
Also, that is one way to get around the firewall at work and check your home email.
Logic ... merely enables one to be wrong with authority. -- Doctor Who
True...but if he gets stiffed on the personal check (which is likely, since a lot of the bidders appear to be shills) then he'd have to deal with EBay's mumbo-jumbo to get his fees back or to post it again....
Of course...if it were posted for another 10 days, that's even *more* publicity...hmmmm...
It's SOP in large companies to blow off paying bills 'till absolutely necessary - good for cash flow management. Pay slow, and try to collect as fast as possible.
It's also pretty standard for bills, statements, etc. to get routed to the wrong places, get set aside, and generally have all sorts of delaying things happen to them.
I used to do consulting work for a large bank.. they routinely were 2+ months slow in paying my invoices, knowing that there wasn't much I could do about it, finally I had had it and told the project manager that if I don't get a check this week, I'm out. The check came 2 days later. Par for the course.
h[/home/fvw] host hotmail.com
hotmail.com has address 209.185.243.7
hotmail.com has address 216.33.151.7
hotmail.com has address 209.185.243.135
hotmail.com has address 216.32.243.7
hotmail.com mail is handled (pri=10) by mc5.law5.hotmail.com
hotmail.com mail is handled (pri=10) by mail.hotmail.com
hotmail.com mail is handled (pri=10) by mc2.law5.hotmail.com
hotmail.com mail is handled (pri=10) by mc4.law5.hotmail.com
None of the MX's for hotmail are in the passport domain, so no mail should have bounced however long the domain remained unavailable.
Who is YourNameFree.com? They were mentioned in the article as a bidder. Are they legit?
License: By reading this you are agreeing that you agree with me.
As great as it is that he wants to donate to charity and all...
Why would you want a check that you can't cash anyway? I could save the image he has on the EBay page, print it out and frame if all I want is a picture of a check from Microsoft...
"More organs means more human." - Zim
You say that like its a bad thing or something...
DrLunch.com The site that tells you what's for lunch!
That said, judging by your posting times, you don't seem to do a lot of work ;)
*duck*
Open Source. Closed Minds. We are Slashdot.
Well, an account/ip can only get a certan amount of negative moderation before it's suspended for a few days. I belive its only five. If it were all me, I would have been IP banned almost 100% of the time. Also, I'm on a static IP (storms-168-12.res.iastate.edu).
Only the chinese trolls are me.
"Suble Mind control? why do html buttons say submit?",
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
Actually, the reporter did get through to a representative after being on hold for a long time, but didn't want to pay the $250/hr tech support fees.
Well strictly speaking you're of course right, but I wonder how many e-bay sales actually get reported... probably about as many as out-of-state purchases get reported, I expect! ;-)
- cnet.com:
- "The episode began Christmas Eve when Chaney, a Linux consultant from Nashville, Tenn., was denied access to his Hotmail account."
- "I didn't do it to help Microsoft," he said in an interview this morning. "I did it to help the Hotmail users."
That's why.Michael Chaney:
"...America's great minds of today, teaching America's great minds of tomorrow. Poor bastards." -- A Beautiful Min
No, that's a valid way of determining people's values. The guy who paid the bill did it for selfish reasons - he wanted the web page to work - but a lot of people I know would have simply bitched and not acted at all.
I know who *I* want working behind the scenes of the products I use!
As for Bill Gates, the rules are very different for anyone with that much money. If I donated 10% of my net worth to charity over a few years, I wouldn't starve but I might be forced to stay in a condo, instead of a detached house, for an extra few years. But anyone with a net worth in the billion dollar range could lose 50% of that worth without it affecting their life.
So while Bill Gates' contributions are impressive, they don't leave him deciding to make a noticeable sacrifice in his own life in order to help others who have far less.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
Uh... I hate to say this but, here goes: Yes, if you are behind on you taxes / morgage I can go down, pay the taxes / morgrage and take over the property (at least in california). Nice try with the analogy, but to dough.
Damn those socialists always trying to help other people, when will they ever straighten out.
War is necrophilia.
hey,
i think it should have been
Gentlemen (and women), start your bidding.
or maybe
Gentlemen, (and women), start your bidding.
Perhaps,
Gentle'men, (and, women), start you're bidding.
Maybe
Juln
No, it's not squatting -- he doesn't own the name just because he paid the bill.
As he says on his site, "if I went down to the bank and paid your mortgage, would I own your house?"
Cara Hart chart@eNOSPAMfurn.com Systems Administrator eFurn.com, LLC. and ARITEK Systems, Inc.
The money will be donated to the charity of the high bidder's choice.
(He originally stipulated that it would go to his local foodbank if the bidding didn't top $500, but it is up over $2000 now.)
Cara Hart chart@eNOSPAMfurn.com Systems Administrator eFurn.com, LLC. and ARITEK Systems, Inc.
Now do you think the highest bidder is legit? Do you think even 50% of them are serious bidders? I don't. The Slashdot effect seems to have had a very negitive affect here. Seriously people! Don't bid if you don't mean it.
Since the article(s) didn't have a link to ebay, I did a quick search: http://cgi.ebay.co m/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=239850613
I worked for a large (large is a relative term here, I live in New Brunswick) company last year, and the logic behind this is pretty simple.
Say for instance that we have $500,000 in bills to pay on February 1st. We know that our grace period is 15 days. So, in theory, all bills SHOULD be paid by Feb. 16 at the latest. We also know from past experience, that we're a good client, and our unofficial grace period is usually extended another 10 days, making these bills due Feb. 26. The thinking behind this is: I have $1/2 million gaining intrest in my account. If I pay on Feb. 1, that money is no longer gaining intrest for me. If I wait until the last possible moment, and pay on Feb. 26, that 1/2 mil will pay me for an extra 26 days.
Makes sense to me. Although, this doesn't work when the accounting dept. tries to stretch out the grace period past the hard boundary on the other end. We also almost had domains cancelled because of this type of thinking.
This is not a personal attack on nellardo, it just seemed like a good point to enter this topic.
A bunch of Slashdot readers here have posted that this guy did it just for the limelight, that he shouldn't have accepted money for it and that he probably only decided to give it to charity to avoid a backlash against him later.
On Christmas Eve when the story was current, Michael was posting comments to slashdot (including the original announcement that he'd paid the bill). Many of the replies to his post were from people saying that he should "milk microsoft for all they're worth", and similar messages encouraging him to profit fro his actions. He said at the time that he just did it so that he could use Hotmail, and to help all of the other people trying to use it.
Now, 25 days later, some members of this "community" have forgotten all about the actual events, and have turned on the guy.
I personally would like to thank him for doing what he did, even if he kept every cent for himself. That he didn't, and has decided to use this as an opportunity to create goodwill surrounding the linux community as well as to raise money for charity, is to his credit.
Felius
(For more info and to refresh the memories of "regular slashdot readers" who've forgotten this story, read the story at this url:
http://slashdot.org/articles/99/ 12/25/114201.shtml
in particular comments 90 and 216.)
#include sig.h
..and I'll form the head!!
Ahem. I think now would be a good time for my all-time favorite J. R. "Bob" Dobbs quote.
"Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day."
"Give that same man a gun, and others will feed him for a lifetime."
Damn straight, Mr. Dobbs!
--
"HORSE."
"HORSE."
-Flaming Carrot
Nah, that's cheesy, by naming that Nashville food bank as the 'default' he's pretty much dictated (well, to anyone with taste) that giving it to some software organization is The Wrong Thing. Maybe it'd be best to work out some kinda deal where whoever wins the auction splits the cash between the Nashville charity and a similar charity in wherever they live, with maybe a small portion going to the FSF?
--
"HORSE."
"HORSE."
-Flaming Carrot
Sounds like some moderators are browsing at 1 or higher . . .
'I ain't a liar, baby, and I ain't proud I just want what I'm not allowed.' -- Violent Femmes, 36-24-36
Bidding started at $500.
C-Net said "So far, the check has fetched a bid of $510 on eBay."
Bid increments are at $25, I think.
How do you add 25 to 500 and get 510?
$2
-DAVEO
>He helped out >MS, even though we all hate them. (joke, geez!) No, we really do all hate them, no need to be modest :)
He is going to donate the money to the Free Software Foundation, isn't he?
The Win2k test site is one being tested against HACKERS. I think those comments you copied and pasted do not represent the general Linux crowd at all, but rather the kind of script kiddies that would be attracted to something like a win2k test site. Please stop spreading FUD.
Find and share links to celebrity profiles on MySpace! http://www.myspacecelebrities.com
Everyone keeps saying "I hope he gives it to ....". He's not choosing the charity, folks! The winner of the auction is, according to the eBay description: The bank opens the bidding at $500. If nobody raises it, I'll donate the $500, plus another $500 (for a total of $1000), to Nashville's Table. Otherwise, the proceeds go to the highest bidder's charity of choice. Given that the bidding is at $5000 as of this posting...
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END OF LINE
Like it's so difficult for you to click once, read the article, and realize that there is in fact no link to the EBay posting in the CNET story.
If you could fit the facts way up in there next to your head, I'd tell you to get them. Get a life, indeed.
Yeah, look at Peter B Lewis, chairman and chief of Cleveland-based insurance company Progressive Corporation. He donated $50 million to the Guggenheim museum, the largest donation they've ever received.
I only mention this because recently, this person was arrested in Auckland, New Zealand for importing 100g of marijuana and hashhish into the country. The charges were dropped without anything appearing on his record and was granted permanent name suppression if he made a donation to a drug rehab clinic.
Because I'm in New Zealand, I have just broken the law and can be charged with Contempt of Court, but because I'm posting this onto a US-based server, it gets nice and muggy.
OH MY GOD!!! THEY'RE BREAKING DOWN THE DOOR!!!! CAN I GET TO THE SUBMIT BUTT&%@#^
NO CARRIER
Consultancy: If you're not part of the solution, there's money to be made in prolonging the problem
Yes, it is elegant to use the check to raise money for charity, and also showy.
What I can't recall is why this guy did it in the first place. Did he just want to make Microsoft look stupid? Microsoft seems to do that themselves often enough (and it seems dubious to "sabotage" Microsoft by fixing their stuff - better simply to point out the problems).
Was he a user of passport.com that just wanted things fixed ASAP? As a reader of /., I'd be somewhat surprised if he was using hotmail - everything I have heard about it is that it sucks.
Of course, that's never stopped people from using Microsoft software before. :-)
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Klactovedestene!
three cheers for this unselfish fellow! too bad there arent more people like him in this world!
I only vote for that I like to use. Slashdot has posted links to a couple of polls, and it's funny to watch the various deluded people from each group fight over it (today it's OpenBSD, tomorrow it's Windows, the next day Linux, and then FreeBSD).. It's entertainment, a spectator sport, if you will.
Raising a bid price is not. If you've big 2,400$, and some guy forces you to 2,800$ -- are you happy? There's no way to prove he is trolling the price higher.. If he did never intend to pay, there's 400$ poofed away. That's not entertainment. That's sick.
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
I hate to pop off a "me too" kind of reply, but I agree wholeheartedly. Anybody who criticizes him for donating to that food bank program is clearly out of their gourd -- I can think of few things more wholesome or useful to contribute to than a food bank, and yet people are running around talking about "he should donate to FSF" or what have you. It's disgusting.
It's his check. What he's doing with it is his business. And I personally feel he's doing something really good with it.
Wherever there's a will, there's a motorway.
Moderation Totals: Offtopic=2, Flamebait=2, Troll=1, Funny=5, Total=10.
Thats why he is at +1 and Funny.
Mark Duell
Internic charges $35/year (US funds) Joker (CORE reseller) charges ~$16/year (US funds) That becomes a much smaller drop in the bucket.
penguinicide... when jumping out a window just won't do.
the guy must be pretty well off. first he pays the domain fee, then he turns down the thank you check, and now he is matching up to $2500 (yes, he raised it).
and it looks like the charity is going to be Nashville's Table, a food for the homeless foundation.
personally, i would've just kept the check, and framed it for my enjoyment in the years to come.
and in case anyone is in the charitible mood, go here.
At least this proves all of those people wrong that he was doing this for his own benefit/monetary gain. He's even going to donate some of his own money to the charity. Way to go!
"You ever have that feeling where you're not sure if you're dreaming or awake?"
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
I'm sorry, but he's stretching this out waaay too far. Humiliation has been done, this is just getting petty.
Just donate the money in a stylish modest way. Anonymously.
God that's lame, base the OS you used on something like that! It's an OS not a way of life.
But if you want to do it that way...Blll Gates has donated over 10billion to charity........
Noone here must read the attached links :P.
Nashville
I remember some articles whereby he was trying to get Microsoft to pay out some big reward money. I don't remember exactly where I saw the quotes.
I should say that given the media's inclination towards misquoting people, it's entirely possible that he was misrepresented. If that's the case then I apologize.
---
It looks like that's what Chaney intends...
Daniel J. Peng
Daniel J. Peng
On another note, what OSS geek can afford to throw around $3,000+ for a nifty momento? ESR? RMS? CmdrTaco?
hey, this guy must be lying, he'll keep the money for himself. hehe.
//quote
"I didn't do it to help Microsoft," he said in an interview this morning. "I did it to help the Hotmail users."
Microsoft representatives could not be immediately reached for comment.
//end quote
not intended as a slam but m$ is never around for anything, they must have one rep and he must be on the mars polar lander or something...
icq:=22921393;
The donations go to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which doles out the money to such *uninteresting* causes like AIDS research, vaccines for poor kids in africa, scholarships for minorities.
Nothing as *fascinating* and *worthy* as OSS, unfortunately..
I think he would also have to claim X as income, thus canceling out most of that..
Nice work. Yes, it is a bit of showmanship, but it's for Charidee, folks.
How about donating it to K.I.D.S?
Check it out on http://www.itrelief.org
Golf; a good walk spoiled. -Mark Twain
Wow, there are people out there who would buy my porche from me so that I could buy a Ferrari?
What if it's not even constructed from pressure-treated lumber?
Ignore Alien Orders
Amen to that. In many recent stories people have been quoting someone else (like posting 2 sentences from a law book in whatever legal case we might be discussing, for instance), and they're getting moderated up to a 5 when they didn't post one word of their very own.
I think that's lame.
Ignore Alien Orders
Well, first, not all out-of state purchases have to be reported. Second, if he's an independent contractor, he either already cheats on his taxes or is scrupulously honest (since he's basically keeping track of his income for the IRS already). I'd just guess based on his actions so far that he's the honest type.
And wasn't the guy elected for mayor on that city?? Maybe he feels guilty.. :-)
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Stay tuned for some shock and awe coming right up after this messages!
so he not only didnt take MS's money, but hell match it for charity..... before this morning I used NT. But if this is the quality of Linux users, Im switching on basic principle.
Where are the keys to my whore?
As I read your post, it is moderated at Score:2, Funny -- looks like Hemos was just joking.
Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
While the thought of donating the money to OSS caused me to chuckle for a minute, the charity to which the money is being donated seems a very worthwhile cause.
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Try clicking on either the guy's rating (the "(11)" ) or try to call up his email address from eBay.
It chokes either way. But it's willing to call up MY user information. I guess various userids are distributed onto various servers.
... as of 2000/12/18 18:25 eastern time. $2,375 for a check worth $500. It is always amazing to see the fever of the auction thing catching the bidders. I guess, the last bidder will have to write his investment off as a tuition charge: Never bid again... Does anyone know how much ebay earns by hosting this item?
What past behavior are you speaking of? The only thing I have read is that he paid $35 to clear up a domain problem for Hotmail. Does this in some way make his actions now suspicious? Or is there something else...
Personally its not God I dislike, its his fan club I cant stand (bash.org)
Not really. The speed is plenty acceptable to me, and certainly no worse than any other web-based e-mail I've tried. the accounts are inundated by AOL-level amounts of spam
Evidence? In the year I've been using it, I've only ever gotten one piece of spam in my hotmail account, and I'm pretty sure that this was a result of me providing my e-mail address to a website that didn't deserve it. The only e-mail address where I see significant spam is the one I use when I post to Usenet. But many people sign up for the account when they first begin to use the internet, and don't want the trouble of migrating even after they acquire cluefullness.
I was clueful well before I started using Hotmail - I was using the net and e-mail from a shell account well before 'the Internet' became synonymous with 'the web', and certainly well before Hotmail came into existence. But when I got out of school, I decided I wanted an account for my personal e-mail that I could get at from pretty much anywhere (this means web-accessible: firewalls often block telnet, and the 'batch transfer' nature of HTTP (all my editing happens on the local machine, rather than interactively) makes it far more usable on a high-latency connection in the event that, say, I'm overseas). And I wanted an address that wouldn't go away if I changed jobs or ISPs. Hotmail fit the bill.
Maybe it's just me, but on the E-Bay description, it says:
"I'll pay shipping. Check or money order accepted, no checks or credit cards."
Uhm.."Check....accepted, no checks..."?
Connah
Connah
"Your mouse has moved. Windows NT must be restarted for this change to take effect."
This year alone Gates has passed ~$17 - $18 billion to charitable causes. The money/stock/whatever has already been transferred out of his control and to the orgs that he's gifted to.
Granted, Gates is a multi-billionare many times over, but I wonder how the contributions of other hi-tech billionares compare. Steve Case? Jeffy Bezos? Sun-boy?
I'm dying to know why Slashdotters aren't all over these guys.
Thought y'all might want some info on running these kinds of auctions successfully. Or at least it's more likely to be successful. Actually, I work for eBay and noticed the link here on slashdot and rushed to it. We've usually got alot of charity auctions and there's a couple of options. First is the option to put in a disclaimer that says the seller reserves the right to verify all bids above $X amount. Anyone that can't be verified will have their bid cancelled. If you look at the Rosie Auctions and the General Motors auctions that are happening now you'll see what I mean. The other option is to have the item in Great Collections(http://www.ebaygreatcollections.com/) That way the bids are verified and all. For something like this, it wouldn't work well since Great Collections has all kinds of requirements before you can bid. I'd personally go for the disclaimer side and call the high bidder to verify anything above say $1000.
The Internet has no garbage collection
I'll donate the cash to myself. I'll get my cash back plus $500 from MS, plus $2500 from this guy. (j/k)
Make Seven
Username taken, please choose another one.
man, this guy just want attention doesn't he?
:)
who does he wanna become? "The man who prevented the downfall of Microsoft"? hehehe
Does the high bidder get to specify what charity to give the proceeds to? Any suggestions?
Do the math buddy. He said he'll donate up to $2000. That puts it at $4350.
kwsNI
BTW, they have the symbol for Redheads, Inc. It looks like it went bankrupt last November :)
kwsNI
Sorry, this should read: something that this man, who is auctioning the check is clearly not
If Microsoft were smart, they'd even send you a nice $15 frame to put it in. Considering that it would mean a $500 check never clearing....
I know this is a bit offtopic, but there is actually a very small company called Macrosoft in Charlottesville, VA. It must be a tiny company, since it operates out of a very small house, kind of like a doctor's office. So, Microsoft is the behemoth, and Macrosoft isn't even on the map. There's irony for you.
WARNING: there is a trojan on your
Not to detract from ineffable coolness of Mr. Chaney, (and man, am I glad that this guy writes code, and not PR. Think of the damage this guy could do as a flack for the Darkside *shudder*)
but... Hemos? I think the domain he paid for was passport.com, which handles authentication for Hotmail. Picky, picky, I know....
I think, therefore, I think... I think.
ceci n'est pas un 'sig'
I have a hard time understanding this guy's motivation. Does he just have tons of extra cash? $2500 is a pretty hefty sum to donate. Seems like he's just buying another 15 minutes of fame to me.
Here comes the CPA to the rescue (at least when I get my results in two weeks)... If someone pays Chaney $5,700 (it is just for illustration purposes) for the check, he would need to include $5,200 ($5,700 - $500) as income. On the flipside, the person who wins the auction also gets to take a deduction equal to the winning bid less the face value of the check (the same amount as the income Chaney needs to report). If the winning bid is indeed $5,700 then the winner would get to deduct $5,200 (assuming they itemize their return, but that is another issue). I will take questions if there are any. GO HOPE!!!
Au contraire -- without the media attention, do you really think he'd have received anything at all? At best, the $35 he spent? The reason this can be auctioned off on ebay AT ALL is because it's somewhat notorious, it's a 'relic' in a sense.
Without public awareness of this incident, it would be a $35 transaction; it's the hype around it that makes MS's check for $500 worth many times that.
--
In this age of insanely record-breaking IPO's, this story seems to me a perfect object lesson of how excessive press can artificially inflate the general perception of a thing's value by two orders of magnitude or more in a very short time -- from $35, to $500, to $2500+, in just a couple of weeks.
Not sure if this is a good or bad thing, but it is certainly an interesting thing to watch....
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Chaney is playing a pretty canny game here; he's certainly "profiting" in terms of publicity, and the fact that the amounts are to be donated to charity means nobody can sting him on being greedy for money.
I think it's extremely clever of him to auction off the cheque, as this permits us to get a picture of how much the "rest of the world" considers the matter to be valued at. This is most certainly an economically efficient outcome, as it can't but provide a valuation of at least $500.
And it shows us how insane peoples' valuations of the matter are; if it sorts out at $5000, this shows that someone considers that having a cheque for $500 from Microsoft is worth $5000.
Of course, what he should have done is to start a company whose sole asset is the cheque, and do an IPO.
Betcha he'd be a billionaire by now!
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
$35 for a domain name
and 2750+2500= $5250.00 for charity!
It keeps on going, and going, and going!
Moderators seem to have misplaced their brains recently. Either that, or there's a lot of moderators who systematically skip (through whatever means) anonymous coward postings. This kind person posted a link to the actual auction within five minutes of the article being posted on /. cuz Hemos forgot it. No big deal, but the very next post is rated +5 for giving the exact same link. Granted they were less than a minute apart, but this one IS first. Yeah, this is offtopic and possibly redundant, but the message I'm referring to is undeniably non redundant. Please, moderators, check and make sure that the description you're selecting actually fits before you submit it.
It really disgusts me too when Slashdot posts a link to a poll about OS's that doesn't have Linux in first place.
Then of course, all of the Linux lemmings go and 'stuff' the poll to "make sure" Linux is #1.
That really disgusts me too. What about you?
So, let me get this right. Somebody is going to pay Chaney x dollars, where x >= 5000. Chaney is going to donate x + 2500 to a charity. Chaney deducts at least 7500 from his taxable income. Depending on his bracket, this guy could make out quite well.
Cool.
Seriously, you can't believe that exposure doesn't lead to sales (and lack of exposure results in fewer sales). Just look at Coke.
The loss is probably a large absolute amount (relative to a normal company), a small percentage (relative to the MS empire), but certainly is non-zero.
Maybe he's doing this in response to the people saying he was doing it for monetary gain, just to prove them wrong. What he's doing now doesn't indicate what was going through his mind in the past. Secondly, maybe he was doing it all along to grab his own 15 minutes of fame. His latest efforts could be evidence of that, if he thinks $2000 is worth the new round of publicity that he'll get for this. I'm not knocking the guy or anyone else who's donating to charity, but again, what he's doing now doesn't prove anything about his original intent.
On another note, a shady "charity" has a good opportunity to get themselves a quickie 2000 bucks: ZicoCare Charities, Inc. outbids everyone else for the check and names ZicoCare Charities, Inc. as the targeted charity, thereby getting back the money they put in, plus Mr. Chaney's $2000 in matching funds. Oh well, food for thought.
Cheers,
ZicoKnows@hotmail.com
- Insertion fee for an item with an starting price over $50: $2.00
- Final Value Fee:
- 5% of the price up to $25: $1.25
- 2.5% of the amount between $25.01-$1000: $24.37
- 1.25% of the amount over $1000: $32.18 so far
This is based on the current high bid of $3575If the auction ended now, the total fees would be $59.80
========
<sig>Guvf vf abg n frperg zrffntr
I believe that once your Karma reaches 25, you should be able to give one point to people, indicating that you believe they're worth listening to. However, if they start to suck, it would be nice to be able to take it back...
:)
Well, the idea of bestowing karma gifts on others is interesting and might work, but I don't think you should be able to take it back. That could lead to all sorts of bad situations... blackmail being the first that comes to mind. (Yah, I know, it's just Slashdot, but hey, if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right.) Gifts should be gifts. No "Indian givers", please.
Besides, moderators should take care of any one who get gifts and turns out to be a looser. Same as they do now.
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
Seems like he's just buying another 15 minutes of fame to me.
Or perhaps he was planning on making a significant donation already, and decided to make it more of an event?
People have certainly spend far more than $2500 on far less worthy causes.
Tis interesting to see... especially in light of your recent 'attitude' - whether that's changed or just been a onfirmation, I don't know... but you certainly suck up moderation :P (as in vacuum-like)
Open Source. Closed Minds. We are Slashdot.
He got up out of the bath, and decided he needed compensation. So he decided that he was going to 'donate' the money to his own bank account, never a charity to see it.
He was promptly charged with Dishonestly Obtaining Financial Advantage By Deception.
Open Source. Closed Minds. We are Slashdot.
It's not absolute value that matters, it's the percentage of net worth.
100 billion net worth for Gates, donate 5 billion = 5%.
50000 net worth for this guy, donate 5k = 10%.
Also, doesn't Gates donations really go to a charity that is a thinly-disguised Microsoft promotion machine?
Interesting idea. Nice one.
:) - now if I haven't been moderated up once in the interim?
The main modification I'd make, though, would be to make Karma degrade over time. I'm on 30ish right now (which is nothing spectacular in the grand scheme of things) so it'd take quite a bit of trolling for me to lose my +1 bonus. That isn't right.
The point is, people change. Why should I be rewarded in two years time for making good posts - in the opinions of some moderators
It'd also be interesting to see auto +1's appearing in meta moderation to se if we could lost Karma that way...
Greg
Greg
(Inside a nuclear plant)
Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!
This story just makes me smile.
He saw something that needed to be done, something he could help with, and he just went ahead and did it. He helped out MS, even though we all hate them. (joke, geez!) He's been civil about the whole thing. And he's raising a big chunk of change -- which he'll give to charity.
He sounds like a cool guy.
Cara Hart chart@eNOSPAMfurn.com Systems Administrator eFurn.com, LLC. and ARITEK Systems, Inc.
Is there any good reason "17 percent of the population of Nashville can be labeled hungry"? And what does that mean, exactly?
If it takes charity to feed 17% of a city, something is seriously fucked up, and handouts will never fix the problem.
Teach a man to fish, and all...
Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
None of these statements are necissarily true:
"Giving money to charity" = "a great man"
"Giving money to charity" = "a good man"
"Giving money to charity" = "the right thing to do"
The first two are never true. The last one is true only in some situations. Was he participating in this charity before Microsoft sent him a $500 check? Did he just bow to pressure from "the community" and give it all -- plus 4 times more -- to charity to gain approval somehow? Was this an opportunity to help along something he was already involved in?
Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
Sorry once I made and association of names I had to share. Instead of cause causing trouble for society as a whole like Markov, Micheal causes PR trouble for Microsoft thereby benefiting society.
No Smoking
No Spitting
-The MGMT
Banfield
"If the money were going to go to Microsoft in some way, do you doubt in the slightest way that there wouldn't be 9 million such Linux-zealot trolls making every version of Windows-Sucks up for a username posting fake bids?"
I should hope not. While there is the odd zealot, the Linux community has grown up over the last year or so in terms of their dealings with the outside world.
I don't see how you can draw a parrellel to Linux and Microsoft about the money going somewhere, though, as it'd go to either the charity Mike chose, or a charity the highest bidder chose -- not Linux or a distribution maker. And if it did go to MS -- why? They're a big company, and they are very profitable. Why would they need money?
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
And I don't begrudge him the opportunity to donate the proceeds to whatever charity he wants. If he wants suggestions from us, he can ask. He can make a political statement, try to right something that is wrong with the world or whatever. The bottom line on this is that by offering up 4 times what Micros~1 gave him for saving them major bucks, he makes them look awfully petty by comparison. Regardless of where the money goes, he's made his political statement already.
The net will not be what we demand, but what we make it. Build it well.
He would not have to make them transferrable, hell just auction off your handle/password loaded with karma and start another!
www.mp3.com/Undocumented
He needed to check his hotmail account (according to the article I read). Yes, hotmail sucks. It's slow (unless you use Outlook), the filters are mostly useless, and the accounts are inundated by AOL-level amounts of spam. But many people sign up for the account when they first begin to use the internet, and don't want the trouble of migrating even after they acquire cluefullness.
When I'm singing a ballad and a pair of underwear lands on my head, I hate that. It really kills the mood.
-Tom Jones
Well it is pretty cool that the guy is donating the money to charity but don't you get the feeling that he thinks he has stumbled into the stunt of tryng to generate PR for himself?
If you review the links in one of the subthreads, you will find that he did make several comments. The one I remembered was, "I would ask that when they make out a check they consider how much revenue would have otherwise been lost had this been down for another day or two...". The articles that were linked had a bit more context that make him seem less greedy.
I'm not trying to make any unwarranted accusations. Frankly, I was hoping some ideas would be posted on verifying legitimacy. You have the benefit of knowing him. All I know is that he's some guy who has managed to keep his name in the press far longer than I would have expected, and that makes me suspicious of his motives.
If he's doing this all for charity, then more power to him. You have to admit that it's not exactly unknown for flakes to capitalize on a windfall of publicity.
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Seriously, you can't believe that exposure doesn't lead to sales (and lack of exposure results in fewer sales). Just look at Coke.
When Coke advertises, they try and create a "lifestyle" around the product, so that when you see it in the supermarket or whatever, you identify with the product enough to buy it (note that Coke traditionally has not advertised on taste).
But what exposure does Linux gain from this? The average person is going to focus on the humorous fact that a normal individual paid the bill for giant Microsoft -- but The Advocacy is attuned to any news regarding Linux, so naturally you focus on that fact. There is zero positive press for Linux out of this.
Note, by the way, that the average person sees this as humorous, and does not carry any anger like The Advocacy would like.
If the story read (to use your example), "Michael, sipping on a Coke, described how he paid the bill for Microsoft", would you say that Coke would get a slew of new business? "Maude, that there Michael guy is a good joe! If he's a Coke drinker, then by God I'm gonna drink Coke, too!"
Maybe if the story was something like, "Michael used his Linux operating system to repair the Microsoft mail system" or something, there might be some slight tie-in, but the merits of Linux had nothing to do with the story.
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I suppose some people might move from Hotmail over this, but it wasn't down long enough to really affect much. No one uses a free e-mail to get 100% uptime, and I even doubt it was down long enough to bounce received messages.
As for ads, unless they are at 100% ad space utilization (unlikely), the ads are simply made up at another time.
Finally, Linux got zero new users over this. People change platforms when there is a good reason (like some superior application), not when a particular advocate happens to pay a bill.
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Perhaps non-binding is not even the issue, but it's not easily verifiable. Why would he only want cashier's checks and not personal checks? All he has to do is wait for the check to clear.
---
Your analysis is wrong, because he would be required to report the amount of the sale as income. The amount he donates to charity from the sale would exactly offset the amount, so the net effect on his taxes would be only the $2500 he contributes. All that happens is his $2500 is offset by 30% (or whatever). There's no way he'll come out ahead on this (ignoring the value of the publicity).
I would frame the check and keep it so I could tell my grandchildren about "the evil empire". This is of course after we figure out how to clone penguins and then genetically engineer them to destroy Microsoft. After that, we'll auction off the penguins and use the money to buy Redmond, then we'll put up a huge penguin shaped building and...sorry, I was going off on a tangent there. Seriously though, I would really hope that he donates it to either FSF or Debian.
Munky_v2
Jay
Seems to me like he is buying fame, but anyone who complains about someone giving 2 grand away to a charity for purposes of achieving another few minutes in the spotlight isn't gauging the situation properly. He deserves a lot more praise than, say, a large corporation that shells out advertising bucks to hype a product that squashes a consumer market and fails to deliver on 95% (arbitrary number, yes?) of it's promises. I think everyone should buy a little fame this way. This man is an example to be emulated.
Network Security: It always comes down to a big guy with a gun.
OK, following this wonderful logic of yours:
Bill Gates donated a great load of money to charity as well. I think it says great things about how generous Microsoft must be. Bollocks
The actions of one man cannot represent the actions of a community. The Linux community in particular are in general (with some exceptions) a group of Microsoft bashing self-righteous 'gurus' - something that this man, who is auctioning the check is clearing not.
He represents himself, he does not represent the Linux community by any stretch of the imagination.
Wow, thanks to the slugish stupidity of the mega-corporation, a minor-star is born. It just goes to show that computer knowledge + oppertunism = your name in the (electronic) papers.
Feminism is the wild notion that women are human beings.
This guy is raising money for a charity and he is a hero. I agree with this.
But Bill Gates gives billions of dollars to charity and it is a conspiracy/Bill Gates Sucks/Microsoft Sucks/etc etc..
Is there a bit of Hypocrisy in the slashdot crowd?
(IANAL, but...) Microsoft wasn't close to losing this domain name, but in general it would probably fall under the rules for abandoned property.
A trademark is *not* an absolute IP right, it has to be defended. That's why they send out "cease and dissent" orders for trivial infringements, like the "Dummy's Guide to my roommate's most annoying habits." If the IP owner doesn't defend their rights, they become unenforceable.
A domain name can be defended by trademarks, of course, but the flip side is that a domain name is the most trivial thing to defend - the cost of an annual renewal is far less than the cost of consulting with your lawyer for an hour. If a company not only didn't pay the fee while the domain was "on hold," but actually let it slip entirely, a judge is unlikely to feel that they exercised due diligence in defending their IP property. It depends on how tightly the domain is tied to the company, of course, but I would not be surprised if domains with only loose connections ("passport" = Microsoft?) be declared legally abandoned and open to whoever paid the bill.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
This guy has a lot of integrity or, at the very least, is one hell of a showman. What would truly be funny is if he donated the money to OSS.
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Am I the only one who thinks Microsoft is a misnomer? Perhaps Macrosoft would be a better fit?
Alright. I have read dozens of posts saying how this shows how great the linux community is. Personally, I think that is a load of crap. I have been a part of the community for about a year and a half, I have submitted hacks to kernel.org and have helped new people. But, I think this man paying for a companies mistake, then giving the money (along with 2500 dollars) away only shows how great this man is, not how great the linux community? Granted 3000 (or however much it totals) is a fair sum, it isn't like it will create a new charity, it isn't a rather outrageous donation. Its just an interesting happening, and this man seems to be very nice, but what did the Linux community? If a man is part of a car club, and that man helps an elderly women cross the street, it reflects the man, not the freaking car club. Same goes for linux. THe community is just trying to take credit. The linux community does many good things as a whole, BUT THIS IS NOT ONE OF THEM.
"Lazyness is the first step towards efficiency." -Patrick Bennett
"linuxsux (0) "
With the requisite shades. And, suprisingly, seems to have a high bid (might be a welcher).
But who would sink to this level? This is going to a charity, be it one to feed the homeless, one to help children, or one to help people being stepped on big corporations. Why should some troll be allowed to stomp all over this good will?
Using this for free adversiting or free trolling over Linux users (raising the bid price unfairly, too)..
It really says a lot about a person's moral fibre, that. It also really disgusts me.
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
At one company I used to work for the managers would always complain that their expense credit cards would keep bouncing becuase accounting would put of paying poulty sums for months, aparently we nearly had the phone line cut of a couple of times.
I have heard suggesting that this kind of thing is common accros lots of companys, I wonder how many valuable domains will be lost over the next few years attributable to sloth from the bean counters. This guy proberbly done the right thing in using the whole thing to get quite a bit of publicity for himself, I however might have been tempted to nab the url for myself after it had been 'reposesed'.
People talk about the value of generic domain names before they have been used, but what of the value of a domain name like hotmail after it has become so popular. Makes you wonder how much Microsoft would have been prepaired to pay to get it back. I know there are rules against domain sitting that allow a company to claim a domain name they have a trademark in relation to, but would this stand up in court if the name had been lost due to non payment?
I think that he has been unfairly ripped on slashdot because he was hoping for some money. As far as I'm concerned, I wish he did get some money out of this.
Now he has gone the other route and will be donating money to charity. Good for him. I think it says great things about the Linux community.
That which does not kill me only makes me whinier
I don't think I've heard about someone with such a sense of civic responsibility in a long time. Imagine - you're sitting at home/work trying to read your hotmail and it isn't working. Do you sit there on your @$$ and bitch about microsoft and the evil empire and how you can't rely on anything anymore...NO, you find out what the problem is and go and fix it, and I'm not talking about just flicking some switch here to re-activate hotmail so you and others can read their mail, you fork out cold hard cash (or was that plastic?) without any certainty that you will see that money again. Then a week or so later you get a cheque form some corporate fat-cats who's @$$ you saved by shelling out your money. Looks like the fat-cats didn't have any loose change because they've made out the check for $500! Do you sit there and think to yourself - "Sweet, looks like a nice new something for me", or "gee, now I can pay off all those parking fines." NO, you offer to auction the cheque off to charity, and then offer to cough up another $2,500 or so for said charity. Makes me feel kind of ashamed of myself, how about you?
Actually, since the bidding has passed 500 dollars, in fact it has reached $2,325.00 as of now, the proceeds will go to the highest bidders charity of choice, with matching funds(or $2500.00 if it goes above that) from Mr. Chaney himself. He is also trying to get Microsoft to provide matching funds too, or at least the original amount of 500.
First, here is a link to the charity the proceeds are going to, per the ebay item description: http://nashville.citysearch.com/E/V/NASTN/0002/13/ 67/cs1.html Second, note that the current bid price is $2,100, versus the $500 bid at the time the Slashdot story was originally posted. Egads. The Slashdot effect on eBay auctions? I can just see the call now for Malda to make karma points transferrable. It would be the next eBay craze - karma auctions.
According to this story in Wired News, ICANN is now letting registrars take 10-year renewals. Since $350 is just as much a drop in the bucket to a big corp as $35, I'm sure every one will take them up on it. The result will be far fewer cracks like this for some random stranger to fill.
One of the open source funds should bid like $10,000 for the check and then have him donate the money back to the fund. Then they'd have the check, and $2,000 more!
But seriously--what a cool guy--
/will
Seeing as people are paying thousands of dollars for a $500 check, I thought I'd take this opportunity to offer for sale not one, but two (!) checks from Microsoft to me. Check one is a $20 rebate check for Microsoft Encarta, and check two is a $100 rebate check for a Xircom 56K modem.
Bidding starts at $120, so lets see those offers fly! Papa needs a new pair of shoes!
Cheers,
ZicoKnows@hotmail.com
ZDNet bids item with pro-linux description
Posted by Roblimo on 04:15 AM April 1st, 2000
ZDNet Employee writes "ZDNet's CEO is auctioning his old Porche for a new Ferrari. The good thing is that the Porche comes with a Redhat 5.1 CD in the back on the trunk. All proceeds go to the CEO and his girlfriend." It's worth $11,342,251 as we speak. Can I bid with my inflated Andover/RedHat stocks?
If the bid's $2500 he'll pay out his max. $2500 for a total charitable contribution of $5000 which in a 30% tax bracket would be worth $1500 as a tax deduction, giving him an out of pocket cost of $1000.
If the bid went as high as $6000, then the contribution would be $8500 - worth *over* $2500 as a deduction, and he'd actually be ahead!
Anyway, just pointing this out for fun. The charity wins whatever the amount, so it's definitely a cool thing to do.
...but this guy has decided to give the money to people who really need it: Nashville's Table, a soup kitchen operation of sorts.
From the link on EBay:
Nashville's Table, formed in '89 largely through the efforts of Phil Bredesen, a healthcare executive who later was elected mayor of Nashville, collects excess prepared and perishable foods from groceries, restaurants, and caterers and distributes it to agencies that serve hungry, needy, and homeless people. Since then, Nashville's Table has collected and distributed more than 2 million pounds of food--at no cost to either the donors or the recipient agencies. Nashville's Table relies on funding by donations from individuals, corporations, churches, and foundations. Currently, Nashville's Table works with about 175 donor groceries and restaurants, but the addition of two trucks to its fleet doubled its capacity. The not-for-profit organization says that 17 percent of the population of Nashville can be labeled hungry or threatened by hunger, while 20 percent of all prepared and perishable food in Nashville ultimately gest wasted.--Bill Hobbs
"Nobody owns the fucking words man." - James Dean
We have no guarantees that this is really going to go to charity, and as far as I know, his promise is non-binding (real lawyers correct me if I'm wrong).
The reason I'm suspicious is his original quotes saying that he felt he deserved a large sum of money from Microsoft, based how much theoretical money was "lost" (which, of course, was really zero).
Call me cynical, but based on his past behavior I think a grain of salt is prescribed here.
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http://cgi.ebay.co m/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=239850613
Gentlemen (and women) start your bidding.
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Why can't I moderate something "Wrong" or at least "Grossly Misinformed"?