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Drink Coffee, Support Mozilla

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the well-isn't-that-special dept.

MikeCapone writes "Heavy coffee-drinking Mozilla fans take notice, MozillaZine has a story on how some coffee company has dedicated a selection of gourmet coffees to helping the Mozilla foundation. Only half the profits go to Mozilla, but the coffee seems good..."

39 of 271 comments (clear)

  1. 1/2 is HUGE by squashed · · Score: 5, Informative

    1/2 is a significant %, compared to the typical promotion offering a % to non-profit causes.

    1. Re:1/2 is HUGE by Accipiter · · Score: 4, Interesting

      too bad i don't drink coffee though..

      Who cares? Buy a bag and give it to someone who does. I'm not a coffee drinker at all, but I'm buying a bag right now just to show support for this endeavor. This is an EXTREMELY generous offer on the part of RJ Tarpley, and I plan on thanking them by thanking the Mozilla Foundation at the same time.

      --

      -- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
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    2. Re:1/2 is HUGE by Accipiter · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I thought of the 100% to Mozilla argument.

      It's good in the fact that 100% of the money goes to Mozilla, but on the other hand, where's the attention? By actually promoting Mozilla via the coffee purchase, not only are you donating to Mozilla, you're telling the company "Hey, this is a good idea. You're doing good here." and you're promoting the attention the project receives as a result. And just maybe, it could encourage others to do the same.

      Donations don't get press coverage unless they're in ridiculously large amounts. But when a company has pledged to donate a portion of its profits to a worthy cause, it gets more attention.

      Which is why this story is on Mozillazine and Slashdot. A simple donation wouldn't have done that.

      --

      -- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
      (If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't. :P)

  2. Not quite what I had in mind... by cnb · · Score: 5, Funny

    When they promised better java support for mozilla

  3. Hmmm Max Havelaar... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What about the coffee farmers?

    Do they get a fair share?

    First things first, I'd say ;-)

    1. Re:Hmmm Max Havelaar... by niko9 · · Score: 3, Funny

      I heard Juan Valdez got a free copy of Mozilla.

      Man that guy always seems happy to grow coffee for the gringos.

  4. Hmmm by vevva · · Score: 4, Funny

    Definite grounds for a brewhaha

  5. And in other news, by grug0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    crack dealers are giving half their profits to SCO. Say dealers, "They're some of our most loyal patrons, it only seems fair."

  6. Needs a beer by idiotnot · · Score: 4, Funny

    Red Lizard Ale sounds nice to me. Anybody got some connections with Anheuser Busch, Miller, or Coors to get some real $$$ rolling into the project?

    1. Re:Needs a beer by SW6 · · Score: 5, Funny
      Red Lizard Ale sounds nice to me. Anybody got some connections with Anheuser Busch, Miller, or Coors to get some real $$$ rolling into the project?

      Cool idea, but wouldn't it be better if you approached some beer producers instead?

  7. simpsons quote.... by jeffy124 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Homer: So what do you call this stuff?
    Barney: A double tall mocha latte.
    Homer: It's not bad. (quietly spikes his drink)
    Barney: Well, it ain't beer, but at least I got that monkey off my back. (quickly gulps down four cups, then burps)

    (Cut to Moe)
    Moe: Heh, heh, nobody gets away from Moe. Nobody.

    --
    The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
  8. A good advertising strategy... by f-matic · · Score: 3, Funny
    ...for SCO perhaps?

    Smoke crack, Buy a SCO licence!

    --
    experimental audiovideo minimalism: Rebuild All Your Ruins
  9. Fair trade coffee? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Does anyone know if this is fair trade coffee?
    I see that it's possible to buy organic coffee, but I can't find a word about the origin of this coffee, and the farmers that produced it.
    If this is no fair trade coffee, that I don't want to buy this: fair trade, and a right price for the farmers is still much more important to me than the Mozilla project...
    After all, the concept of fair trade is something that should go well with the Mozilla ideals, isn't it??

    1. Re:Fair trade coffee? by DenialS · · Score: 4, Interesting
      The web site doesn't explicitly state that it is fair trade coffee, so you have to assume that it is not fair trade coffee. Well, I have to assume that, anyways, based on the following logic: you're not going to lose many sales to rabid capitalists if you quietly state 'All coffee that we sell is fair trade'--but you will gain sales from moderate liberals like me.

      Instead, I'll continue to get my coffee from Merchants of Green Coffee, where you have a wide choice of green, fair-trade, organic coffees that you can roast to suit your own tastes.

      Oh yeah, and I plan to donate directly to the Mozilla Foundation so 100% of my money goes there.

      Don't get me wrong--the owner is trying to do the right thing, and it's a step in the right direction for the Ayn Rand-ish culture of "every ethical choice is a selfish choice"--in this case, consumers get to contribute in a small way to the Mozilla Foundation by exercising well-honed consumption skills and getting coffee as a result. It's just not a formula that suits my personal tastes.

  10. Good deal... by Seehund · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Then again, you could buy your coffee elsewhere, at less RIDICULOUS prices, and instead donate directly to mozilla.org.

    --
    Help savingAmigaOS and a free PowerPC market
    1. Re:Good deal... by Seehund · · Score: 4, Insightful

      For the lazy ones; it costs about US$ 10 per pound.

      Maybe coffee is more expensive in the US. I'm in Sweden (second largest coffee consuming nation after Finland IIRC), and coffee typically costs ~ US$ 2-4 per 1/2 kg. (1 lb = 0.45359237 kg). Maybe $ 5-6 for "luxury blends" in specialized stores.

      But I hear that US-ians generally don't tend to use too much coffee in their water... Maybe this is the reason. ;)

      --
      Help savingAmigaOS and a free PowerPC market
    2. Re:Good deal... by dk.r*nger · · Score: 3, Insightful

      ...at less RIDICULOUS prices ...

      Well, I guess this isn't your average cheap "three bags of 500 grams, $7.95" coffee, but once you get acustomed to - not even really good coffee, but decent, eveyday coffee, about $5-$5.50 pr 250 grams is not unfair - and that's without donating to anything but the coffeestore-owners BMW.

      I'm spoiled, I can't drink the cheap crap anymore.. I just can't..

    3. Re:Good deal... by zulux · · Score: 5, Informative

      This cofees is *NOT* expensive - good shade-grown organic cofee is well woth $10 a pound. A lot of effort, time and care goes into the product, and the results are outstanding.

      Folgers is about $4.50 a poind, and this cofee is more that 10 times better - in armoa, taste, and in good-will (suporting non-plantation growers that care about the product.)

      I'm not an environmentalist wacko - with the typical cofee plantations (in South America) are terrible for our environment. Basically they slash and burn, orver fertalise, the mechanically harverst - and once there done with that peice of land they move on to the next bit of rain-forest.

      $10 is nothing for us computer programers - it takes you an extra three minutes to earn the diferance and the results are worth it.

      --

      Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.

    4. Re:Good deal... by Weh · · Score: 3, Informative

      I use two kinds, both are 100% Arabica espresso coffee: Lavazza which runs at about 3Euro/250g and Illy which costs about double that. As to world coffee consumption, here's the stats.

    5. Re:Good deal... by holzp · · Score: 3, Insightful

      $10 is nothing for us computer programers - it takes you an extra three minutes to earn the diferance

      you have a job? programming computers? and at $200/hour? I assume its programming a time machine which you used to take you back to 1999.

    6. Re:Good deal... by IGnatius+T+Foobar · · Score: 4, Insightful

      $10 is nothing for us computer programers - it takes you an extra three minutes to earn the diferance and the results are worth it.

      ...he says, just before being laid off and replaced with an Indian programmer whose weekly salary is about the equivalent of the cost of a cup of coffee.

      --
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  11. How much is half the profit by Bananenrepublik · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That's great, except that they forgot to tell us how much money half the profit actually is. Prepare for the lame "Uhm, sorry, but actually we made zero profit with that coffee." excuses.

  12. Re:Cool by FooAtWFU · · Score: 3, Funny

    Mmm. After all, sleep is just a poor substitute for caffeine.

    --
    The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
  13. Great, just what we need by Timesprout · · Score: 5, Funny

    a gigantic lizard jumped up on caffeine

    --
    Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
    What truth?
    There is no dupe
  14. Flavored by vonFinkelstien · · Score: 5, Informative
    Now if they only offered some nice flavored coffees in the Mozilla Coffee section (and cheap shipping to Sweden).

    As a side note, I have found coffee strength in different countries to be interesting. I'm from N. America, and when I moved to the Czech Republic, my collegues would allows comment on how strong I made the coffee (they would also make 1/2 liter of tea with ONE tea bag--When I makes tea, I makes tea. When I makes water, I makes water--Finnegans Wake).

    Then I moved to Sweden. My in-laws quickly informed me that they only drink Skona roast by Zeagas (a VERY strong coffee blend) and showed me how to make it at their incredibly high strength level. All of my corporate English student who have been to the U.S. complains about the piss-weakness of the coffee there.

    1. Re:Flavored by Seehund · · Score: 3, Funny

      When I makes tea, I makes tea. When I makes water, I makes water

      And when I makes coffee, I makes coffee-flavoured coffee. :)

      Re. your spelling-flame PS below, it's "skanerost" (=Scania roast) from e.g. Zoegas. And it's not very strong. Here endeth today's Swedish lesson. ;)

      --
      Help savingAmigaOS and a free PowerPC market
  15. This is the right way! by ksheka · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm surprised no one has thought of this before. We should support those that support open software.

    A retailer brands a product with Mozilla (or Linux, etc.), gives a large portion of the profit to the community, and advertises that they do it.

    The problem with previous implementations is that people don't buy too many T-shirts or mugs or things.

    Those that buy coffee buy lots of it. How about a bottled water for OpenOffice.org, or a line of soda for AbiWord?

    --
    alias uptime="echo '5:33pm up 22342352324 days, 6:28, 2124315623 users, load average: 2432.40, 12312.31, 123123.19'"
    1. Re:This is the right way! by Moth7 · · Score: 3, Funny

      How about a line of painkillers for Windows?

  16. Have you ever considered... by Krapangor · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...to stop drinking coffee and send all the money to them instead.
    This would be much better for your health and for the project.

    --
    Owner of a Mensa membership card.
    1. Re:Have you ever considered... by ncc74656 · · Score: 3, Funny
      ...to stop drinking coffee and send all the money to them instead.

      Heretic! You can turn in your Geek ID on the way out, as you won't need it anymore...

      --
      20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
    2. Re:Have you ever considered... by mikeswi · · Score: 3, Funny

      stop drinking coffee and send all the money to them instead

      Never!

      You can have my intravenous coffee drip when you pull it from my cold, dead arm!

      --
      Only on /.
  17. Great but... by MoeMoe · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm glad to see our addiction become our support, but I won't be satisfied till they release the source code to that "Worldly Lizard" blend, and pass it under the GPL...

    --
    Business \Busi"ness\, n.;
    A scam in which all people involved perceive as beneficial...
  18. Re:What is "fair"? by Eric+Ass+Raymond · · Score: 4, Informative
    which is hardly "fair" since not everyone is allowed to compete.

    Are you familiar with the concept of "Fair Trade Products"?

    Many coffee farmers around the world receive market payments that are lower than the costs of production, forcing them into a cycle of poverty and debt. Intensive coffee farming can also lead to pesticide pollution and deforestation.

    Fair Trade works to correct these imbalances by guaranteeing a minimum wage for small producers' harvests and by encouraging organic and sustainable cultivation methods. Fair trade farmers are provided badly needed credit and assured a minimum of $1.26 per pound. In comparison, the world price usually hovers around $1 per pound, but most farmers earn less than 50 cents per pound since they are forced to sell to exploitative middlemen. With the profits generated from receiving fair wages, coffee growers can invest in health, education, and environmental protection.

    It's about giving the consumer a choice. A bit like forcing (at least here in Europe) the manufacturer of GM food to clearly label their frankenfood honestly as "Genetically Manipulated". Here, the "Fair Trade" label helps a socially conscientious consumer to avoid exploitative producers.

    --
    BOO! TERRO
  19. mozilla coffee by sfraggle · · Score: 4, Funny

    Man, I cant drink that mozilla coffee. It bloats me up.

    --
    were you expecting to see a sig here? perhaps you'd rather see the inside of an ambulance!
  20. And check out their privacy policy! by devphil · · Score: 4, Funny


    From their "Info" page:

    You can access all your personally identifiable information that we collect online and maintain by [description of the company access procedure]. We use this procedure to better safeguard your information.

    No, the square brackets are not editing on my part. That's what it actually says. :-)

    I might just drop him a polite word...

    --
    You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
  21. Re:RTFA!!! by ceejayoz · · Score: 3, Informative

    Half the profit, not the entire purchase price.

    If they make a profit of $0.10 on a $10.00 bag of coffee, Mozilla gets $0.05, not $5.00.

  22. If you think this is expensive... by Stonent1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    When's the last time you went to starbucks? Their whole bean coffee is about 15$ a bag around here.

  23. Re:Raiseing money for OSS is good, but please by ksheka · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Actually, caffiene is one of the treatments for headaches. Look at the ingrediants for Excedrin (a medicine for migraine headaches), and it contains caffiene.

    Caffiene withdrawals, on the other hand, can cause headaches...

    --
    alias uptime="echo '5:33pm up 22342352324 days, 6:28, 2124315623 users, load average: 2432.40, 12312.31, 123123.19'"
  24. Microsoft did this, too. by nobodyman · · Score: 4, Funny
    Before the launch of Windows 98, Microsoft did had a promotional thing where they sold "Windows 98 Roast" at Borders bookstore locations. Here's a good article about it. When I saw it at the counter, it was too good of an opportunity to not crack a joke.
    "Who the hell wants coffee with bugs in it?
    The clerk wasn't amused, but I was chuckling for the rest of the evening.

    So, don't let anyone ever tell you that Microsoft didn't support java.