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Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
10/27/09
Good to know that now, when we go for lunch at Goose Island on the weekends, and Mrs. Scorpio wants to stop by Sur la Table I can pop into the Apple Store! (Who am I kidding, I love Sur la Table! Sur la Table THEN the Apple Store!)
All I can say about the Red Line station there is that, it's pretty much a dump (like most Red Line stations!), so good on Apple for sprucing it up. #applesubwaycleanup
10/27/09
@Hank Scorpio: #applesubwaycleanup
10/27/09
10/27/09
10/27/09
10/27/09
10/27/09
Here's what the new subway cars will look like... #applesubwaycleanup
10/27/09
10/27/09
[www.adrants.com] #applesubwaycleanup
10/22/09
I thought this was going to be about hard candies. That makes more sense. #billgates
10/22/09
10/22/09
that doesn't extend M$ monopoly.
In fact, this is smoke and mirrors to divert attention away from www.bgc3.com which stands for Bill Gates Company 3. [shivers]
10/22/09
10/22/09
Are you scared of your own shadow too?
Bill Gates has given away ~28 billion dollars so far. If he really wanted to extend the windows monoply wouldn't he just give out 28 billons dollars worth of windows licenses instead of funding Aids and malaria research.
Grow up. #billgates
10/22/09
10/22/09
I kid, I kid. Mister Gates, you are a wonderful man, despite your lesbian appearances. #billgates
10/22/09
10/22/09
This is pretty excellent, though. #billgates
10/22/09
Why are so few millionaires (sorry, billionaires), like this in the C21st?
Go back a hundred years or so and self made people and those with old money would give all the time - seems we've become more materialistic or jaded perhaps? #billgates
10/22/09
I bet he even has a massive supercomputer in his basement contributing to Folding@home. That's why the [Default] usergroup has so many points.
The world thanks you, Mr. Gates. #billgates
10/10/09
10/08/09
10/08/09
10/08/09
09/08/09
Thanks in particular to the following folks. Whether we saw eye to eye or whether they've poked both of mine out with sharp words, they've kept the discussion running and on the point of charity:
@Adhominem: @appletoad: @Brock Heller: @Chris: @jepzilla: @Jibba Jabba: @LindsayJoy's MBP is into S+M: @Mason Bushard: @NickelMD: @OG_Phenix: @rcast1986: @Scotland: @Shamoononon: @Star me or I'll peck your eye out: @taterpie:
Now, if those boys and gals or anyone else happens to have a moment after surviving this long bit of babbling, would you mind sharing how you think $30,000 could best be used for charity, outside of the Microsoft/CMN/Gameroom Giveaway scenario?
Straight donation to a cause? To set up a dunk tank fundraiser? How would you use the funds if given the choice?
09/08/09
That's a loaded question. Very few of us have $30,000 lying around waiting to be donated, so the best we can do is name a cause we believe in and invent some theoretical contribution on the spot.
Me? I'd contribute to no-kill animal shelters and neutering clinics in urban areas with problematic feral animal populations.
See? Random, academic, and irrelevant.
The question you're avoiding is, "Is Microsoft doing the wrong thing?"
Microsoft is donating $30,000, unevenly, to 170 childrens' hospitals. This figure, by itself, compares unfavorably to *any other aspect* of Microsoft's budget. The contribution is staged in a way that sensationalizes both the donation and the need for more, and encourages more donations from those generous enough to give.
You seem to take exception to CMN's method of publicizing the donation, which is your right, but I think you could be more honest about your objection.
"Point freakin' six percent"? That means you've got a figure indicating that MS blows five million on a typical ad campaign. From 1975 to 2006, Microsoft and its employees donated to charities FIFTY FREAKIN' THOUSAND PERCENT of a typical ad campaign, in cash and software.
[www.microsoft.com]
Obviously, software is of debatable cost to the company. Equally obvious is that Microsoft is still willing to draw just as much attention to its contribution to charity as it to the need for greater social responsibility among its corporate peers. That is Microsoft's prerogative.
I feel that Microsoft and its employees are giving back to the community to an adequate degree. Neither are they misers nor paragons.
09/08/09
The objection was simply the approach taken with this particular donation. As said above, Microsoft has done many incredible things (not even counting the employee contributions) and this appears to be a one-time hiccup in an otherwise good track record.
09/08/09
Personally were I to have $30,000, I would donate it to a singe cause in a small area, try to maximize the good with it in a limited number of locations. It's kinda hard to see how to really get a hospital excited about a $175 donation, even if it's known that you're doing it 170 times.
I think they should have either gone with a larger budget or a smaller target. That being said, I'm personally a fan of "matching donations" from large companies, which usually inspires people to give. So give away the kiosks free and start a fund that people can donate to, which Microsoft would match (up to a certain point).
That fund could be used to split evenly between all of the the hospitals, or could be used to build game rooms where CMN thinks it necessary. Either way, Microsoft should not be seen as the ones deciding who gets the prizes, they should simply be adding to the pot and providing kids with a 360 kiosk.
That's what I think I would have done.
09/08/09
You obviously feel very strongly about this. That's no bad thing. I happen to disagree with your article, for a number of reasons already stated by others in the comments. As such, I won't bother to enumerate them, except to say that notably, I don't think any hospital will be *worse* off because of this, and I would think that all of them, in fact, would be better, due to the increase in awareness, short lived as it may be. Is it the optimum configuration? I have no way to know, but it's a decent stab.
I would, however, like to say that while I disagree with your position, this article seems to have promoted discussion, which is a very good thing. I was glad to see that even though arguments, trolling, flaming, and even petty name-calling ensued, there was a decent thread of dialogue--something there is far too little of these days, especially on the internet. So, from that perspective, let me congratulate both you and the members you named, along with those who might've been omitted.
Now, to answer your latest question, I agree with CaseyG in that the question is somewhat academic. However, I don't mind throwing my $0.02 in.
Me? I tend to think that the most far-reaching and ultimately consequential issue is one of education. The problem with it is that there are significantly fewer short term, obvious consequences of investing in education. When $30,000 can either improve education to a perhaps imperceptible degree or, on the other hand, feed an obvious, definite number of people TODAY, the choice, in some ways, seems obvious. However, investing in education can potentially not only help ultimately reduce the number of people who will eventually be hungry, but have other huge impacts on our society and our world, as well.
It's no easy thing to decide the worthiest cause, and many people have very passionate views.
09/07/09