Help Stefan get his Mac

Robert, I am thrilled to see you support Stefan in his cause. I interviewed Stefan on my Podcast , Typical Mac User Podcast http://www.typicalmauser.com.

Go hear Stefan explain in his own words why he is doing this and how this 19 year old is showing many of us the power of blogging and tenacity.

Robert,

You know what would be brilliant? If Stefan collected enough money for the Mac he wants with exactly $1 leftover. Then he should find someone else who wants to switch but doesn’t have the funds. Donate the $1 to help get them going and get them some traffic. It’d be a neat social experiment.

Awesome. More virtual panhandling.

Explain to me again why I should give him money to buy a computer, while there are plenty of schools that have no or completely outdated computers?

“this 19 year old is showing many of us the power of blogging and tenacity.”

What this 19 year old is really doing is showing us the power of begging. The fact it’s online begging for a $2,400 computer doesn’t change its nature in material way. It doesn’t even make it original:

http://www.savekaryn.com/

There are starving families too proud to beg for food and this guy is begging for a luxury item from the comfort of his climate controlled home and likely on a full stomach. Why an RSS feed makes this somehow less reprehensible is beyond me.

This guy and his blog where banned from digg.com for spamming, try to submit the blog and see for yourself, he was also spamming story comments with his blog link asking users to give him money. I don’t see a cause here. Sorry.

I continue to say that before it is called ” More virtual panhandling,” we examine the way that Stefan is going about this. He is being thou rough, communicative, keeping good records and sharing them openly, and he is exercising the freedom that we all still share on the ‘net’ to “Think Differently”

Of course there are many that have needs and I also donate to those causes. However I have a teenage child and if I saw him having this kind of tenacity and drive I would applaud the fact that he is pursuing a dream. Many will disagree, but I continue to applaud Stefan and in his quest.

Yeah, I gotta agree… This virtual panhandling crap is obnoxious.

I’ll give my change to the guys outside the McDonalds. they look like they need it more than I do. I expect this guy could _easily_ take out a college loan for the computer if he desperately needed it, or just start saving his money and make do with what he’s got in the meantime.

“He is being thourough, communicative, keeping good records and sharing them openly,”

Sure, but he could also _do something_ for the money instead of just ask for it. If it was some sort of cool entrepenurial thing, I’d be less inclined to even write this post. Heck, he didn’t even bother to open up a Google AdWords account!

Had a look at Steve’s site, and I’m beginning to believe that anything is possible through the blogosphere…

I’m coming up with my own wish-list for the blogosphere to grant. Not too sure how it will go, but if nothing else can be learnt from Steve’s quest, it is that anything is possible!

“However I have a teenage child and if I saw him having this kind of tenacity and drive I would applaud the fact that he is pursuing a dream.” Comment by Victor Cajiao

If I had a 19 year old begging on the web I’d smack him up side his head. Learning how to save up your own money is a good lesson to learn.

I don’t like asking for money and I certainly do like to borrow from anyone this included my own father when I need a PC in college. When you buy with your own “sweat” then it’s really yours.

If you want to contribute to a charity fund, go ahead.

If you want to contribute to someone buying a different computer so they can write about the experience, then go ahead and do that.

What is unique about blogging is that it isn’t forced upon me, it is entirely optional to enjoy or not. By writing interesting things, he provides a service. I don’t feel obliged at all to give this person money, but I can certainly imagine saying “eh, what the heck, I’ll give him a dollar and see what else he writes.”

Would you rather give money to a street performer playing a guitar (with some degree of accuracy), or a beggar sitting there on the sidewalk with a cup? I would rather spend my money on talent and effort (the guitar player).

Charity is a different budget item entirely. Donated money for a computer, in this case, is not charity – it is a tip for a service.

I’m gonna launch my Ferrari website. Who wants to donate the first $10,000? Come on… Anyone?…. What’s the world coming to?

Stephen could build a business inside some place like say, Second Life, and then buy a couple Mac computers. It’s called, er, *work*.

This kind of reminds me of the million pixel guy only without the million pixels. Let’s hope your post doesn’t spawn copycats of this, Scoble.

Weak.

Believe or not, MS employees get a discount on Apple products. No need to bother your bother-in-law….

http://microsoftprime.com/FramePage.aspx?cat=16299&VendorCouponURL=

I would think that if there are any SMRT Apple employees paying attention to your blog, they would donate a Mac to your friends cause. What better way to get “free” advertising than to give a friend of Robert Scoble a Macintosh!?!

But then again, your other readers are sure giving him the gears for resemblance of a Panhandler.

Thanks for spreading the word Robert. I know a lot of people aren’t going to agree with my intentions, but that’s life apperently.

Where are his AdSense or Amazon ads? That might help out a heck of a lot more.

Here’s something you need to read, Robert: Leander Kahney and Pete Mortensen at Cult of Mac didn’t think too much of Stefan’s fund-raiser, and chose to counter it with one of their own. In a little more than a day, they raised enough money to buy a new iMac for a truly worthy cause: a third-grade class in Brooklyn.

This ethical sparring is total bs. Donate money to who you want to.

So kids in a third-grade class in Brooklyn need a computer more than Stefan? Well, I’m sure there are kids in this country who need food more than Brooklyn third graders need computers. And there are kids in distant countries who are starving on a scale much larger than kids in the US. If you want to give money to them, fine. If not, don’t. But it doesn’t help anyone to get judgmental about charity, and who should be the recipient of it.

And in unrelated news: Scoble, can you confirm or deny this Windows Vista rumor:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/27/schneier_infosec/
If it’s true, you might want to rethink that MacBook purchase.

Sam you couldn’t have said it better, that’s a perfect defense.

This guy is an idiot.

Be sure to read this post about the guy:
http://wiredblogs.tripod.com/cultofmac/index.blog?entry_id=1466873

Stepahn: I dont have money to spare, but I do have a lot of goodwill to share. - hope that you dreams come true !!

Why thank you Jon

I linked to his post on my blog, my latest blog entry talks about everything.

Good article, Jon, thanks for sharing. This summarizes the situation pretty well: “I blew him off completely when he first contacted me, because, well, he’s a guy who’s trying to get a new 20″ iMac for free off of a bunch of strangers.”

Sam: I have an interview coming up with the Bitlocker team. I don’t believe their tech will prove as nasty as Schneier is making it sound.

MacBooks are showing up all over campus. Just interviewed the MSN Messenger Ad-Ins team and he was using a MacBook with both Parallels and BootCamp.

I highly suggest you read my last post, everything has been handled.