Ken Stark of the Helios Project needs our help.

[Rover]

"Ken Starks has helped a lot of people. He's personally placed a lot of computers in homes that couldn't otherwise afford them. Now he needs our help - not to build more computers or train more people or spread more free-software love, but to stay alive."


http://www.indiegogo.com/helios

http://linuxlock.blogspot.com/2012/08/this-is-where-we-are.html

Help if you can.

[Rover]

  Seriously?  At the time of reading 77 views and 0 replies. 

I mean I don't expect to have 100% response, but does anyone want to help this guy?  Maybe you just donated and didn't reply... I think that about DC'ers first.

In other news, this guy is helping people who know one else wants to help.  I've followed his exploits for years and know that he works his ass off.  You may prefer Windows of Linux (I prefer other Linux over the brand he uses) but this guy is helping people.... boots on the ground kind of stuff.  And now he is dying.  If he had a "real" job he'd have health insurance to make this go away.  He chose better.

Make a difference in the world DC'ers.  The $5,000 goal was set by someone who wanted to help but didn't know the cost.  It's closer to 50K.  If the Interwebs can generate 700K for a bus monitor who was picked on by 12 year olds, I hope we can do at least 7.5% of that to save a man's life. 

[tomos]

I donated ;-)

NOTE / quote:
This campaign will receive all of the funds
contributed by Sun Aug 26 at 11:59PM PT

The $5,000 goal was set by someone who wanted to help but didn't know the cost.  It's closer to 50K.

it's a pity they dont make that much clearer on the indigogo page...

[40hz]

Seriously?  At the time of reading 77 views and 0 replies. 

I mean I don't expect to have 100% response, but does anyone want to help this guy?  Maybe you just donated and didn't reply...

I think that may be the case more often than not. Not everybody feels a need to "wear the t-shirt" in order to do some good. 

Besides, there really isn't much to else say that hasn't already been said in other places. Ken is in serious medical/financial trouble. He requires a life-saving surgical procedure (for cancer); and, being an American (and therefor protected from the scourge of socialized medicine) has discovered he is unable to afford it. End of story. It's a especially sad news considering what his significant other Diane just went through recently.

[mouser]

If the Interwebs can generate 700K for a bus monitor who was picked on by 12 year olds, I hope we can do at least 7.5% of that to save a man's life.

one of the hardest's lessons to learn in the age of internet (or global?) funding, and one of the most confusing, is how incredibly arbitrary and capricious and winner-take-all this kind of funding is.  it's not based on logic or need -- it's a mystery combination of factors that create a cascade of publicity.  i find it incredibly disconcerting and troubling.

but i would urge you not to try to use reason or rationality to analyze how much donations/funding something gets, and especially don't compare the funding of one thing to another or you are likely to get extremely depressed and angry at a world/community.

--

As a more constructive comment -- your post was mostly just a quote from the page; if you had made a longer more personal post you would have gotten more personal replies..

[40hz]

would urge you not to try to use reason or rationality to analyze how much donations/funding something gets, and especially don't compare the funding of one thing to another or you are likely to get extremely depressed and angry at a world/community.

this.

[Rover]

As a more constructive comment -- your post was mostly just a quote from the page; if you had made a longer more personal post you would have gotten more personal replies..

You're right... I was being lazy.   

I guess I click more links and read less body than most. 

On a better note, it seems DC'ers  are involved, just don't need the kuddos. 

[Rover]

Good News! 

http://linuxlock.blogspot.ca/2012/08/it-started-with-hopelessness.html

"An Indiegogo account was set up and in a matter of days, over 17K was raised on that page alone.  Thomas Knight had also provided a link on his website for people to donate and to date we have 31K banked against my medical costs."

...

"Dr. Scholl has agreed to provide me the life-saving surgery I need, and will work for whatever we raise.  I will be given medication to slow and treat the existing cancer, thus buying me time until the surgery can be performed.

I don't know what to say to you...or to Dr. Scholl.  Thank you doesn't come close.  The only thing I CAN do is thank you and continue doing what I do at Reglue."

[cthorpe]

Just donated.  Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

[40hz]

UPDATE:

I case anybody was wondering how it's going with Ken:

Monday, October 15, 2012
Happy Death Day To Me


Yeah, I know....the title is a bit morbid.

But apt.

8 months ago, a Ear, Nose and Throat specialist gathered Diane, my ex-wife and youngest daughter around him outside my emergency room treatment area and told them simply:

"Take him home and make him comfortable.  There's not much more than we can do."  Needless to say, this is crushing news for loved ones.

When my ex-wife later pushed him for a more detailed prognosis, he told her, "Eight months on the outside".

Diane, not being one to trust doctors in the first place, demanded a second opinion and soon, Dr. David George, an Oncologist from Texas Oncology had me examined and ordered a battery of tests.  This time, the news was a bit better.  I was indeed a candidate for radiation and chemo therapy.  My treatment began the same day the results came in...a mere 48 hours.  Immediate treatment turned out to be the key.  I am alive today because of it.

That was 8 months ago, and as a Platinum Member of the Captain Obvious Club, I can report to you that I am indeed, not dead.

Had me or my caretakers taken the initial diagnosis of late stage 4 throat cancer as gospel, I would be.

I've never been one to place any significance on my birthday...It's always seemed a bit arrogant for me to assign any significance to my existence, or the random day my existence came to be.

I do however, acknowledge them now, but more so, I will acknowledge this date as well, from here on in.

It marks the day that I was told I would be dead.

This is an aggressive cancer, a mean, unrelenting son of a bitch, and while I am seemingly getting better and the cancer is due to be surgically and successfully removed from my body, it has a nasty ability to reoccur.

So I take nothing for granted, and every day means I have a chance to make a difference, big or small, some sort of difference.

And on this day, annually, I will choose to remember this specifically.

All-Righty Then...