Captain Crunch needs your help(savingcaptaincrunch.com) |
Captain Crunch needs your help(savingcaptaincrunch.com) |
http://www.myspace.com/jdcrunchman
(Found webcrunchers via Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Draper and found MySpace via webcrunchers.)
EDIT: On inspection, the stuff from early October and back seems pretty OK. I'm more inclined to believe this now.
"Captain, it would be great if you connected your known web identity (webcrunchers.com) with your identity on facebook (this account) and/or the donation website. Put a link on the sidebar or something because some people get suspicious.
Hope you get well soon."
It looks like Christine Marie is at least aquainted with John Draper, and Christine posted this site on her twitter: http://twitter.com/digitalginger
I'm fully aware that webcrunchers and wiki have no references, but that should be fixed by tonight.
I'm barely able to type (have to use my thumbs). I got stacks of mail I haven't even read, but hope you understand my limitations.
Crunch
Here is the link to twitter status. http://twitter.com/#!/jdcrunchman/status/11219584119996416
His Facebook posts are seems to be for friends only, though.
http://www.facebook.com/jdcrunchman
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1229269/Screen%20shot%202010-12-05%2...
It is common for celebrities to be impersonated on Twitter, and this is not a verified account.
John Draper is a security expert. His MySpace page has a video of him talking about how to avoid getting scammed online. Surely he understands the need to establish his identity before asking for money online. Yet, I don't see any mention of this situation on his website.
There is already a paragraph towards the bottom that discusses how the money will be used. It could also say that you are still researching treatment options. $10,000 is an optimistic estimate for what it will cost to save your arms, and you're collecting up to $30,000 which will help you to get the best medical care possible. Any money not spent on medical care will be returned.
Just throwing out an idea. I've never run a charity campaign and don't know what works. Just make sure to get those links on webcrunchers so everyone knows that it's really you who's asking for help and not some scammer. ;-)
1) Link from WebCrunchers to my Facebook page 2) Link from Webcrunchers to "savingcaptaincrunch" site 3) Make changes to my WIKI with links to all 3 of these sites, plus a statement on my current health. Is there anything else I should do? I'm trying to distance myself from all this promotion so's not to appear "Self Serving".
(Or he should have just gotten medical insurance in the first place, although I've heard some nasty things about private health insurance in America.)
Most definitely shenanigans of some kind are going on here...
Co-pays depend the insurance company, the plan, the health care provider, and the procedure.
However, there are other charges that I'm responsible for paying for, I do want to go into those, but there are many.
Nobody can verify the affiliation with John Draper.
I suspect this is a both a scam and black hat SEO.
However the site does look fishy... or if CC in fact can't afford a 10k expense, then things are just plain sad :|
I only ever saw him at a single conference, but the general word was that he was a very creepy guy.
i've had a couple of interactions with him and he was nice to me. he's a little odd but i think it comes with the territory.
...
Really?
I was at the party at defcon at the top of the riv. one is grossly overweight apparent fan had grabbed me around the neck, and a friendly gesture I might add, it twisted my neck and pulled me down because the pressure was too great on my back, so to protect my back I dropped down. Smashed both of my hands on a table, even that caused problems in my hands, but it was dark, and the person just fade away into the crowd, so I was not given an opportunity to approach him.
Yes it was very unfortunate, but when people around me they need to be respectful of my frailties. I mean, I'm friggin 67 years old, and I still go to these, primarily because younger folks enjoy seeing me there, and hearing some of my stories. But you don't have to wait long, I'm working on a book, and I bet you can't wait to read all about it.
If you're going to go up to someone and grab hold of them you have a responsibility to make sure you won't hurt them. It is my opinion that you should just never do this to someone you don't know.
Has any of you know, if you've been away from programming for a long time, like over a year, and go back to it, it could take you quite a while to get your skills back up. And the older you are, the longer it takes.
Just the other day I needed to write a Python program that would go through my PayPal mail, and sum up the total amount of donations I got. It took me more than a day to write it. I cannot believe how rusty I am. I'm having to friggin look up everything.
But I really like programming. I miss it so much. But right now, they also need to focus on writing the book. Thank goodness for such capability programs as MacSpeech dictate. I'm impressed by its accuracy, but sometimes very annoyed when I have to use words that are not in its dictionary, and have to type them out, with my thumbs. When I pressed a finger to keyboard right now, it's excruciating pain. Not so much today, because I had the stellar shots Today. everyone in my postings was done using MacSpeech Dictate, it may have screwed up in places, but I'm too lazy to fix them. Enough said! I'm going to crash, I spent three hours on this forum, answering questions, and hopefully making some clarifications.
I imagine that John Draper has some sort of health insurance. So why are those things even an issue? Healthcare is one of those few areas where I think that a government backed approach provides more benefits than a private approach.
Furthermore, many insurance plans will cover a surgical procedure at one rate, but will cover ancillary costs (such as anesthesia, follow-up care, and medications) at a different (often lower) rate. This is all a long-winded way of saying that it is quite common for major medical procedures that are nominally "covered" by one's health insurance to end up costing the patient quite a bit of money when all is said and done. Look at the stats on medical bankruptcies in the US over the last few years- most of those people had insurance, and still ended up screwed.
Also, I'd like to point out that if Draper had been born a few years later (i.e., if he was younger than 65 years old) it seems quite likely that he might not have had any insurance at all. Many older people- especially people whose careers haven't been a stead string of stable corporate jobs, but have instead been independent contractors or otherwise self-employed- find themselves in the position of being 55 or 60 years old and suddenly unable to afford (or even be allowed to purchase) health insurance. Also, there are also quite a few people (especially these days) who are laid off from what had been formerly stable corporate jobs around that age, and find themselves uninsured for the first time in their lives just as their bodies are starting to break down. I know a number of people who celebrated their 65th birthday by going to the doctor for the first time in a few years.
If I choose to have the open surgery, my costs are estimated to be around $4000. Of course medication I have to pay for fully.
However, I am still seeking and looking for another Institute other than laser spine Institute.
Below, you'll find some links I changed my mind about having LSI treat me.
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/lsi-treats-their-e...
So you think our health care is a bad, take a look at this link above, and why I'm looking for another replacement Institute to treat me. I'm hoping with the generous support, that I don't have to go through invasive surgery, which means several months recovery time, wearing a neck brace, and having to think a lot of narcotic painkillers which really wipe me out. I know morphine can be thought of a recreational drug, but I need my brain and the mind, and the side effects are not very pleasant.
You are one of the reasons why I picked up programming before I had full computer access in 6th grade..
I will say this, it is my body, I'm going to do the best I can to make sure I get the best possible treatment, and not turn down endoscopic surgery, even though it is $25,000.
I will say this, so far endoscopic surgery costs is about $14,000 per disc, plus $7500 for each additional disk.
You will note that I am only asking for $10,000. Making sure I don't ask for more than I should. This figure was discussed between me and my advisers, and we think it's a fair goal to try to reach.
I think that's the opposite of what people want: it's a matter of authentication -- how do we know the person that put up the website is forwarding the money to the real John Draper? Most people would trust you, if they could verify it's really you. You could put a link to this fundraiser on your website or myspace, or make a youtube video saying it's a real fundraiser, and that would be enough to convince people. How it is now isn't enough to convince people that the money really is going to you.
Early on, it was mentioned that this had to be done. Somehow, it fell into the cracks, next time, I'll pay more attention to such details.
You all please have to understand, that I'm going through tremendous amount of pain, and none of the pain medications work, and now I'm having to have stellar ganglon nerve root blocks, which kills the nerves, but only for certain periods of time. I'm told by the doctor, thereby increase this frequency, it may end my problem. I'm now having them three times a week. And I do want to say this, when you have a shot in the front of your neck with a needle going all the way back to the root nerve, it is a very painful experience.
But another doctor, insists I have surgery right away. I see said surgeon on the ninth, to find out what this is going to cost me above and beyond that Medicare can pay, and whatever is left over, I'll send back. I know who you are, I'll contact each and everyone of you individually, to ask if you want me to return what you paid. simple as that. And nice and fair. Again I want to thank everybody who donated, for your information, I am almost but not quite 2/3rd the way done to the goal of $10,000.
I remain
Crunch
Best wishes with getting the treatment you need, and for a speedy recovery afterwards (both medically and financially).
The reason why I haven't been able to put the link on my website, has been due to my disability, and huge amounts of response I'm having to answer.
My webmaster, maintaining Webcrunchers.com is going to be putting up the links. Plus, since I have not gone through my wiki entry, I have not been able to make any additions to that as well. In actuality, other people have put up this wiki, with my blessing of course. Since I just located and found my webmaster, we're going to make these corrections as soon as possible.
There's a lot going on my life right now, in spending a lot of time doing research on my condition, finding and interviewing doctors, I found someone who I trust who is willing to perform open surgery on my neck.
However, there are other institutes out there that do non-invasive surgery using endoscopic treatments. I have interviewed and looked into one local outfit, and they charge $25,000 for the treatment, but unfortunately after looking at my MRI, denied my request for treatment due to the severity of my condition. I have several others I am investigating, and I have to be careful not to raise more money than I need, and if I exceed that, I have to return it.
Anyway, I hope that my webmaster will find the time to go in and fix it tonight.
NOTE: This is a repeat on what I said above, I tried to edit it because Mac Speech had some errors I missed. The owners of hacker news should be notified I updated, after editing, the update button was presented, I pressed it, it returned back to editing, did it again, and it still didn't seem to accept it, so I submitted a revised message.
The reason why I haven't been able to put the link on my website, has been due to my disability, and huge amounts of response I'm having to answer.
My webmaster, maintaining Webcrunchers.com is going to be putting up the links. Plus, since I have not gone through my wiki entry, I have not been able to make any additions to that as well. In actuality, other people have put up this wiki, with my blessing of course. Since I just located and found my webmaster, we're going to make these corrections as soon as possible.
There's a lot going on my life right now, in spending a lot of time doing research on my condition, finding and interviewing doctors, I found someone who I trust who is willing to perform open surgery on my neck.
However, there are other institutes out there that do non-invasive surgery using endoscopic treatments. I have interviewed and looked into one local outfit, and they charge $25,000 for the treatment, but unfortunately after looking at my MRI, denied my request for treatment due to the severity of my condition. I have several others I am investigating, and I have to be careful not to raise more money than I need, and if I exceed that, I have to return it.
Anyway, I hope that my webmaster will find the time to go in and fix it tonight.
Now I have to get back answering mail, I have a lot of mail to catch up on.
Crunch
John
The most out-of-pocket expense I have is post surgery care or, other costs not covered by Medicare. I will say this, Medicare does not cover everything. I can assure you that. You'd be surprised at how many clinics are not covered by Medicare. And I've heard nothing about Obama care, even if that exists.
