My wife works with Soroptimist International of Grosse Pointe to support their anti-human-trafficking efforts. They usually hold a variety of fundraisers, including a 5K race in September.
2020 and 2021 have been less than optimal fundraising years. Running a 5K on your own is much less interesting than trying to outrace a whole bunch of folks.
This year SIGP is raising money for the Joseph Project, a non-for-profit organization who connect human trafficking survivors with skilled pro bono legal counsel. One of the worst parts of human trafficking is that people must break the law to survive, let alone escape. Survival usually means a criminal record. I’ve written about human trafficking before, and completely support the efforts to give these folks a new chance.
Meanwhile, here I am with a variety of stuff that’s explicitly designed to raise money in the most daft way possible, and a whole mass of readers who couldn’t be unemployed if they tried. To try to cover the gap, I’m auctioning off something that was never before available online, and never will be again.
The Bail Bond Denied edition of FreeBSD Mastery: Jails.
Only five copies of this edition exist. One is in my archives. One was auctioned off at BSDCan 2019, the other at Penguicon 2019. The fourth will be reserved for the next charity auction I attend in person.
The fifth is being auctioned off right here. The members of the Grosse Pointe Soroptimists Club are signing it to express their gratitude for your generosity. I’ll sign it myself, thereby destroying their added value.
This is your only opportunity to get this book without being present at an event I’m at. Yes, I’m opening this up to seven billion people.
The auction rules are simple:
Comment on this post to bid. I advise bidders to click the “notify me of new comments by email” button, so they can see when they’re outbid.
The auction runs from now until 5 PM EDT 25 September. Most of the bidding happens on the first and last days, but I want to leave time for the Internet’s slow publicity machine to catch on. If bidding is frenzied in those last moments, I’ll leave the auction running to squeeze the most cash out of you get the best result for the Soroptimists.
Once the auction closes, send your donation to SIGP Paypal, by following the link on grossepointesoroptimist.net and send me your receipt. I will mail you the book at my expense.
Note that you don’t need to win a silly book to donate. You can donate out of your own generosity. I promise they’ll appreciate it. If you need someone to blame to keep your hard-boiled reputation, tell them I made you do it.
$100
I PayPal’d them $1000 USD. If that wins me the book, great. 🙂
I’m criminally bad at reading my personal email. Mastodon is a waaaaay faster way to reach me.
(Whoops! Me: https://octodon.social/@deafferret sorry I can’t delete / merge my previous comments apparently, feel free to do so.)
I tried to click the direct donation link at Paypal, but it attached a token which caused a reply “Your donation was already completed.”
I was able to follow the SIGP link earlier in the post to get a fresh token. I recommend that method to other potential direct donors.
I’ve updated the link, thanks.
Paypal donate buttons: why we can’t have nice things, sigh.
Commented : )
It’s the cover that made me want the book (and interested me in the cause): it’s cute, it’s harmless, it’s intriguing (suspense)
If I win, can I make payment via my Donor Advised Fund at Fidelity Charitable instead of via PayPal? The former effectively gives me a double tax deduction while the latter only a single tax deduction. Fidelity Charitable has the following charity listed: “SOROPTIMIST INTERNATIONAL OF THE AMERICAS INC” located at “32 Lake Shore Rd Grosse Pt Frm, Michigan 48236 – 372”. If that’s the same charity then this should work no problem.
That’s a great question.
I’ll ask my contact at SIGP.
Thank you Michael. The Tax ID listed is 38-6099835
They say it’ll work. Please comment it as “book donation” to make it easy to find.
And: please win, or at least make the winner bid higher. 🙂
lol. I’ll try! 🙂
As usual, these auctions stall until near the end. And sometimes folks forget.
So, here’s your reminder: four days left!
Reminder for the “following by email” folks: last day!
he current lead bid is at $1000, but here’s the twist: he’s already made the donation in that amount.
If you win with a bid of $1001, you’ll raise twice the money AND screw over the current leader. How often do you get to do something unquestionably good out of spite?
$1200
Going… going… gone! The winner is Tim, for $1200.
Tim, send me your receipt. I’ll confirm with SIGP and ship you the book.
Thank you!
Yay!
Michael, how should I send you the receipt? Also, I couldn’t add a note to the donation really. I could have changed the “use” but it seems that would have held up the donation.
nevermind. I found your email