My DisclaimerHow to Receive My Calculator CodeFor over 15 years now I have received an increasingly large number of requests for the various Perl, JavaScript and PHP programs I have written for these financial calculations. Initially I gave the stuff out free, then I switched over to a fun idea, trading my scripts for T-shirts and sweatshirts, first for myself and then for my daughter. We have received 43 shirts! After a while, however, I realized I must have received quite a few hundred dollars worth of shirts and I could barely cram them all into my dresser. I thought I could actually do something worthwhile out of all of this instead. Plus someone suggested allowing people to make donations in my daughter's name, so I took that idea and stretched it a bit. So in 1996 I started with my idea of Hugh's Charity of the Month. Initially, I was having people make out a check with a set amount for the number of scripts to one of my select charities of the month. (See list below.) Starting in December 1996, I automated the process and put people more on an honor basis. After taking in almost $18,000 in contributions I can gladly say that people out on the Internet are truly generous, and it hasn't all gone the way of money grubbing opportunists as many people think. I have also added the other charities back below into the list so people can select who they want to give the money to, but they still only have to send the check to me and I can forward them in groups. I am now on an extensive mailing list of countless non-profit organizations and get more envelopes from them than I could ever use. (I must get at least 20 or so solicitations a week now.) So, the actual cost to you of my script is still NOTHING. And your contributions are all tax deductible (assuming you itemize as anyone with a mortgage probably does!) Yes, I know I could just offer this all out for free instead, but I want to keep track of who all is getting my scripts since they range from just everyday borrowers who want to see the code, or CGI programmers wanting some examples, to big corporations who modify them to no end and put them on their big, slick, commercial sites. So, after reading all this, if you still want to get my old Perl scripts, Use this Registration Form to Get My ScriptsNote the archive primarily contains my old Perl code from the late 1990's and a few PHP examples up to about 2006. I do not update it regularly anymore with my latest calculators. Included will be brief instructions for installation on Unix or NT servers running Perl and CGI execution enabled. You can also e-mail me for further discussion on the topic. Remember, charitable giving is good for your taxes, good for the world community, and good for the soul. Some people also want to send me something. I suggest that anyone wanting to send me something to send an electronic gift certificate to Amazon.com or just some PayPal funds. Fast, easy and much more useful than a fruitcake. I will use any funds sent to me to help improve the local St. Louis economy. I also accept PayPal or gift certificates in exchange for minor modifications to my scripts. I'm cheap! Just ask my wife! I also do a little custom programming on the side. Perl, JavaScript or PHP, I do it all, and following my typical tendencies, I'm cheap, cheap, cheap! (Notice a trend?) Contact me for more information on my pitifully low rates. Anyone who actually wants to contribute to my actual charity (yes, a true 503(c) organization via a donor advised fund) can contact me as well for more information on donating to it. You can also help me out by contributing to my local church, Samuel United Church of Christ, or to my employer, Washington University in St. Louis, both of which are also fully tax-deductible contributions. For an example of my custom work, see my lovely downloadable calculator at: mortgagecalculator.org. 2006 and 2007 and forward... I hardly receive anything anymore, and am actually surprised when I receive a check in the mail! 2005 Contribution Tally Wow only $390 from a total of 9 contributors who actually mailed me a check. That puts my grand total in 10 years (1996-2005) to be $19,336. 2004 Contribution Tally My number of contributers seem to keep dropping off. For the calendar year 2004, I only had 11 contributors, combining to total a sum of $285 dollars. But that is still more than zero, so I will keep up with my appeal for contributions. 2003 Contribution Tally My total number of contributors for 2003 dropped to only 18, but my grand total was $985 this year, primarily due to one big contribution that accounted for nearly half of that, and another of $100. Now over the past eight years that makes $18,691 total from 652 contributors. It's amazing it has kept on this long! 2002 Contribution Tally Contributions continue to dwindle. In 2002 there were only 21 contributors with a total of $390. The charity contributions may also have been down since more folks were actually sending some money to myself, since when you are the unemployed breadwinner of a family of four (which I was for the first three months of 2002), you become a charity yourself! 2001 Contribution Tally Contributions for 2001 were even lower than for 2000 as fewer people need CGI scripts and fewer people feel like donating! My grand total for the whole year was only $812 from 30 contributors (and one gave $250 and another $100). It's not hard to understand why after September 11. 2000 Contribution Table Here are the final numbers for 2000. Nothing during the Christmas season? How sad! That brings my total in the past five years to over $16,000!
1999 Contribution Table Since 1999 is over here are new numbers. I only used the folks who paper mailed me checks or who e-mailed me Red Cross receipts as confirmation. For 1999 there was over $2,000 in definite contributions from 78 donors. New grand totals, over 500 contributions with over $15,000!
1998 Contribution Table Since 1998 is over here are the total numbers. Now, about 450 contributions total over $13,000!
1997 Contribution Table This year contributions are way down now that they are not "enforced". But still I am not one to complain. For the year there were a total of 137 contributors. Plus this list does not include contributions to the Institute for Biomedical Computing which are being sent directly there. So over the two year period, over 350 people have sent me checks for over $10,000! Wow! I still have all the envelopes on file too!
1996 Contribution Table
Hugh's List of CharitiesHere is my list of the 8 charities I have used in 1996 for people to send in contributions, plus one I added inn 1999:
LIST OF SELECTED CHARITIES:September - December 1999 Charity of the MonthTaiwanese Association of America - Taiwan Quake Relief FundHowever, the Quake Fund has now been closed and I don't know if the TAA on its own is really a tax deductible organization, so I am removing it from the list. August - December 1996 Charity of the MonthThe Washington University Institute for Biomedical ComputingThis was the department at Washington University I worked in from 1993 through 1997. They did a lot of great work, but due to a myriad of factors they now have ceased to exist. I tried helping by having people send us donations, but alas that was not enough. July 1996 Charity of the MonthThe Carter Center
June 1996 Charity of the MonthRonald McDonald House Charities of Southern West Virginia
May 1996 Charity of the MonthCAREMay is definitely the month to name CARE as my charity since they celebrate 50 years in May. Wow, since 1946; that's pretty impressive. April 1996 Charity of the MonthChristian Children's Fund (now ChildFund)March 1996 Charity of the MonthAmerican Red CrossFebruary 1996 Charity of the MonthHeifer Project Internationalhelped more than 1 million impoverished families worldwide become more self-reliant through the gift of livestock and training in their care. For more information on them visit their WWW site. January 1996 Charity of the MonthHabitat for HumanityMore CharitiesList of St. Louis area charities I personally supportList of other charities recommended by users of the calculatorsRandom lyrics of Hugh's favorite artists
Show me what it means Hugh Chou |