First, in the interests of full disclosure:

In the past, I performed contract work for Rex's company, Code-Frog System Architects.  I have since turned down the offer of more work so that I can spend time with Troy. 

I'll keep this short because Rex has put up loads of specific information on his Web site, Ready to Give Up.

Essentially, it boils down to this:

• His daughter Katie was born with severe and complicated medical problems that have been VERY expensive to treat.
• In the process of treating his daughter and trying to save her life, Rex went deep into debt, got laid off, and ultimately lost his house.
• Rex rose to the challenge and started his own company.  He's kicking butt, but he's killing himself doing it.  He works on the order of 80-100 hours per week, on top of helping his wife take care of their family.
• While Rex earns a decent living, he's making no headway on his accumulated debt.  He is able to pay interest, but unable to pay down the principal.
• Rex cannot afford to take time off of work to take his daughter to a specialist, who may be able to diagnose and fix her medical problems.

Basically, what he's after is this:

• Enough money to eliminate his current debt
• Enough to allow him to take his daughter to see specialists that might be able to restore some normalcy to the Winn family.

You may have seen this on Digg.com last week.  I didn't read through the comments, but I understand there were a lot of people calling Rex a fraud and a scammer.  This mischaracterization of him is unfair at best.  Given that I've had a working relationship with Rex, I feel compelled to share his story and solicit help on his behalf.

If you're skeptical, there's plenty of information here to back up what he's saying.

Do I trust Rex?  You bet.

Am I posting this in the hopes of landing more contract work from him?  No.  As I said above, I have turned down extra work since Troy's birth so that I can spend time with him.

How do you know he's not a fraud?  I don't, but I've known him for several years now, and we have corresponded over the phone and email for work matters.  Never once have I gotten the impression that he would do anything shady or illegal.  I would have a VERY difficult time believing that Rex is trying to scam people out of their money.  He is one of the most genuine, hard-working people I have ever met.  I trust him as a business partner, and I extend that trust to him as a person.

So please, if you can spare a couple of dollars, help Rex give his daughter the treatment she so desperately needs.  Just visit his site and click on the PayPal link:

http://www.readytogiveup.com