Nick Bradbury has just made a donation of $8044.80 to the American Red Cross’ International Response Fund using the proceeds from all sales of his FeedDemon and TopStyle software during the last week of December.

Talk about awesome – This is terrific!

This always seems to happens to me. It’s part of being an early adopter, I guess:

From Engadget: Vonage is partnering with VTech on the next best thing: a cordless phone that comes with Vonage’s broadband Voice over IP service built-in. The has a VoIP gateway chipset built right into its base station, which you just connect right up to your router. Besides letting us toss out that bulky analog telephone adapter we’re still using, the ip8100-2 also operates on the 5.8GHz frequency, which means it won’t interfere with our WiFi.

Well, darn it… I bought a set of identical phones just a couple weeks ago, only without the Vonage service built in. I got them because my old 2.4GHz phone was worn out ad was messing up my WiFi big time. The phones look a little weird in pictures, but they have a really decent speakerphone built in, ringers that don't sound like an 80's alarm clock, and generally work very well. And these are the *same* phones, which I brought home and – get this – plugged straight into my Vonage IP phone adapter device. Argh.

I also saw a combination unit this weekend at a big big big gadget warehouse store that was a combination of the Linksys 802.11G router and a Vonage IP phone adapter. Again - I have both already. I am tempted to buy that one though, because simplifying the voice QOS configuration and compatibility there would certainly improve my call quality at times. My current setup gets glitchy at times.

Scoble on blogging at Microsoft and assumptions that might be made by people on the outside:

“… They think someone has "spun" Bill Gates into believing blogging is good for Microsoft.

“Please, if you're gonna say something like that, warn me not to be drinking water when it comes online.

“I wish I could tell you why that made me laugh. Let's just say the skepticism is misplaced. You don't get 1300 to 1500 people doing ANYTHING at a company without some very explicit decisions made at the very top of the company. Think about that one for a while.”

I serve on the board of directors for a non-profit called Cops on Top. It’s an organization that performs mountain climbing expeditions to the world’s biggest and most respected mountains in memory of police officers who have been killed in the line of duty. The organization and its efforts are funded 100% by sponsorship donations.

Cops on Top is undertaking a memorial expedition to Kilimanjaro in Africa in just a couple of weeks, and is in need of a donated Pocket PC device, preferably an HP model, which the team intends to attempt to use in order to transfer data and images from the mountain via satellite telephone to the organizations weblog.

If you or someone you know is able to quickly donate the Pocket PC or funds needed to buy one, please contact me by commenting here or by sending me an email at greg@greghughes.net. I can also be reached by calling 503–970–1753. Donations are tax-deductible and we would gladly recognize the donation on the Cops on Top web site should the donor wish.

Thanks – Hopefully someone out there will be able to help!

In The Seattle Times Pacific Northwest Magazine, Richard Seven writes – quite eloquently and well – about a professor at the University of Washington and his study of the connection between the information age, overload and extreme stress… Those of us caught in this world would do well to read it. I can definitely relate. I just spent a week in pretty extreme pain and without a Blackberry. I think if I can talk my boss into it, I may trade it for another device, one that’s maybe still cool and connected but less in-my-face. Besides, there are a few new ones that we need to test, so…

From the PNW Mag article:

“…Some are concerned that the need for speed is shrinking our attention spans, prompting our search for answers to take the mile-wide-but-inch-deep route and settling us into a rhythm of constant interruption in which deadlines are relentless and tasks are never quite finished.

“Scientists call this phenomenon ‘cognitive overload,’ and say it encompasses the modern-day angst of stress, multitasking, distraction and data flurries…”

(via Jason deFillippo)

Comment here if you want them, I now have ONE more to give away.

Sorry - all gone! :)

First four comments get ‘em. Leave your first name, last name and email address.