• Visual Dictionary Online
• The 10 biggest technology belly flops of 2007: Re: #7 — way to go, Wall Street Journal!
• Mint: Manage your money
• Sharpbrains: Exercise your brain.
• Steampunk Flat-Panel LCD Mod: I LOVE this old style monitor and keyboard. Steampunk can put old-style images on different things. Easiest thing to do is look at the photos.
• Advice to the wanna-be freelancer before quitting the day job: As always, Freelance Folder produces another top-notch article for freelancers. Even those already enjoying the full-time freelance life will benefit.
• This Year in Blogs: The Definitive Posts of 2007

While podcasting is low on my list of things to follow, an article caught my eye. A local PTA is using podcasting to record its general meetings so those who can’t attend can get up to speed.

Most of the time, general meetings follow with a program consisting of a speaker on an education-related topic or the children perform for their parents. Recording the meeting gives people a chance to hear the speaker and learn more about the topic or parents to have a recording of their children’s program.

On the flip side, will podcasts prevent people from attending meetings? The article states it won’t because it means missing out on the interactions and asking questions. Things brings up an important point — is technology isolating us?

For me, technology brings me closer to people more often than in an in-person group event. But that’s probably because of my hearing loss. Technology is wonderful, but we want to ensure it doesn’t cut us off from each other.

Last week, I attended an in person meeting with a local client. Though I feel uneasy about meeting someone in person for the first time (because of concerns whether I will be able to understand the person), the meeting accomplished more than if we had discussions by e-mail.

Since most of my clients aren’t local, it isn’t a problem. But it illustrates the value of connecting with others in-person.

My daughter played in a national volleyball tournament this past weekend (don’t ask how her team did). Since it was a large event, spectators had to download and print tickets to attend. It was free — just had to have the ticket to keep away those who don’t belong, provide data to hosting city to encourage hosting again, direct people to the right courts (over 60 courts) and help plan for emergency services.

The last reason came true. On Friday night, the Dallas/Fort Worth area experienced severe thunderstorms and saw three tornadoes (last I hard). The building staff evacuated everyone in the building to the parking garage.

The Web site where you printed tickets could stand usability improvements. But that’s not the point of this post. It also contained a feature where you could pick four teams to track through SMS and e-mail. The service sent team schedules and results of their matches.

It wasn’t a perfect service since we didn’t receive some notices. The speed of notifications were unpredictable… sometimes fast and sometimes slow. Also, if you wanted to change up the four teams, you couldn’t. Every team played in two different pools in this tournament. Paul tracked all the teams in my daughter’s pool on day one. Then learned he couldn’t change them for day two.

Despite the imperfections, it was exciting to discover the feature. When volleyball was in session in the schools, we also had a resource for checking standings and win/loss records for all the schools. Only problem was the lack of updates. If I remember right, my daughter’s coach said it depended on the coach to keep it updated.

Report card day was always an exciting or nerve-wracking experience since we didn’t always know exactly what our grades were. That’s not the case today. It’s just another report our kids’ bring home for our signatures (yes, we still have to sign) since they’re grades are accessible online throughout the school year.

Love this kind of progress!

We’ve got old computers, laptops, and monitors sitting the garage collecting dust. Most of them don’t work anymore and we can’t just throw them out because they have parts that could potentially lead to environmental hazards. This eHow article provides steps, tips, and warnings for safely disposing computers.

The Dallas Morning News printed a story that covered not only electronics, but also items like furniture, lumber materials, and more. Here’s a list of places and ways to recycle stuff, some from the The Dallas Morning News and others from research.

Many schools including my kids’ elementary and middle schools participate in the Cartridges for Kids program. If you don’t have a school, we’d be glad to take your stuff. If you’re outside of the Dallas area, you may not want to ship it to us and one of these may have more convenient options.

Computers and Electronics

CollectiveGood collects mobile phones, pagers, and PDAs.

The County of Sacramento has many links to cell phone recycling sources.

DonateIT wipes drives clean and provides info on how wipe drives.

Freecycle consists of 4,132 groups with 3,913,000 members across the globe. It’s all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills.

Free Geekery lists 10 ways to recycle old computers.

Guide to Computer Recycling and Reuse

National Cristina Foundation

Palm Recycling Program is a free service for recycling old and unused cellphones and handhelds.

ReCellular recycles and resells used wireless phones and accessories. It wipes the phone’s memory clean to eliminate all personal information.

Staples accepts computers and tech hardware. Charges $10 for large equipment.

TechSoup Recycling Guide

Clothes and Shoes

Tennis Shoes

Dress for Success donates work clothes to low-income women so they can wear them to job interviews.

Books

Most libraries accept book donations. If they don’t add it to their collection, they might save them for a book sale. Your area might have an organization that collects books for book sales or donating.

Books for Soldiers

American Library Association info on book donations.

Books for Prisoners and Prisoners’ Reading Encouragement Project

Drop your book somewhere and it could join BookCrossing.

Baby Gear

Newborns in Need is a charity organized to take care of sick and needy babies and their families.

Glasses and Hearing Aids

Lions Clubs for glasses

LensCrafters for glasses

Unite for Site for glasses

Lions Clubs for hearing aids

About.com Hearing Aids Recycling info

Hear Now for hearing aids

House Materials and Furniture

Dallas Habitat for Humanity accept specific building materials. Check your local organization to see if it accepts such items.

Others

Write Direct Marketing Association to opt out of junk mail for $1 check or money order. Do it online at www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailinglist or send it to Direct Marketing Association, Mail Preference Service, P.O. Box 643, Carmel, NY 10512. You must renew every five years.

Donate Cars for Homes

E-cycling Central lets you find recycling centers by location (U.S. only)

General Recycling and Reuse information

Green Dimes Junk Mail Reduction Kit promises to reduce junk mail by 90 percents and plant 10 trees in your honor for $15.

HUG Internationally is a Dallas area organization that works with orphanages and hospitals in Romania. HUG also addresses the problems of housing these babies, including repairs and renovation of buildings.

International Consumer Recycling Guide

National Recycling Coalition

Recycling Database

Updated: October 15, 2007

I was impressed with Ian I. Mitroff’s book, Why Some Companies Emerge Stronger and Better from a Crisis, that I decided to feature it in the March issue of Shavlik’s The Remediator Security Digest. I think many don’t realize there’s more to crisis prep than technology and ensuring your IT systems are in order.

Also in the issue: Many folks wrote in to give advice on how to speed a computer and keep it healthy. The suggestions are applicable to home and small business computers.

Intel Solution Services’ The Connected Digest explores the data center of the future. While working on the article, I was fascinated by the concept and think building or modifying an IT infrastructure that takes advantage of resources when things are slow and share them with those that are computing like crazy.

The March issue of eNewsletter Journal just came out today. We feature a guest writer. I’m thankful to him as he took a little pressure off me.