Last night was TECH cocktail 4, a quarterly networking event in Chicago that has developed a reputation for being a fun and of high quality. I have personally attended three of them, and I believe this was the best so far. The venue was easily accessible near Wrigley Field and public transportation as well as in its vast size to give plenty of room to move, and the diversity of the attendees, from those deeply immersed in technology to those on the periphery.

It was nice to catch up with colleagues that I don’t see often enough, such as Mike Carruth of Digital Bootcamp, Peter Meyers from Tminus2 and debabblog, David Dalka and Tom Sherman of WindyBits. I also had the opportunity to meet two people in person I have up to then only communicated with online – Jason Jacobsohn of Networking Insight and Joe Piekarz of timeXchange.

Not to forget the stack of business cards from people I met for the first time I will be following up with. My only regret from the night was not meeting the founders of the event, Frank Gruber and Eric Olson. Now I have an agenda item for TECH cocktail 5.

Technology • (6) Comments • Permalink

Last week I got an email from Yahoo telling me their points program, Yahoo Points, was being discontinued as of June 30, 2007 and if I do not redeem my points as of that date, I will lose them.

My first reaction to this was, “Yahoo Points?” I had to think back as to when I may have earned or redeemed these points. After logging into the Points site and looking at my points history, it has been 4 years, so no wonder I forgot. This took me back to a time when buying online through Yahoo Shopping was a preferred way for me, as Yahoo’s buyer protection was leading-edge at the time. Today I am buying more through Amazon and eBay and I can’t remember the last time I bought something through Yahoo. Another way to earn points was with your Yahoo credit card.

It looks like Yahoo has already stripped most of the functionality from the site, including some cascading style sheets. I have a couple hundred points in my account, but you need a minimum of 1,000 points to redeem anything – even a charity donation. So they will sit there and wither and die; another victim of the Darwinism of the Internet.

Technology • (6) Comments • Permalink

A couple of weeks back I posted about the abrupt shutdown of the ChicWIT email list and organization, as well as its parent organization, WorldWIT. I am now happy to write that a replacement list and organization has been formed to replace it, under a new moniker.

I just got the following email from Gigi Bozzano, who was the leader of ChicWIT, and it stated the following:

Warm greetings to all of my much missed friends!

I'm thrilled to let you know that I've started a new women's networking organization to replace the one that recently closed - guaranteed to be even more benefit for all of us women (and men)!

Called CW-Network (Chicago Women Network), it will feature moderated online discussion, networking events, educational opportunities, and as the group expands, discounts on services and products for members.

The site will be live by no later than mid-week next week so please watch your email box for instructions on how to sign up! Also, please forward this information on to your friends, colleagues, and any former members of the recently closed women's organization.

I'm looking forward to continuing the friendships and alliances that have already been formed and to establishing many, many new ones. Hopefully, you'll join us!! And...if you would like to contribute your ideas and suggestions please get in touch with me. CW-Network - Chicago Women Network - is for all of us!

Cheers...
Gigi Bozzano

That Web site mentioned will be at cw-network.org, and as of me writing this it is not live yet. Where it may take some time to ramp back up to the thousands of subscribers, it will be good to see this community, valuable to women and men in Chicagoland, back in action.

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This past week, former New England Patriots star Darryl Stingley passed away too early at the age of 55. The Chicago native’s remarkable career was cut way too short when a cheap hit from behind in a preseason game in 1978 left him confined to a wheelchair. He returned to Chicago and helped start a non-profit foundation to help inner-city youth.

I just read an article on the Patriots’ official Web site talking about Stingley and two other famous teammates drafted together by the team in 1973. At the end of the story is a poem that Stingley had taped in his locker during his rookie season titled "Don’t Quit" and the first stanza reads:

"When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, When the road you’re trudging seems all up hill, When the funds are low and the debts are high, And when you want to smile, but you have to sigh, When care is pressing you down a bit, Rest, if you must – but don’t quit."

I am fortunate to be surrounded by positive people in my life, but when things get somewhat crappy for me during the day, I will now think of this poem.

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If you use Vonage for your telephone service or you follow the tech community, you may be aware of the court battle they are having with Verizon. In short, the courts have ruled that Vonage has been using Verizon’s patented technology and not paying for it. The courts have ruled in favor of Verizon and ordered Vonage to pay $58 million. This article from the Chicago Tribune sums up the case so far and a court stay allowing Vonage to remain in business.

As a Vonage customer, I am undecided on what to do next. I am a content customer of the Internet telephony company, as I have never been really pleased with their service. To begin with, it took over 4 months for Vonage to transfer my phone number from SBC, then the name of the local phone provider now called AT&T. There were many outages early on as well, where I would lose phone service for hours or even days. Occasionally, voice mail and three-way calling do not work. However when it does work, I get a clear signal and email notification I received a voice mail message.

Last week the courts wanted Vonage to stop signing up new customers, and as I write this they have a stay of that order. That would choke incoming funds to the company, or as some may say good money after bad. Unclear is what the 2 million plus current customers have for options. Can I easily move my phone number away from Vonage? If so, what other telephony options do I have? Sorry AT&T – there was a reason why I wanted to leave you in the first place, and it’s still there!

Right now I am taking a wait and see approach. I doubt that any court would shut down the service before its customers were able to go elsewhere. Well, I hope that would be the case. Do you have Vonage, and what are you thinking?

Technology • (2) Comments • Permalink