Zippity Doo Dah

The title of this short snippet, zippity doo dah, has nothing to do with the Wizard of Oz, but it does have something to do with wizardry. The magic comes from a company called Zip-linq and specifiicly, the product is a retractable cable that simplifies plugging things in at home or on the road. (See related story about Power Over Ethernet). Here a few pictures of the cables to help you see what this is all about. The IBM keyboard is a new product also. It is a cousin to the ThinkPad keyboard and connects to your PC via a USB cable. There are many interesting features to the keyboard including two USB ports on the back. I keep a zip-linq cable plugged into the keyboard. Before hitting the sack, I extend the retractable cable, connect the Treo, press one button on it's touchscreen, and return in the morning to a completely synchronized and charged handheld.

Personal Computing June 9, 2004 06:49 PM

Simple, Decent Housing

On Monday, June 7, the First Annual Housatonic Habitat for Humanity Golf Outing was held. Not being a golfer myself (see prior story), I did not play the course, but for those who did, it was a nearly perfect day. There were twenty-six volunteers who got the golfers registered, handed out gift bags that had been donated by sponsors, sold raffle tickets, monitored results, and kept everything moving along smoothly -- not an easy task with 120 golfers playing at once. The day was quite successful with net proceeds of more than $50,000. The golf outing proceeds will cover more than half the cost of building a brand new Housatonic Habitat for Humanity home. The goal for subsequent annual golf outings is to be able to finance the construction of a new home every year.

On a global basis, Habitat for Humanity will have cumulatively built more than 200,000 homes by sometime next year. The result is simple, decent housing, for many who would otherwise not be able to afford it. Habitat homes are not giveaways. A Habitat home owner invests at least 300 hours of "sweat equity" during the construction period and makes a monthly mortgage payment (thirty years with no interest). The payments provide funds to build more houses.

People June 9, 2004 06:47 PM