I was clicking through my LinkedIn updates and I saw a connection recently became a manager of Patch.com. I was pleasantly surprised that my community was represented and instantly clicked to read more. Currently the website features news from the following states: California, Connecticut District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

The site says, “Patch is a new way to find out about, and participate in, what’s going on near you. Patch is run by professional editors, writers, photographers and videographers who live in or near the communities we serve.” Patch is an online community newspaper written by locals. The site features local news, events, places, markets, house and general Q&A.

Are you in the Patch?
Patch.com

http://fwix.com/

Household equipment will be accepted including CPUs, monitors, keyboards, mice, printers, terminals, modems, software, cell phones and accessories, and ink printer cartridges. No televisions or other electronics will be accepted. All equipment collected will be taken to RET3 job corp, a non-profit computer recycling and refurbishing company based in Cleveland.

RET3 has partnered with OneCommunity, a local not-for-profit broadband provider that works to give students technology skills for the workplace and, in turn, drive economic development in the region. OneCommunity Green Computing has a goal of putting 50,000 computers in Northeast Ohio schools over the next five years. Businesses with large amounts of computers to dispose of should contact RET3 job corp. at (216) 361-9991.

For a list of participating cities or additional information about Recycle Your Computer Month, log onto www.cuyahogaswd.org/residents/comprec.asp or call the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District at (216) 443-3749.

Last week Cleveland City Council passed a law that makes text messaging illegal while driving a vehicle; I found it interesting since there is a current law that prohibits doing anything distracting while driving. If you look around in today’s world, everyone is looking down texting, answering a call or playing a game on their phone. I realize that everyone needs to stay connected, but aren’t there actions like crossing a street, driving a car or operating a wood chipper when you should yield from using your phone? Unless it’s an emergency, shouldn’t you make time to look up from your phone at important moments. If you don’t look up, it may cost you your life one day.

Do you think texting while driving should be illegal? Are there times when it’s OK?

If you live in Birmingham, Cleveland, Chicago, Cincinnati, Columbus, Kansas City, Louisville, Madison, Mt. Washington, Valley, NH, Naples, Nashville, Sarasota, Manatee or Tucson you can take advantage of half-off gift certificates. You can purchase $50 gift certificates for $35 and $25 gift certificates for $15 dollars. The auctions occur at announced times through the year and the best way to stay in the loop is to sign-up for their newsletter.

Note: In Cleveland, the collective of local eateries is called the Cleveland Independents and they use Eat Like A Local network to process the transaction, however I didn’t see it listed on Eat Like A Local’s homepage.

I’ve used this service and love it, have you?

http://www.clevelandindependents.com
http://www.eatlikealocal.com

On the web, most people these days start at a search engine to begin their quest for information. The standard model for search is Google; you type a term into a search box and then you must sort page by page for your results. Now iGuiders, a local Cleveland area start-up, has a streamlined way of performing an Internet search. I like to think of iGuiders as more of a hand-holding approach to search or tree building way to get to results.

How iGuiders Works

1. You select from a preselected group of categories.
   • Statutory, Legal, Regulatory, Compliance, and Standards
   • Internal Business Requirements
   • Protect Information
   • Threats and Breaches
   • Customers/Partner
2. Then you select a subgroup out the first category you’ve selected
3. Then choose your question you’re interested in
4. Then it will use a popular search engine to find your answer

IGuiders says, “The problem with searching on the internet is that you get too many results. You need the right words to get you precise results. This sites enables you to research topics without having to figure out what words to use in a search engine. It takes you deep into a topic to help focus your search.”

Right now the “beta” site has limited categories, but try it out for yourself and tell us what you think?
http://www.iguiders.com

http://www.coolcleveland.com/index.php?n=Main.Warming

Ideas:
Visit the Christmas Story Museum
Enjoy the Holiday Lights at Blossom
Toboggan at Strongsville Chutes
Ride Lolly the Trolley

http://positivelycleveland.wordpress.com/2008/12/17/what-should-i-do-in-cle-over-christmas/

Yelp has reviews on everything from restaurants, shopping, nightlife, spas, coffee shops and just places to go. Find out what people are saying out about the establishments in your town. The site currently features 200+ reviews of local restaurants. It also has reviews of unique places to go like catching an Indie film at the Cinematheque. Yelp is great way to discover your city.

http://www.yelp.com/cleveland-oh

The other day I went out to dinner and the way out of the restaurant I noticed an empty Plain Dealer newspaper dispenser. As I walked about Cleveland, I noticed that every PD newspaper pay-as-you-go curbside unit said “Not In Service”. Being curious I called the Plain Dealer subscription department and the representative stated that their focus is home delivery these days and every other delivery method wasn’t cost effective.

As a matter of fact, the size of weekend edition of the Plain Dealer recently shrank, however the cost of delivery increased. To further increase the drama, the Cleveland Free Times recently was purchased by The Scene, a nationally syndicated magazine, which further dwindles your news choices.

Could traditional newspaper delivery be reaching the end? You can now get all your news on the iPhone by downloading a free news application. Do you still buy the daily newspaper? Will you continue to purchase the local news if the cost continues to increase?