eBay to aquire Skype

eBay, the worlds online marketplace, has its sights on the internets main VoIP provider, Skype. In an announcement on September 12th, 2005, eBay stated that they "intend to make voice communications a part of the eBay marketplace – a huge step forward in making transactions faster and easier, as well as bringing even more interactivity and humanity to the eBay Community."

This comes only 12 days after eBay completed the aquisition of Shopping.com.

Technorati Tags: ebay Skype VoIP

What's Going On?

What is going on in New Orleans? Who else finds this quote unsettling:

Nagin said he needs military troops to provide security and 500 buses to take people stranded by Hurricane Katrina out of the city.
(Courtesy of CNN)

There are people in New Orleans who are firing at rescuers with guns. They are looting stores. They are blowing up facilities. We are fighting ourselves in a national tragedy. Watch the video on CNN and you will see what I am talking about.

With that said, these people that I speak of are very very few compared to all that are down there. There are many people that need help still. Please keep sending donations to reputable charities for the aid of those victims (if you don't know of any you can check out a previous blog entry where I listed out a few).

Also, congratulations to those who participated in the telethon by KUTV2 news and X96 (and many more members of the Simmons Media Group) who raised over $550,000 in donations for the Red Cross. You can find the whole story on at KUTV2.com.

Technorati Tags: Hurricane · Katrina · Relief

Hurrican Katrina Relief Effort

As I am sure those who are reading have heard of the Katrina Hurricane disaster in New Orleans, Louisianna. This is predicted to be the most expensive (and largest?) natural disaster in the history of the United States.

They are needing a lot of money in donations for those down there is Louisianna. Former presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton are going to be doing another tv commercial series asking for donations to aid those in need and to help pay for the relief.

Please make a donation through an approved source. Unfortunately there will be some who will try to use this for their benefit. In our local area they are raising money through the TV stations as well as donations to agencies that send relief. Online you can find ways to send relief as well. The following are agencies that are actively sending aid that I currently know of.

• American Red Cross
• LDS Church Humanitarian Services (Response Fund)
• United Way (Through PayPal)

Technorati Tags: Hurricane Katrina · Relief · Aid · Donations