There will be plenty of time to talk about computers later. Right now this country is in a crisis that is getting worse daily. If I worked for a company that were being managed as poorly as the relief effort in New Orleans, I’d quit in disgust. Sadly, we can’t quit, and we can only hope that someone competent appears on the scene. Soon.
Meanwhile, I’m donating the check that Google just sent me to the American Red Cross, along with an amount equal to the check I’ll get in a few weeks for this month’s ad revenue. That’s a total of $350. If you’ve been waiting to make a donation, I hope you’ll give as well.
If you want a reason to give more, I have an offer for the first 30 people who would like one of my books. Make a donation to the Red Cross or any legitimate charity that is working in New Orleans. Give as much as you can afford. Then send me an e-mail (ed-blog AT bott DOT com) with the details, including your address, and I’ll send you one of my books, signed. Tell me which one you want. I’ve got lots of copies of the standard edition of Windows XP Inside Out, Second Edition and Special Edition Using Microsoft Office 2003 and Special Edition Using Microsoft Office XP and Ed Bott’s Your New PC. I’ll pick up the postage and handling. All you have to do is donate to the relief efforts.
Ed Bott 
Pass the word. Registry for survivors and friends and family searching for information.
“The search side of the site allows for a specific pinpoint search for a person by household rather than generic searches by city. All the search requires is the person’s telephone number from before the disaster. Family and friends searching for the same person can communicate with each other through the message board tied to that phone number.” (from http://www.managementblog.org)
http://www.im-ok.org
From Dave Farber’s Interesting People List:
Red Cross already has software to do this, and their “find your relatives” link for Katrina is already up. Without detracting from the efforts of Earthlink engineers or others who are working on such services, this is one case where the network effects from consolidation favor fewer sites rather than more. Real value would be added by coordinating and cross-referencing the various sites.