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I’ve been looking for ways to better distribute my business contact information to others without the use of the traditional paper business card. Sure, I have really enjoyed handing out my varied and conversation-starting Moo cards at events, however, I’m often caught without my cards and always wonder if people really have a good business card management system these days. I haven’t seen one of those old Rolodexes with cards that have slits in them to hold business cards in eons.

Earlier December saw the launch of Cogi (pronounced co-jee), an audio recording and transcription service in the mould of QTech’s reQall and SkyDeck, bringing a potentially a valuable note taking tool for web workers.

How do you deal with telling all your clients you’ll be on vacation, that you’re offering a new service or special rates, or any other important piece of news for that matter? What if you’d like to send out a regular e-newsletter? Without certain programming skills, it’s a challenge. And not all of us web workers are programmers.

I have a new toy, and today is Show and Tell.

We’ve given some advice for setting freelance hourly rates before, including a rough rule of thumb for those leaving more traditional employment (multiple your hourly pay as an employee by 2.5 to 3.0). But a new blog post from Pat Allan offers another way to think about this, and one worth running through if you’re new to freelancing.

Diana Ghazzawi, a Gazan blogger who is now based in North America, shares with us her worries that she might not meet her relatives in Gaza one day, if they don't get lucky from the strategic Israeli shelling on the Gazans:

Five years ago Lee LeFever was an online community manager for a B2B healthcare company called Solucient. Today, his voice has been heard by millions of people around the world, making strange new applications feel easy to use and offering some of the clearest explanations of how the Internet is changing.

LeFever is the founder of Common Craft and his story is an inspiring one.

Fun t-shirt by Washington DC artist Chris Bishop. They're $19 including shipping and handling.

Rob Ives' "Gizmos" looks like a blast: a $13 book that includes cut-out automata you can make yourself, such as popping frogs and marching robots.

Using the ingenious punch-out designs included in Gizmos, you can assemble six enchanting automata by designer Rob Ives???and when you???ve mastered the fundamental techniques, you can create new designs of your own. Gizmos includes:

The fascination with Al Capone carries on. The Tribune is reporting that the home at 7244 S. Prairie Avenue where Capone lived with his family while rising through the ranks to fortune and infamy is going up for sale.