Under the covers

One of the things about being on the road is the amount of additional equipment you inevitably end up carrying with you. Laptop power supply, USB cable for my Treo (yes I know I can synch with Bluetooth but the USB charges the phone too which saves another charger), USB keys, modem cables (!) etc.

I'm an avid user of VOIP, I have a Skype In number for my business and use it on a daily basis but have always felt a little self conscious about wearing an earpiece or headset in public as (apologies to all those that do use these) I've always felt I looked like a bit of an idiot.

I also hate with a passion my Vaio "strokepad". It's not as bad as the IBM (Lenovo) "nipple" but for some reason I just can't get on with them. So I've always carried a small Kensington travel mouse with me when travelling.

Now I've killed the proverbial two birds with a mouse. Well a mouse-phone to be precise. For the last few months I've been using the fantastic Sony Vaio Mouse Talk Mouse and Internet Phone. It does exactly what it says on the tin (unlike most Sony product naming) and doubles as a Mouse and VOIP phone.

So now, I still feel like a bit of a fool when I get an incoming call, and I obviously have to use that damned strokepad whilst on the phone, but it certainly turns a few heads when I flip open my mouse and start talking into it!

Now all the beans have been counted and totals added up, the great news is that we broke the £400,000 barrier for monies raised by the participants of this year's Byte Night event.

The most amazing thing of all is that with the dedication of the board, sponsors and NCH, the costs of staging the event worked out at less than 10% of the total.

Byte Night Local contributed around £40,000 with satellite events in Reading and Essex and we'll be pushing hard to expand on this next year.

A big thanks to all the teams involved and we're already looking forward to next year's event so be sure to put the 3rd October in your diary now