Thank you, Findory readers, for the last four years. I hope you not only found interesting news on Findory you otherwise would have missed, but also, just by using Findory, took pleasure in helping others find news they might enjoy.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end. On November 22, 2007, Findory will be shutting down.

It was a wonderful experiment building Findory. Information personalization is in our future.

What am I going to do?

I came back from a couple of days in Northern Virginia just in time to beat the Thanksgiving rush. It was a great trip and a lovely time was had by all – even the site visits and meetings couldn’t spoil the fun. One of the highlights: the absolutely superb and out-of-this-world gin and tonics at Eve in Old Town Alexandria. The food at their bistro was not too shabby either. You can take a look at their menu online.

A nifty service with the tag line “One Number – One Voicemail Box – So Many Features.” Grand Central is, at the moment, still free of charge and you get a phone number in an area of your choice (I chose Washington, DC). With it comes a voicemail box and the possibility to forward calls to other numbers. That’s not all. You can import your Outlook address book and start grouping your contacts; forwards callers from one group to one number and from another group to another number; send callers from a third group directly to voicemail; assign different ring tones, etc. Check your voicemail on-line and manage the whole thing with your browser. The service (which has been acquired by Google recently) is in beta right now and you can put in reservations for numbers – or you can be invited. I still have a couple of invitations.

(I don’t know, it might be a solution for someone who lives outside the U.S. and needs a U.S. phone number to receive calls.)

Just encountered this self-promotion on Facebook:

I have 2 degrees in translation and simultaneous translation

Good for you.

It is almost over, the annual ATA conference in San Francisco. In a few minutes, the closing reception will start, and then tomorrow, before dawn, I’ll wing back toward Missouri.

I met lots of old friends and colleagues and many new ones. It was a very well attended conference. On Tuesday night, while having dinner with Michael M., we even experienced an earthquake. The joint anniversary dinner of the German and French language divisions on Thursday night was a highlight – 120 people celebrating 10 years of divisionhood. (The cap for the dinner was 120; the actual membership of the GLD alone is more like 1,200.)

A great conference in a great city. Next year’s gathering in Orlando will probably pale by comparison.