In Silicon Valley next week? Come to our blogger/geek dinner at Palo Alto’s Cheesecake Factory. December 30, 2005 at 6 p.m. All are invited.

In Las Vegas at CES? Let’s get together. First, on Friday evening, January 6, we’re looking to get something going. We’re looking to do a Naked Conversation dinner or something. Ideas wanted. Where should we meet? We’ll probably need to RSVP, so we’ll need to keep track of who is coming (leave a comment here and we’ll keep you in touch).

MacWorld? I’m gonna try to get down for a day or two of that. Anyone planning any dinners?

Anything else going on that we should join in over the next couple of weeks?

People walk up to me now and taunt me with Maryam’s blog. They say she’s a better blogger than I am. They are right. Now you know why I’ve been trying for years to get her to blog (and why I fell in love with her). It’s interesting that she writes about things we experienced together. The depressing sight of knowing someone had jumped off of a freeway overpass. The smell of our clothes after unpacking from Europe. Her hope for less hatred in the world. The quirky things she does. The amazing women she met in Europe.

Her writing is freer. More interesting. More diverse. Reminds me to try new things once in a while. In the meantime, back to tech.

The forums over on DP Review are going hot and heavy. Why? The Nikon D200 is one hot animal. B&H Photo sold out of their shipment in an hour or so yesterday. Now, this could have caused an international incident (and, has) but I’ve been watching and I’m real impressed with how Henry Posner of B&H Photo-Video, Inc. has been handling complaints in the forum. How did I know about this? An executive at Factiva was just talking to me about how impressive this was to him and how Henry’s interactions are winning him friends and new customers.