cascade's Early Christmas Present

Earlier this summer, cascade was able to share our passion of computers with a group of children across the globe through One Laptop per Child. This amazing non-profit strives to equip underprivileged children with specially designed laptops for educational and personal use. One Laptop's mission and their XO Laptop technology are best summarized in the organization's explanatory video.

Cascade's donation, made specifically by Ben McKinley and Fritz Brumder, went to Chakuwama, a unique childrens' orphanage in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. The donation included a XO Laptop for the children and a personal Dell Laptop for the Chakuwama office staff, a gift for their amazing sacrifices.

Last week, Fritz received an email with images of the children enjoying their new XO Laptop. An awesome early Christmas present for all of us at cascade, especially for Fritz.




Fritz has been working with the children of Chakuwama since 1999 when he visited Tanzania and was introduced to the orphanage. For more about the amazing woman behind Chakuwama and the children involved, please view Fritz's Chakuwama documentary.

To learn how you can donate to One Laptop per Child please visit laptop.org.

Portland Chosen for Google Hotpot

Santa isn't the only one delivering presents across Portland.

Today on Google's Places blog, the tech company announced our beloved PDX was chosen for the launch of their first local Hotpot campaign. Hotpot is an enhanced feature of Google Places. It allows users to rate local businesses and see friends' ratings both during Google searches and in the Hotpot rating app. Google summarizes Hotspot best as:

a local recommendation engine powered by you and your friends

Why was Portland chosen? Because we're awesome. Literally, that's what they said...or at least that's how I read it. You be the judge:

Portland is a tech savvy, forward-thinking city with a history of innovation and some of the best coffee houses, microbreweries and parks in the country. Whether you know it as The City of Roses, Stumptown, P-Town, Rip City or just PDX, Portland’s thriving local business community and strong heritage of being a trailblazer made it a great choice for us to try something new.

Google will be working with several Portland businesses educating them about Places and providing them with Business Kits (businesses can request one if they have a Places page). These kits mainly include marketing material and instructions on how business can benefit from Places and Hotpot.

Voodoo Donuts and fans at tonight's Blazers v. Magic game are already benefiting from Google being in town. They're also taking a group of the top 5 Hotpot users in Portland out for dinner through their second Hotpot Jackpot.

Read more about Hotpot, Google Places and where you might see them around town in the Hotpot Portland announcement, "Trailblazing in Portland".

By Kyle Bridges