This is not about tech. Rather, think of it as a public service message to maximize the life spans of my few readers. And also an old friend who doesn’t read this blog – he’s a consummate non-techie – but will get a link from me.

Last Friday I had a colonoscopy. There was no problem. It was just recommended screening (for colon cancer) because of my age (let’s just say 50’s and leave it at that).

I had put off the colonoscopy because of fears about it. I learned my fears were unfounded. What I should have feared is the consequences of putting it off. Colon cancer is a silent killer. Without screening (i.e., a colonoscopy), by the time of your first signs of colon cancer, you have a big problem, or worse.

So let me address my fears in the event some of you are putting off a colonoscopy for similar reasons.

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James Kendrick, the JK of JKOnTheRun, has started a personal blog, which includes his Mobile Tech Manor series. Check it out!

My friend Chuong Nguyen, aka chuongvision, now is writing for one of my all-time favorite sites, GottaBeMobile (aka GBM). Chuong, in addition to being a very nice guy, writes interesting stuff. Check out his first article on GBM, Bits & Atom: Do We Need an Atoms Model for Bits Adoption to Pick Up. GBM just got even better. Congratulations, Chuong!

My students have asked me which sites I follow. The picture is a screen shot of my subscriptions in Google Reader.

I use Google Reader to try to keep current on technology news. It’s a losing battle. As you can see from the 275 unread posts in the Technology category, I’m behind in my reading. While I try to set aside time each day to go through my unread posts, more posts keep pouring in.

My Google Reader  list is not exclusive of the sites I follow. There are other sites to which I subscribe to email updates. So having them in Google Reader would just cause duplication.

I do update the list from time to time, as my interests (or phones) change. For example, I added Streak Smart after I bought my Dell Streak.

Any other technology sites you suggest I follow?

Broadband.gov, brought to you by the same fun folks that bring you … the IRS … has a tool that enables you to test your connection. You need Java and to just say yes to the usual applet security prompts. Additionally, the paranoid among us (like me) may not like the fact that you need to enter your address. Not sure what happens if you enter a fake address – perhaps your next connection test will be from Gitmo. Anyway, the test itself takes less than a minute. My results, which also show the format and explanation of the test results (and their story of why they want your street address), after the break.

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[courtesy of one of my students, Kash]

I wrote about six months ago about TeamSam. Margot Hutchinson is my literary agent. She and her husband Neil have three beautiful sons. One, Sam, was diagnosed in January 2005 with Stage IV Neuroblastoma, a very serious childhood cancer. Margot has chronicled the last 5 years in her blog, TeamSam.

Sam’s tough and a fighter. But for the parents, as you can imagine, there are good days and not so good days. Please drop over to TeamSam and post a comment. I’m sure they’ll appreciate it. Thanks. Jeff

I sometimes envy professional bloggers who get journalist credentials for free admittance, goodie bags and private screenings for events like CES. Then I read the experience of Jason Dunn of PocketPC Thoughts, ranging from his Kafkaesque experience with the Canadian version of TSA to the stomach flu from hell at 2 am in his Las Vegas hotel room. His article is entertaining, though I suspect this is due to retrospect, not how he felt at the time.

Now I feel better for missing CES. I hope Jason feels better too.

Nice. But I wish I knew how to use Google Wave My fault though. I still haven’t read the online book.

[via Android Central]