MamaRose.com

I was a sophomore in high school when Mama became ill and subsequently passed. Her passing left a gigantic void because she was truly the driving force that kept the family intact and in line. Though I was not the eldest child in the family, Mama had taught me many of the things she did to run the household. So it was not surprising when running the house became my task. Mama also taught her five girls to be ladies and to be loving and kind.

The view frrom my window overlooks a busy avenue and off in the distance, an even busier boulevard. Almost directly below is a vest-pocket park with open space and clusters of tall green, leafy shade trees, under which park benches are permanently placed.

Bill Gates's sprawling Washington state compound is, as you might expect, packed to the gills with bleeding-edge gear, from the heated floors and 20-seat home theater to the X-ray machine (for screening the mail, of course) and miles of fiber-optic cabling. But here's what you definitely won't find at chez Gates: an iPhone.

In the latest issue of Vogue, Bill's wife, Melinda Gates, reveals that among the "very few things" on "the banned list in our household" are„you guessed it„iPods and iPhones.

Digicams are the success story of the decade. The world is taking more pictures than ever, thanks to convenience and low cost (never buy film again!). Photo sharing site Flickr has passed the two billion picture mark, every cellphone carries a camera and in my tourist-honeypot hometown, vacationers tote DSLRs. But while film is almost dead, there are still some things that the old school does better.