Ellen DeGeneres Picking Funny Craigslist Freebies

Ellen DeGeneres has just started a new segment on her show where she picks items from the "free" section of craigslist and talks about them on the show.

Today's item was a bar and two stools -- the owner said it needed refinishing, and she suggested it could be done with carpeting. Ellen thought it was funny that the person listing it was suggesting how it could be fixed up. She said she had the same idea for a jacket and showed a photo of herself wearing a jacket made out of carpeting.

Then she said she'd had two "cutlets" made out of carpeting for her bra..."just a little bit of padding" -- if you need more padding you can use plush or shag, she suggested.

Send in your funny craigslist freebies, she says. So America, go for it!

Will Wal-Mart Help Skype Catch on in US?

Skype seems to have a good following among international users, and in fact the only times I've used it is to call some friends and family I have living in Europe. But within the U.S., it hasn't really caught on. And in fact I'd guess a lot of Americans don't even know of it as an option to call Europe.

Now Wal-Mart will sell Skype phone accessories in the electronics section of 1800 of its 3300 stores, including handsets, headsets and Web cams, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Some of these items are evidently already being sold in stores such as Best Buy and Circuit City, but I think the Wal-Mart offering will go a long way toward bringing Skype to the U.S.

I have houseguests staying with us from Holland now, and they've been using Skype a lot to communicate with family back home. It really brought home to me how useful this  technology is and how much money it can save people...at least unless prices go up.