Technology companies stepped into disaster relief efforts following Tuesday’s tragic events in New York and Washington, D.C, reports CNET News.com. The site provides a partial list of contributors.

According to CNET News.com, employees from technology companies Cisco Systems, Oracle, Applied Materials, Compaq Computer, Akamai Technologies, Metrocall, MRV Communications, Netegrity, eLogic, Raytheon Company, Sun Microsystems, NextWave Telecom, BEA Systems, and 3Com were among those on the four planes hijacked Tuesday.

Palm issued a press release that stated an advantage of Palm handheld computers is that there are a vast number of software developers who already have software, or can quickly customize their software applications, for a particular small business. In many cases, small businesses themselves can create their own applications or adapt existing applications to their individual needs.

AvantGo, Inc. and Expedia.com are showcasing Expedia’s AvantGo-powered wireless initiatives at the Wireless in the Travel Industry 2001 conference. Expedia is using AvantGo’s mobile solutions to enhance its customer relationship management strategy.

In light of this week’s tragedies, everyone has heard pleas for help. If you are wondering what you can do to help ease the suffering of those affected, here are a few places to start. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone.

American Red Cross, blood supply:
Call 1-800-HELP-NOW to schedule an appointment near you.

American Red Cross, cash donations:
Call 1-800-HELP-NOW

New York Blood Center, blood supply:
The New York Blood Center has announced a blood emergency for the greater New York/New Jersey metropolitan area. Visit nybloodcenter to help.

Helping.org:
For more information on helping victims of the U.S. attacks, visit helping.org. You will find links to many assistance opportunities.

If your company has posted information on the status of your business, employees, family, and friends in this crisis, please send us a link to news@ZATZ.com. All of us are deeply concerned for our friends and colleagues throughout the industry. As we get your news, we’ll update the information we have here.

For the last two days, we’ve been living in shock. Everyone I know has been affected deeply by this tragedy. I’ll see a new image on the screen, read a new personal story in someone’s online Web log, and it’ll set me off. It’s been tough to focus, to concentrate. It’s been a huge challenge just to come to work.

Here at ZATZ, we’ve been struggling with the issues that must be facing businesses everywhere. First, we need to come together as members of the human race and as a family. We need to talk, comfort each other, and continue to reassure each other that we’ll be ok, even as we question whether this horror marks the end of the tragedy or the beginning of a new phase of terror. In that context, it’s been virtually impossible to find importance in the minutiae of our daily jobs. How, for example, could we possibly publish industry news and press releases when all this was going on? How could we possibly even care about editing articles? And, certainly, we couldn’t make sales calls. It’s not only poor taste, it’s just not something we can bring ourselves to do.

We love our company and what we do. But ZATZ and, frankly, the whole technology/Internet thing becomes inconsequential in the context of what we’ve just seen. When you get up in the morning out of your nice, warm, soft bed and you realize that a bunch of just plain folk did that same thing on Tuesday and they’re still trapped, maybe even still barely alive, it’s really hard to care about LotusScript, XML, doing a HotSync, or downloading that new cool app.

Tuesday at ZATZ, we sent everyone home to be with their families. Thankfully, we’re all fine. Our staff members include myself (David Gewirtz), Denise Amrich, Heather McDaniel, Theo Durst, Emily Lopizzo, Steve Niles, and Anastatia Levari and we’re all fine. It also looks like our family and friends seem to be out of harm’s way. Yesterday, we came into work. Honestly, not a hell of a lot got done, but we took our first step towards reclaiming our lives. And we’re back again today.

Today, we’re going to resume limited news coverage. You’re reading this, and if we have any press releases or other industry news stories, we’re going to post them. Some of you might think it’s callous or too early. It’s not. We need to regain our lives. We need to stand up and show the world that while we were deeply affected by the recent events, we were not broken. It’s not the industry news that matters. It’s that we’re still here. We don’t shut down that easily.

DominoPower’s September issue was due out on Tuesday. Obviously that didn’t happen. Although we’re still having a tough time focusing, we’re going to do our best to get the issue out today, just like we normally would. Normally, we’d send out an issue announcement and, of course, every Friday we send out tips. This week, we’re holding those mailings until Monday. But they will go out Monday. We were not broken. We are still here. And we, like so many of our fellow citizens, are going to make sure the world knows it.

So when you see the new issue of DominoPower, when you see today’s news, and when you see, next week, our regular tips, appearing as if it’s business as normal, know it’s because it will be business as normal. It has to be. Anything else would be a victory for the dark side.

I’ll close with a few final thoughts. You should know that the question of how and when we move on has been hotly debated inside ZATZ. It’s tough deciding between moving forward and grieving. Sometimes, though, you have to put a stake in the ground and declare your right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That stake goes in the ground now. We’re moving forward. — DG

“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

The company called iambic has announced FastWriter, which is designed to create, edit, and synchronize Microsoft Word, text, HTML, and rich text files directly between your Palm OS device and Windows PC. FastWriter was also created to support Palm DOCs and memo records, integrate with Memo Pad, and allow for instant conversion between file.

AvantGo, Inc. has announced support for the Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.5 and an alliance with Plumtree Software to deliver content and resources from the applications and content integrated in the Plumtree Corporate Portal to handheld devices.

In light of this week’s tragedies, everyone has heard pleas for help. If you are wondering what you can do to help ease the suffering of those affected, here are a few places to start. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone.

American Red Cross, blood supply:
Call 1-800-HELP-NOW to schedule an appointment near you.

American Red Cross, cash donations:
Call 1-800-HELP-NOW

New York Blood Center, blood supply:
The New York Blood Center has announced a blood emergency for the greater New York/New Jersey metropolitan area. Visit nybloodcenter to help.

Helping.org:
For more information on helping victims of the U.S. attacks, visit helping.org. You will find links to many assistance opportunities.