Why do I have this device on my desk? I turn off the ringer and messages go directly to my e-mail. All day I stare at my computer monitors while wearing my Plantronics GameCom 377 gaming headphones equipped with a microphone.

Why do I have a separate device for people to reach me at my desk? It is a VOIP phone after all. Why not just install the phone software on my PC instead of buying hundreds of costly desktop devices for the company?

That way people can call me through the device that consumes every moment of my attention while at work — the computer.

What’s the difference, really? I plug a network cable into the back of each device. Digital voice calls are just one form of data that gets transmitted through the Internet pipe.

There is a big difference on my end. The user experience of a phone sucks. People have unwittingly become cartographers to use these things over the years. I have to either memorize or look up numeric codes for people I want to contact, then enter them into the device with only a numeric keypad.

How much easier is Microsoft Communicator (Disclosure: Microsoft is a client) or Google Talk or Skype? Just click on a name to call someone in your contact list. Google Voice is even integrated into Gmail now.

I find it amusing that some of my colleagues have three sets of headphones they use throughout the day — one for listening to music, one for calls over the VOIP phone system and one for calls over a PC unified communications platform. Why not just route the phone data through the PC and get one set of headphones with a mic? That seems like it would be a less costly for the IT department. It would surely cost less in hardware purchasing, maintenance and training costs.

I suspect the real reason we keep putting phone devices on desks is because it’s what people are used to. Many people still use their traditional phones and it would be a jarring transition if we took away their hardware.

I’d like to hear what you think. I’m likely missing something. I’m not an IT pro. But before you leave a comment to correct my course, please understand that I’m talking about getting rid of the VOIP desk phone hardware and just running the software on PCs. I’m not talking about switching to cell phones. I’m not talking about analog landlines. I’m not talking about home phones. I’m just talking about large companies spending a bunch of money to put a redundant devices every worker’s desk.

Thoughts?

I had been eagerly anticipating the release of the Epic Win app to the Apple app store for about a month. Last week it finally arrived. I immediately bought it and tried it out.

The basic premise of the app is that it takes your to-do list and turns it into a role-playing game complete with experience points, quests, treasure and levels.

First step: Create and name your character. You can choose from a few different character types. I chose a particularly pathetic-looking skeleton.

Second step: Enter your to-do items into the app as “quests” for your character to complete.

Third step: Complete your to-do list. As you check items off your list, your character moves forward in its quest map hitting checkpoints along the way.

Fourth step: Collect your rewards. Just like in any RPG, as your character collects points in these areas it gains levels and abilities. As you complete your everyday tasks (or quests), you compile points in several areas (strength, stamina, intellect, social and spirit).

This has already made me more productive. It’s strange that a simple app like this one offers rewards that motivate me to do things I would rather avoid. In fact, it seems like game gold and levels are better motivators for me than real-world pay and job promotions. That probably says a lot about me.

Jason Barger wrote “Step Back From the Baggage Claim.”

Barger spent seven days flying to seven different cities without ever leaving the airport.

He noticed that at baggage claim at every airport human walls of entitlement formed at the baggage claim as people struggled to carve out and defend space.

The moral of this story is that people need to take a step back to create space to connect with something more meaningful. We need to realize that “what we put out into the world changes the world.”

He proposes we take a step back and think. Figure out what we want to put out into the world. Then act with purpose.

Violet Blue is a sex educator.

As an established author, Blue was asked to speak to the media about sex and she noticed they always wanted her to talk about sex in one of two ways: scary or nonexistent.

So, she did what any deeply passionate person would do; she hacked the system.

She bypassed the mainstream media and used the Web to put out her messages.

She’s discovered that even online she runs into brick walls in the form of “Terms of Service Agreements.”

Blue put out a plea for “harm-reduction” approach to social media where users, not gatekeepers determine what is appropriate to talk about and share.

One day Melissa Pierce just picked up a camera and started interviewing people. Now she’s living life in perpetual beta.

I won a copy of this today from Whrrl. I can’t wait to watch it! I’ll update this post after I watch it.

Scott and Alex Mueller, a husband-wife team who live at Moosicorn Ranch, an experiment in sustainable living.

They started shopping for land online one day and set out to create affordable housing, generate sustainable power and farm their own food.

Because they started with a blank canvas, they were able to ensure they were using the most cost-efficient and sustainable materials. They also can incorporate geeky tech into the guts of their house.

For example, their special wiring and electrical situation makes it possible to control their entire house to be controlled with an iPhone.

Now, if we can only get the whole world to evolve into a smart grid!

Scott Draves is an open source geek artist.

He uses algorithms and APIs to make cool looking computer graphics — and a lot of is open source!

Odds are that you’ve seen some of his stuff in the form of Flame images and graphic.

He also works with an interactive visual musical instrument known as Bomb.

The next step was the Electric Sheep, which is a screensaver delivered via distributed supercomputer. The audience votes to drive the genetic algorithm. As a result, everyone who is sharing the experience can vote up or vote down the sheep. The bad sheep die and the best sheep combine with other top sheep to create totally new sheep.

It’s a crowd-sourced artistic graphical experience.

Now, Draves is working with Play Generation 243.

Melody Biringer is a natural-born entrepreneur. Shauna Causey is a big-time corporate girl.

Together they are Tech Mavens.

According to its Twitter profile, Tech Mavens is working to promote (and connect) trailblazing women in the digital, social media and technology spheres.

The idea spawned between Causey and Biringer in early 2010 at Startup Weekend in Seattle and SXSW Interactive in Austin. They both have had success in the tech and business spheres (or spheres peripheral to those).

Shortly afterward, they were off and running.

They settled on a name, created a logo, formalized their mission and were immediately asked to present their new creation at Gnomedex.

If you’re a woman looking a business and/or tech role model, Causey and Biringer should be your first stop.

Amy Karlson works at Microsoft Research and she’s studying how we use all our devices and the gaps between them.

Microsoft Research studied people’s habits of how much they used their devices (PC and mobile device) throughout the day and what they were trying to accomplish on those devices.

The consensus seemed to be that mobile experience is still broken in many ways. While some tasks (mainly email and web browsing) are often done on mobile devices, the input/output methods aren’t as good as a standard PC.

Johnny Diggz is the CTA for Tropo and he’s working on something called Geeks Without Borders.

According to its Ning page:

Geeks Without Borders is a social network of concerned people, who realize the potential and promise of technology. For us living in the technologically rich areas of the world, we often take what we have for granted. Consider though, how what we have would benefit and improve the lives of those living in areas where the dream of technology is just that – a dream.

If you’re looking for more information check out the GWOB website or hit up the Gnomedex Open Government “Tinkerstorm” on Sunday. Diggz is aiming for a proper announcement of some sort at 10:10 a.m. on Oct. 10, 2010 (10:10 10/10/10).