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                <p>Four years, 3,000+ posts, and more gadgets than you could shake a stick at—it's been a great run.</p>
                <p>And just think: when I first started blogging as Yahoo!'s resident Gadget Hound back in March of 2007, there were no Kindles, iPod Touches, Android phones, and yes, no tweets (well, not unless you count those from sparrows). Google was already huge, but Facebook wasn't—not yet, anyway. And Windows Vista was barely two months old.</p>
                <p>Believe me, writing about tech for Yahoo! has been a blast and an honor, and I'm proud to have been part of such an all-star team.</p>
                <p>But change is good, and about a month ago, I informed my super smart, tireless, and always supportive editors that I'd decided to move on. So this, dear readers, will be my last post as a full-time blogger for Yahoo! News.</p>
                <p>For those of you who followed my Gadget Hound blog regularly, thank you. I'm grateful to everyone who took the time to read my posts, e-mail a question or leave a comment. Your feedback, encouragement, and tough love has been inspiring and motivational, and I truly appreciate it.</p>
                <p>So, what's next for me? Well, vacation, for starters. After that, it's back to work as a freelance writer. And I've already got a project or two in the pipeline—and if you're interested, I'd love to tell you about them. So stay tuned to <a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/yblog_technews/tc_yblog_technews/storytext/the-gadget-hound-bids-farewell/40626778/SIG=10s2cgs67/*http://twitter.com/benpatt">my Twitter feed</a> and <a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/yblog_technews/tc_yblog_technews/storytext/the-gadget-hound-bids-farewell/40626778/SIG=10vlru98a/*http://tech.benpatterson.net/">my personal Web site</a> (<a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/yblog_technews/tc_yblog_technews/storytext/the-gadget-hound-bids-farewell/40626778/SIG=11iskk9bu/*http://tech.benpatterson.net/feeds/posts/default">here's the RSS link</a>), and feel free <a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/yblog_technews/tc_yblog_technews/storytext/the-gadget-hound-bids-farewell/40626778/SIG=10ptb4e5l/*http://about.me/benpatt">to contact me directly</a>.</p>
                <p>There are many people to thank. First, thanks to the current team here at Yahoo! News: Richard Vega, Jamie Mottram, Andrew Golis, Sam Silverstein, Leah Hitchings, Alex Romanelli, Mia Zuckerkandel, Oliver Libaw, Phat Chiem, Richard Eisenberg, Becky Worley, Daniel Garza, and Anna Robertson. Special thanks to Jennifer Karmon and David Caplan for their copy-editing skills over the past year. On the business side of things, thanks to Yahoo!'s Chris Hunter and my agent, Ted Weinstein.</p>
                <p>Then there's the original Yahoo! Tech crew, which welcomed me with open arms and immediately made me feel right at home: Pat Houston, Annette Cardwell, Laura Lindhe, Roger Hibbert, Alexander Yoon, Gina Hughes, Dory Devlin, Robin Raskin, Erica Smith, and James Hamilton. Thank you. I'd also like to tip my hat to Yahoo! Tech's first Gadget Hound, Tom Samiljan.</p>
                <p>And last but not least, many thanks to my former partner in tech-blogging crime, Christopher Null, who e-mailed me more than four years ago to see if I'd be interested in writing for Yahoo!. He promised I'd have a ball, and you know, he was right.</p>
                <p>Thanks again for reading, and keep in touch.</p>
                <p><strong>Note:</strong> My departure from Yahoo! seems like (very) small potatoes compared to the <a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/news/yblog_technews/tc_yblog_technews/storytext/the-gadget-hound-bids-farewell/40626778/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_japan_earthquake">terrible tragedy unfolding in Japan</a>. "Today we are all Japanese," <a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/yblog_technews/tc_yblog_technews/storytext/the-gadget-hound-bids-farewell/40626778/SIG=11prnu31s/*http://twitter.com/GeorgeTakei/status/46220495179354113">tweets George Takai</a>, who urges us all to make a donation for disaster relief <a href="https://american.redcross.org/site/Donation2?idb=271680001&amp;df_id=4993&amp;4993.donation=form1">through the American Red Cross</a>.</p>
                <p>— Ben Patterson is a technology blogger for Yahoo! News.</p>
                <p><a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/yblog_technews/tc_yblog_technews/storytext/the-gadget-hound-bids-farewell/40626778/SIG=10s2cgs67/*http://twitter.com/benpatt">Follow me on Twitter!</a></p>
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            </p></div></div><p><strong>Read more:</strong> <a class="rssreadon" rel="external" title="The Gadget Hound bids farewell   (Ben Patterson)" href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/20110311/tc_yblog_technews/the-gadget-hound-bids-farewell" target="_blank">http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/20110311/tc_yblog_technews/the-gadget-hound-bids-farewell</a></p>