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2008 December

30GB Zune - Did Yours Die?

The blogsphere is full of horror tales of Zune 30GB owners waking up to dead Zunes. Microsoft states that:
“We are aware that customers with the Zune 30GB are experiencing issues with their Zune device. We are actively working now to isolate the issue and develop a solution to address it. We will keep customers informed [...]

Predictions For 2009 - Guaranteed

Every year I enjoy making predictions for the New Year. 2009 is going to be the easiest every to make predictions, since most or some of 2008 will carry over. Though there may be some new technologies being introduced, for the most part 2009 will be lean on technology improvements, just because of the economic [...]

Will The FCC Provide Us With Free Broadband?

The current FCC chairman has been trying to get free broadband moving before the end of his term. But there are powers in Congress that have blocked his endeavor. So will we the public ever get free broadband some day down the road?
I believe that we may just eventually have a good chance of getting [...]

Windows 7 Leaked - What Else Is New?

Over at Ars Technica they have an article which alludes to the fact that Windows 7 Beta 1 has been leaked. The article also states it was is going to cover Microsoft’s reaction, but doesn’t mention anything about any reaction from anyone. I have a reaction to the alleged leak.
First of all with every new [...]

Virus Bulletin – December 2008 – 21 Winners & 2 Losers

I have been using AVG for about 4 years and I have found the software to have provided ample protection. I have also heard others here in this blog and other forums express their preference on using Avast. For those users of Avast you may wish to read the results in that Avast was one [...]

Will It Be Illegal To Link To Other Sites?

The NY Times is being sued by a company called Gatehouse Media who states that the Times illegally linked to their site. The law suit alleges that the Times violated copyright infringements using the links.

In an article from Real Tech News it further states that:

“You’ll recall that earlier this year AP took a hardline stance [...]

New E-holiday Card Virus Discovered

Researches at ESET are reporting a new e-card virus which appears to be similar to the Storm virus that plagued us all. It seems that this critter asks the user to clcik on a link in the greeting card which release the attack. 
According to this article which states:
Like the Storm worm, the latest worm, which [...]

Yahoo And Their Open Strategy Plans

The once darling of the Internet search crowd is in the process of trying to reinvent itself with a new open strategy plan. Most of Yahoo’s pruducts such as mail, toolbar and media will receive a facelift as well as other added features. Yahoo appears to be trying to pull itself up by its boot [...]

After The Digital TV Switch You Do Not Need Cable Or Satellite

On Febuary 20th, 2009 most TV stations will be required to change from an analog to digital signal which will require some changes who receive a TV signal via antenna. With all of the infomercials which address this subject, it is hard to believe that some folks are still confused. According to Consumer Reports some [...]

Are We All Doomed Until 2010?

This morning I was getting a haircut and during the discussion with the barber we talked about the economy. He mentioned that the news folks may be painting a gloom and doom forcast and hopefully things will not get as bad as predicted. So when I read an article over at SF Gate in which [...]

Rent College Textbooks Instead Of Buying Them

For those of us who attended any institution of higher education, we are keenly aware of the high cost of textbooks. Even when we bought used books, it still put a dent in our pocket books. Well over at chegg.com they have a different appraoch which can save you up to 60% off on the cost. [...]

Security Updates As Of December 21, 2008

Make sure your system is up to date and has the latest protections in place.

AVG anti-virus: 12/21/08
Avast: 12/19/08
Norton anti-virus: 12/17/08
McAfee anti-virus: 12/17/08
Lavasoft Ad-Aware: 12/17/08
Spybot Search and Destroy: 12/19/08
Microsoft Windows Defender: 12/17/08
Nod32: 12/20/08

Updates as of December 21.  2008 6:00am CDT.

Record Drop In Home Prices In Santa Clara Did Not Drop 40% - Say What?

You wonder why our country is in such a terrible mess. I am reading an article in the San Jose Mercury news, in which an article describes that the median price of home in Santa Clara, California has dropped 39.5% from the hightest prices posted in November, 2007.
But it was this one sentence that struck [...]

Best Buy Reports A Drop of 77% Of Earnings

Best Buy which remains as the major leader in the electronic retailer supplier reported a 77% drop in their earnings during the 3rd quarter of 2008. The retailer stated that in 2007 they posted earnings of some $228 million dollars compared to earnings of $52 million dollars for the same period in 2008. According to [...]

Windows XP Will Still Be Available After 1-31-09 Deadline

No matter which side of the fence you sit on when it comes to Vista, Microsoft is still confirming that some are still resistant to make the switch from Windows XP to Windows Vista. With this in mind, system builders will be able to order Windows XP beyond the January 31, 2009 cutoff date. According [...]

Google Remains The King Of Search

ComScore has released their latest statitics for the month of November, 2008 and Google remains the king of all search engines. This is not a major surprise, but what is surprising is that Microsoft still remains in the number 3 position at a lowly 8.5% of all searches. Even though Microsoft has adpoted a pay [...]

Will The Dell Adamo Be Super Thin?

Over at the Washington Post they have an article which is part rumor, part speculation and part assumptions that the new Dell Adamo may be as thin as the Mac Air. A recent article about the new computer which described what the new computer will be has mysteriously disappeared from the Internet. However, other sources [...]

Toshiba To Launch 512GB SSD In Early 2009

Toshiba is a leader in producing those new SSD hard disks and are now ready to launch a 512 GB during the first part of 2009. What makes SSD so attractive when compared to the standard hard disk, is that SSD are more reliable, quiet and most importantly they are faster. SSD drives offer faster [...]

I’m Back Home From California!

For the past week I have been in California, mainly in the SF Bay Area, visitng family and friends. I have always felt that it is good for the heart and soul to return to your roots once in a while just to fresh those fond memories we all hopefully had while growing up. It [...]

Firefox 3.1 beta 2 now available!

Over at the Mozilla Blog they have announced that a beta version of Firefox is now available for download. There are new features which should improve the performance of Firefox and also should improve upon speed.
According to the artcile it states:
Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 is now available for download. This milestone is focused on testing [...]

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