If you have been a victim of the BlueHippo scam you are advised to contact the bankruptcy court. According to a recent news article this is the information you will need:

BlueHippo has recently filed for bankruptcy. Consumers are advised to obtain and file a proof of claim form with the Bankruptcy Court by going to www.mdb.uscourts.gov , calling 410-962-2688 or writing to:

Edward A. Garmatz Federal Building
Bankruptcy Claim
United States Courthouse Ste 8530
101 W. Lombard St
Baltimore, Maryland 21201-2605

Bernas added, “Now more than ever it is vital for consumers to make the time to read the fine print and save all receipts.”

I sincerely hope that anyone who has become of victim of this scam will be reimbursed by the courts.

Comments welcome.

Source.

In a recent article it also states that:

Let me kick off by saying that Smartbook AG does indeed own a trademark on the word smartbook in most of Western Europe, Australia, Singapore, South Korea and a couple of other countries. The company sells laptops that are named Smartbook, so I guess the company is well within its rights to try and protect their trademark in any way it deems appropriate.

To me this seems like kind of straight forward. If one does choose to use the term ‘Smartbook’ to describe a device, the trademark company should receive credit.

Case closed.

Comments welcome.

Source.

Smartbook AG web site

We all knew that Blu-ray disc players were going to drop in price this holiday. This just confirms our guess was correct.

Naturally these specials are limited to stock on hand and there are no rain checks.

Happy shopping everyone and enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday.

The Walmart ads can be found here.

On the Newegg site they describe the HDTV as:

Newegg lists the HDTV at $1,299. So selling it at $699 seems like a steal. But what do you think? Is this ad for real?

Comments welcome.

blackfriday.info web site

Newegg site for Sharp HDTV

Offer available In Store only.
Minimum 5 per store. Limit 1 per customer. No rainchecks.

What’s Included

• HP Laptop with Intel® Celeron® Processor
• 6-cell lithium-ion battery
• AC power adapter
• Software: Microsoft Works; Cyberlink DVD Suite; Adobe Acrobat Reader and more
• Owner’s manual

Product Features

• Intel® Celeron® processor 900
  Features an 800MHz frontside bus, 1MB cache and 2.2GHz processor speed.
• 2GB DDR2 DIMM memory
  For multitasking power, expandable to 4GB.
• Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive with double-layer support
  Records up to 8.5GB of data or 4 hours of video using compatible DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media; also supports LightScribe direct-disc labels using compatible LightScribe media.
• 15.6″ high-definition widescreen display
  With BrightView technology and 1366 x 768 resolution showcases movies and games in stunning clarity.
• 160GB Serial ATA hard drive (7200 rpm)
  Offers spacious storage and fast read/write times.
• Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500M
  Features up to 797MB total graphics memory for lush images. HDMI output for connecting to an HDTV. Altec Lansing audio.
• 5-in-1 digital media reader
  Supports Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO and xD-Picture Card formats.
• 3 high-speed USB 2.0 ports
  For fast digital video, audio and data transfer.
• Built-in wireless LAN (802.11b/g)
  Connect to the Internet without wires.
• Built-in 10/100Base-T Ethernet LAN
  With RJ-45 connector and 56 Kbps modem for flexible wired Web connectivity options.
• Weighs 6.6 lbs. and measures just 1.7″ thin
  For portable power.
• HP Imprint Piano Black finish
  With a silver keyboard surround for a stylish look.
• Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit operating system preinstalled
  Provides a stable computing platform.
• Software package included
  With Microsoft Works, Cyberlink DVD Suite, Adobe Acrobat Reader and more. 60-day trial version of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 also included.
• ENERGY STAR qualified
  Designed to use less energy and meets strict energy efficiency guidelines set by the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Energy.
• Intel, Pentium, Celeron, Centrino, Core, Viiv, Intel Inside and the Intel Inside logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.

There you have it.These won’t last long at this price.

Comments welcome.

Source

Best Buy web site

Engadget also reports the following:

Apple’s new Core i7-based iMac might be a performance monster, but it looks like the whole family’s having some problems getting out of the gate: in addition to the previously-noted performance issues with the Core 2 Duo models, a quick glance across Apple’s support forums and on other Mac boards around the web reveals that some machines are showing up DOA and / or with cracked screens. We’re a little more familiar with the DOA issue, since the new i7 we just bought doesn’t boot at all, but the cracked screen issue seems to be equally common and mostly affecting the bottom left corner, from what we can tell.

But there is more to this story than just a few bad Apple systems. It should serve as a warning to all of us who purchase any electronic devices to check and make sure it works before Christmas morning. I recall one Christmas morning many years ago when I purchased a gaming console, wrapped it up in anticipation of Christmas day.

On Christmas morning the package was unwrapped with squeals of delight. But after setting up the console we found it DOA. Needless to say it was very disappointing for all.

Comments welcome.

Source

The opinion piece states the following:

If you search a term on Bing that is politically sensitive in China, in English the results are legitimate. Search “Tiananmen” and you’ll find out about the army firing on pro-democracy protesters in 1989. Search Dalai Lama, Falun Gong and you also get credible results. Conduct the search in complex Chinese characters (the kind used in Taiwan and Hong Kong) and on the whole you still get authentic results.

But conduct the search with the simplified characters used in mainland China, then you get sanitized pro-Communist results. This is especially true of image searches. Magic! No Tiananmen Square massacre. The Dalai Lama becomes and oppressor. Falun Gong believers are villains, not victims. What’s most offensive is that this is true wherever in the world the search is conducted – including in my office in New York. If Microsoft felt it had to bow to Chinese censorship within China’s borders, based on the IP address, that might be defensible. But when Microsoft skews its worldwide searches to make Hu Jintao feel better, that’s a disgrace. It becomes simply a unit of the Central Committee Propaganda Department.

Microsoft claims that it is a ‘bug’ in their system that has been fixed. But the author of the piece disagrees and claims it has not been repaired. The author also notes that on Google it is similar but not as bad as Bing.

Which made me wonder. If the N.Y. Times gets paid by Microsoft to dump Google and use Bing, will the N.Y. Times remain truly independent and continue to write opinions about Microsoft that are not flattering? Or will the N.Y. Times need to watch what they write since Microsoft will be paying their bills?

What do you think?

Comments welcome.

Source.

If you are not familiar with system restore, this is what it looks like:

So my question for you is this. Do you use system restore? If not, why not?

Comments welcome.

FWIW - system restore is also a part of Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Here is how the alleged scam operates. Once a consumer completes a transaction, what appears as a $10 refund coupon pops up on the screen. If a consumer accepts the terms of the coupon, they are automatically billed a monthly charge. Most consumers do not realize that the retailer provides your credit card information to the companies running these ads.

At CNET, a recent article states:

Now, the bad news: the marketers–Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty–are still in business and judging from the responses of many of the retailers involved, such as Priceline, Classmates.com, FTD, Shutterfly, and Orbitz, it will be business as usual. They see nothing wrong with the marketing practices that millions of angry online shoppers and members of the U.S. Senate have called a “scam,” “robbery” and “theft.”

The inference is clear: The people complaining about this are the ones who screwed up. The terms of the deal were all in the ad so that means anyone who was charged the monthly fee either wanted it at the time or was negligent.

One would think that this would be a simple matter to fix. The online retailer can insert a big bold disclosure stating this is a membership agreement and you will be charged a monthly fee. But this doesn’t appear to be what the online retailers wish to do. They see a money making machine and will continue to scam the consumer.

So what do you think? Scam, or the fault of consumers for not reading the fine print?

Should these sites be boycotted if they continue to use these ads?

Comments welcome.

Source.

eMachines 15.6″ eME627-5279 Laptop PC with AMD Athlon 64 Processor for $198.00 click here

HP 15.6″ Pavilion G60-519WM Laptop PC with Intel Celeron Processor 900 & Windows 7 Home Premium for $298.00 click here

Acer Blue 17.3″ Aspire AS7535-5020 Laptop PC with AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor QL-65 & Windows 7 for $498 click here

Hurry. Supplies are limited. Sale begin at 5:00am. Yawn!

Comments welcome.

The following information is from the blog:

Like so many past worms, this one uses a suggestive come-on to lure the unsuspecting into clicking a link, and after some behind-the-scenes shenanigans, it posts a link to the same lure page on the victim’s Facebook wall, if the click-happy victim is currently logged into Facebook.

I won’t go into the details on how the worm works. You can read more on this on the AVG blog site. But be careful out there if you are a Facebook user.

Comments welcome.

Source

One news article states that:

Investors punished computer maker Dell Inc. last Friday, sending its shares down almost 10 percent, as the company’s third-quarter earnings, revenues, and results came in below expectations.

The world’s No. 3 computer maker also lost market share to its rivals, a disappointing sign to analysts that it may be losing ground to its competitors as the computer and IT market shows signs of a rebound. The company lost market share to Hewlett-Packard Co., Acer Inc., and Apple Inc.

Consumers have resumed buying computers over the last few months, spurred by back-to-school sales, a recovering economy, and the upcoming holiday shopping season. But consumers have largely avoided Dell, instead snapping up HP laptops, Acer netbooks, and Apple computers—a trend that some analysts attribute to Dell’s staid and sometimes-uninspiring products.

The pricing of Dell systems appears to be competitive with other companies, so price doesn’t seem to be an issue. I believe that the reason for Dell’s decline is in consumer confidence. Dell is kind of like the American car companies that may have lost sight of what makes any consumer loyal to a brand. Beside price is the quality of the product and the technical support one receives.

In an age where most everyone is on the Internet, rumors, complaints and consumer reviews are flashed around the world in an instant. So when consumers complained about Dell, the world listened and may still be listening.

What do you think?

Comments welcome.

Source

So this morning when I learned that eBay had a glitch on their site, it made me wonder how many sales were actually lost? In a CNN article it stated the following:

Some shoppers found a blank page; some received a message that said, “We were unable to run the search results you entered. Please try again in a few minutes.”

The company said it had resolved the problems by Sunday.

“We are happy to report that critical search functionality was restored overnight on Saturday, and we are seeing normal activity levels today,” eBay Marketplace Operations President Lorrie Norrington said Sunday in a statement.

The company’s Web site offered various scenarios under which sellers could be compensated, including those with auctions that ended Saturday.

I don’t know about you, but I have no loyalty to any one web site. I shop until I find the lowest price possible. Last Friday I was looking for a new mouse for my laptop and finally found what I was looking for at Wal-Mart online. They offer free delivery to any of their stores. Though I may have to wait a week to get the mouse, the price was right and delivery is free to any of their stores.

Comments welcome.

Source

In a recent CNN news article it also states:

One website publisher approached by Microsoft said that the plan “puts enormous value on content if search engines are prepared to pay us to index with them”.

Microsoft’s interest is being interpreted as a direct assault on Google because it puts pressure on the search engine to start paying for content.

“This is all about Microsoft hurting Google’s margins,” said the web publisher who is familiar with the plan.

Google responded with this:

Matt Brittin, Google’s UK director, told a Society of Editors conference that Google did not need news content to survive. “Economically it’s not a big part of how we generate revenue,” he said.

I believe this is what Microsoft and News Corp. do not understand. Google doesn’t need the news companies as bad as the news companies need Google. Microsoft has never been able to get above 10% of the market when it comes to search. They can spend all of the millions of dollars they want, but Google is just well liked by the Internet community.

With that being said, this will be beneficial to Microsoft and News Corp in the long run. Some people will opt in for the paid content and may switch over to Bing. But the majority will stay with Google and continue to look for the free news.

The only way these newspapers will survive is if they find a way to shutdown the Internet! LOL

Comments welcome.

Source

Hold on. This sounds very familiar and reminded me of BlueHippo. I have previously written about BlueHippo and the problems they have had with the Federal Trade Commission. [Articles are here and here] So after a little checking I learned from a Wikipedia search that:

Cofounder Bruce E. Mattare left the company [Blue Hippo] in 2004 to start Tronix Country, which has offered merchandise with installment terms similar in scope to BlueHippo.

So I went to the web site of Tronix Country and found the following information about the company:

You should know that what Tronix Country does is provide financing and credit bureau reporting for people to make a computer purchase. We provide a service for individuals who either don’t have the money to make a purchase outright or do not have sufficient credit for a lender to give them a loan. We simply provide an alternative.

There is also this:

Because we know our prices are higher, we focus on two areas where the low cost retailer doesn’t or cannot: Service and Credit Reporting.

Plus this statement:

While we realize a lot of people are skeptical about Tronix Country, the fact is they have every right to be. A lot of terrible damage has been done to good, hard working people by other companies that serve the same people we do.

I personally have had no dealings with Tronix Country. What about you? Share your experience with us.

Comments welcome.

Wikipedia source for Bruce E. Mattare

Tronix Country

Google is also going to insist that manufacturers that wish to produce a Netbook running the Google operating will have to adhere to specific guidelines from Google. As an example, Google wants their OS running on flash memory based solid state drives [SSD]. These types of drives run faster and are more power efficient. Conventional magnetic platter drives need not apply.

Google seems to be taking a page from Apple. Google does not want their operating system and pint sized, cheap Netbooks with tiny keyboards. If you have seen the Asus Eee PC with the 10.1 screen, this would seem to be the smallest Netbook Google may choose to have their operating system installed on. Just a guess on part.

What do you think? What is your vision for a Google PC? Is Google going to reinvent the Netbook or just improve upon it?

Comments welcome.

Source

According to a recent Times news article it states that:

It is perhaps the last frontier in advertising — getting regular people to send a sentence or two of text, on behalf of paying advertisers, to their friends and admirers. The idea, according to the entrepreneurs who are developing such services for Twitter and other Web networks, is that people trust recommendations from those they know and respect, while they increasingly ignore nearly ever other kind of ad message in print, on television and online.

Even the Internet giants are warming to the idea of harnessing informal chats between friends to promote their products and services. This month, Amazon.com said it would start paying commissions to individuals who refer buyers to the site via Twitter messages. (People must first sign up for Amazon Associates, a program in which Amazon pays Web publishers for referrals to its site.)

But the bigger opportunity may be in matching advertisers with so-called influencers — the more popular users of services like Twitter. A number of start-ups, like Ad.ly, Izea and Peer2, a division of Creative Asylum, a Hollywood ad agency, are pursuing the opportunity to put persuasive messages into regular dialogue on social networks.

This does make one wonder just how trustworthy these recommendations will be? For example. Most people will follow someone on Twitter because they trust and respect their opinion. But this could change if the opinions become money generated.

There is also the issue of spam. Would you consider this type of advertising spam?

Comments welcome.

Source.

You and everyone who blogs is a jerk. You steal the content of others and claim it as your own. Mr. Murdoch is correct in trying to protect real journalists as well as their news content.

Get a real life.

With the advent of the Internet one can no longer cite just the U.S. Constitution when it comes to Freedom of the Press. Instead I located what is called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights over at Wikipedia, which was established after World War II, and states the following:

“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers”

The words ‘everyone has the right of freedom of opinion and expression’ I believe, not only refers to journalists, but protects anyone who writes about anything and expresses their opinion. Also these words ‘through any media regardless of frontiers’ pertains to the Internet as well as printed news.

What is the word ‘news’ and what does it mean?  Who owns the news?

I believe the word ‘news’ pertains to any occurrence that is of interest to others. ‘News’ is something that peaks the interest of particular readers and may not be of interest to others. For example, if John Smith of Podunk, anywhere, falls off of his bike and needs medical treatment, this is ‘news’. But the audience may be limited to John’s family, his friends, neighbors and others, but not to the rest of the world.

Who owns this ‘news’? The journalist who writes about it? The news agency that reports it? I believe that John Smith actually owns this ‘news’ because it involved an incident that happened to him. Of course this would be ridiculous and would mean that John Smith should be compensated by everyone who reports the ‘news’ of his fall.

If a news agency posts an article on the Internet, and the article is free for all to see, should that article not be cited if credit is given to the writer?

What do you think?

Comments as always are welcome.

Wikipedia source.

In the interest of transparency, we should declare that Canonical is contributing engineering to Google under contract.  In our discussions, Sundar Pichai and Linus Upson made it clear that they want , wherever feasible,  to build on existing components and tools from the open source community without unnecessary re-invention.   This clear focus should benefit a wide variety of existing projects and we welcome it.

On the consumer side, people will ask about the positioning of Chrome OS and Ubuntu. While the two operating systems share some core components, Google Chrome OS will provide a very different experience to Ubuntu.  Ubuntu will continue to be a general purpose OS running both web and native applications such as OpenOffice and will not require specialised hardware.

So 2010 looks set to be a very exciting year. In addition to delivering Ubuntu experiences with both existing and new OEM partners, we will be working with Google on Chrome OS based devices.

The reason I am bringing this up is that some folks are writing that Google Chromium is nothing more than a browser. Some are even saying that Google will fail at this venture and that this new distribution will compete against other Linux distributions.

I think that Canonical sees the wisdom in what Google is doing and how can benefit all open source programs. If you were to ask the average consumer about Linux they most likely would think it is some type of a car. With Google branding the introduction of Linux can and will become mainstream. Just my 2 cents.

But what do you think? Are you interested in having a light weight operatin system that takes advantage of cloud computing? hare your thoughts with us.

Comments welcome.

Source.

Samsung had been the major company that produced the DLP sets. I recalled about 4 years ago, my buddy Denny buying a Samsung DLP and so did my middle daughter and her husband. In fact the kids bought one of those 65″ sets that set them back about $4k when they bought it.

So I took a spin over to Best Buy and the only company I found still selling the DLP sets was Mitsubishi. But over at Amazon they still have plenty of Samsung DLP sets available.

But I found this on a forum after doing a Google:

The main advantage of DLP sets was that the rear-projection design scales up to bigger screen sizes with proportionately less manufacturing cost increase than plasma and LCD. Manufacturing cost efficiencies have improved with LCD and plasma for sets up to 60 inch diagonal to the point where DLP lost most of its advantage. With costs being nearly equal, the DLP sets are not as attractive due to the triple disadvantages of greater depth, more limited viewing angle, and the potential for costly bulb replacement.

What is your opinion? Are DLP sets history already? Are the only choices going to be LCD or Plasma?

Share your thoughts.

Comments welcome.

PC World source

Forum statement here