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

Here is what Google says will be great about the new operating system:

First, it’s all about the web. All apps are web apps. The entire experience takes place within the browser and there are no conventional desktop applications. This means users do not have to deal with installing, managing and updating programs.

Second, because all apps live within the browser, there are significant benefits to security. Unlike traditional operating systems, Chrome OS doesn’t trust the applications you run. Each app is contained within a security sandbox making it harder for malware and viruses to infect your computer. Furthermore, Chrome OS barely trusts itself. Every time you restart your computer the operating system verifies the integrity of its code. If your system has been compromised, it is designed to fix itself with a reboot. While no computer can be made completely secure, we’re going to make life much harder (and less profitable) for the bad guys

Most of all, we are obsessed with speed. We are taking out every unnecessary process, optimizing many operations and running everything possible in parallel. This means you can go from turning on the computer to surfing the web in a few seconds. Our obsession with speed goes all the way down to the metal. We are specifying reference hardware components to create the fastest experience for Google Chrome OS.

There is still a lot of work to do, and we’re excited to work with the open source community. We have benefited hugely from projects like GNU, the Linux Kernel, Moblin, Ubuntu, WebKit and many more. We will be contributing our code upstream and engaging closely with these and other open source efforts.

Does this mean that we can all dump Windows? I seriously doubt this will be the case. But what I believe will happen is that for many consumers this will be a viable alternative. For those who only surf the Internet, send email and the like; this may be ideal.

What I also see is that with Google behind the project this is going to be a giant shot in the arm for Linux and the entire Linux community.

So what do we really have? Sounds like some kind of a modified browser that will run Web application.

What do you think?

Comments welcome.

Source.

According to one article it states that:

This is lousy news for employees, who are faced with a “jump now or wait to be pushed” decision, but it is designed to cheer investors: AOL says the cuts will drop its annual operating expenses by $300 million. Through the first nine months of this year, AOL’s operating expenses ran around $1.8 billion.

Meanwhile, AOL is looking to shed some parts of its business altogether. It has hired bankers to sell off its ICQ messaging service, and is also considering dumping Mapquest, among other assets.

Armstrong’s (expensive) goodwill gesture: He is giving up his 2009 bonus, which was to be at least $1.5 million. His explanation to employees: “As a member of our team and the person who takes accountability for the results of the company, I am making the decision to forego my 2009 bonus. That decision is a personal one and is not a sign for the future payout of the overall bonus plan for employees.”

So as Armstrong prepares to give up his bonus pay, some 2,500 folks are not going to have a pleasant holiday experience. Isn’t it always ironic that those at the bottom of the ladder who make the least must go, so that those at the top can linger on in their lavish lifestyles?

What do you think?

Comments welcome.

Source

According to a local news article it stated the following:

It’s been a slow fade for the company which had promised so much when it announced amid great fanfare that it was locating the esteemed plant in North Carolina. But more than 250 employees were laid off at the plant in March, dropping the workforce from 1,400 in January to 1,140.

The plant had only been in operation for four years when it suddenly announced last month plans to close.

With the addition of the plant, the rural landscape along Union Cross Road in southern Forsyth County slowly changed. Many residents said the peace and quiet they’d grown to enjoy was replaced by with traffic and noise.”There were just farms up and down this road,” said Paul Stephens, who along with his wife lived off Union Cross for several decades. “Now you look at it — shopping centers and everything.”

“It is a waste — nothing but a waste,” Stephens added. “They spent a lot of money to get setup and just four years — we didn’t expect it. We wanted them to last at least five.”Now Stephens said he wonders what will happen if the lot stands vacant. City officials have said they are working to find a new tenant for the building.”It would bother us if it wasn’t maintained.

It don’t do the neighborhood any good with shrubs and stuff grown over it,” Stephens said. “It could sit there for several years. It would take a big company to come and make good use of it.”

Competition in the computer market has been stiff, with companies such as HP-Compaq, Acer and others claiming more market share. Dell could be pushed out of the number 3 market spot in 2010, if and when. Acer and Toshiba merge.

Comments welcome.

Source.

An L.A. Times article states:

The new rules cover the increasingly popular liquid-crystal display and plasma high-definition TVs as well as old-fashioned cathode ray tube and rear-projection sets.

The average plasma screen TV uses more than three times the power as a bulky cathode ray tube TV, the energy commission says.

“The average Californian should not see a cost premium,” says the LCD TV Assn. “They will, however, benefit from dozens to hundreds of dollars in energy cost savings over their TV’s lifetime, thus making the proposed standard extremely cost-effective.”
The commission estimates that switching to more efficient TVs would save an average of $30 per set per year and $8.1 billion in electricity bills statewide over the first decade

Now you have to understand how the electricity is doled out to the masses in California for users that are stuck with Pacific Gas & Electric. After the state of California was duped by outside electrical grid suppliers,  deregulation ended in California, and the state basically let PG&E set its own rates. Sure, it has a regulatory agency that oversees the company, but it is all but a joke.

Now picture this if you will. If the State of California estimates that consumers will save some $8.1 billion in electricity bills over the first decade, it isn’t going to happen, folks. PG&E will raise its rates to make up for the loss!

How do I know this is going to happen? Every time California suffers a drought, the water agencies ask their users to conserve. People start to conserve and the water agency doesn’t make enough money, so it raises the water rates. Once the drought is over, the rates don’t go down.

Don’t get me wrong. I applaud California for trying to get any electricity guzzler to be more efficient. The ones who will actually benefit are those of us who are not being gouged by our electric suppliers and who live outside of California. These are the same states that are able to balance their budgets as well. LOL

What do you think?

Comments welcome.

Source.

Setup is unable to proceed due to the following error(s):

Microsoft Officie 2010 does not support upgrading from a pre release version of Microsoft Office 2010.  You must first uninstall any pre release versions of Microsoft Office 2010 products and associated technologies.

Correct the issue(s) listed above and re-run setup.

So what’s new in this latest Office version?

The betas released today include everything we’ve talked about so far on this Blog and much more. In addition, today we announced several new facets of Office 2010 that you can check out when you download the beta:

The New Outlook Social Connector brings your communications history, business and social networking feeds right into Outlook, helping you quickly keep track of conversations and stay up-to-date with co-workers, friends and family without switching programs or changing your routine. Today’s beta supports SharePoint social networking and will support Windows Live when Office launches. The business networking site LinkedIn will be the first to provide a connector for the Outlook Social Connector early next year.

For developers and partners, SharePoint Server 2010 and Office 2010 will combine with Visio 2010 using the tools you know and love, and have new rich APIs and support for industry standards to quickly build content and collaboration applications on the SharePoint and Office platform. We’re also releasing Outlook Social Connector SDK, available for download on MSDN, so developers can build connectors to third-party social networks. Start testing and building solutions for your customers today!

A new look. The Microsoft Office brand will sport a new look next year, reflecting technology innovations in Office 2010. The re-design includes an updated Office logo, a new orange color palette for the Microsoft Office brand, and updated icons for Office 2010 applications that make it easier to quickly identify the Office products you work in.

I downloaded the beta when it became available to Technet subscribers, but haven’t used it as of yet. If you decide to take Microsoft Office 2010 for a spin, let us know what you think of it.

Comments welcome.

Download link here

Source

According to the Diskeeper web site it states their product Diskeeper Professional 2010 will:

Experience a whole new level of system speed and efficiency –
prevent fragmentation before it happens!

Every system, every network, every company suffers from the effects of fragmentation. When fragmentation occurs, the system has already wasted precious I/O resources by writing fragmented files to cluttered spaces on the disk. It’s always a better strategy to prevent fragmentation from happening and work with a clean, fast disk. Now, for the first time ever, you can – only with Diskeeper 2010.

Diskeeper 2010 on your systems means clean disks on servers, workstations and laptops. It means unprecedented speed and reliable efficiency. Every minute. Every day. It means systems lasting years longer due to reduced drive wear. It means tight budgets relax and the cost of ownership drops.

Choose the Diskeeper^® performance software edition that is right for each system on your network.

I installed Diskeeper Pro 2010 on two systems. My test system is running Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit and my laptop is running Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit. Diskeeper supports both 32 and 64 bit systems. Both systems loaded quickly and I was up and running quickly. I set both systems to run automatically and also employed IntelliWrite.

I ran a manual defrag on both systems. One note is that both systems have Windows XP Mode installed. This caused the first scan to run slowly as it needed to move Windows XP Mode, which is about 14GB in size. To be fair, PerfectDisk 10 did the same when I first used it on my test system. Once you run the first defrag the next scan runs quickly.

I have only been running Diskeeper Pro 2010 for one week. So it is a little early to see how IntelliWrite functions and if my system will remain relatively free from fragmenting. But one thing I can say is that this new version seems to use very few resources when it is doing its thing. I have not experienced any slow downs on either system.

My laptop has 3GB of RAM with 4GB via ReadyBoost and my test box has 4GB of RAM with an additional 8GB using ReadyBoost. Both systems use AMD dual cores running at 2.1on the laptop and 3.1 GHz on the desktop test box respectively. Both systems run very well and I have experienced no issues, minus one, that was my own fault.

I am going to run Diskeeper Pro 2010 on both systems for 60 days and do a follow up report. I have set my calender to remind me in Outlook.

Comments welcome

Source - Diskeeper Professional 2010

According to a recent article about the Senate investigation it states the following:

The government says the investigation shows that Webloyalty, Affinion, and Vertrue “trick” consumers into entering their e-mail address just before they complete purchases at sites such as Orbitz, Priceline.com, Buy.com, 1-800 Flowers, Continental Airlines, Fandango, and Classmates.com. A Web ad, which many consumers say appears to be from the retailer, offers them cash back or coupon if they key in their e-mail address.

Many of those who complained say they don’t fear the ad because they aren’t being asked to turn over credit-card information, according to the Senate report. But buried in the ad’s fine print is notification that by entering their e-mail address, the shopper is agreeing to join a loyalty program and allowing the store to authorize marketers to charge their card each month, between $9 and $12.

“When people shop online, they have the right to expect that the stores they entrust with their credit card and other personal information will not share it,” said Sen. John Rockefeller, (D-W.V.), the committee’s chairman. “What’s happening is many online merchants have decided to betray their customers’ trust… fine print is the (biggest) scam of all time.”

I was looking at some of the web sites that are using this alleged scam and I personally use Orbitz. I fortunately have never signed up for any advertisements nor gimmicks. But what about you?

Comments welcome.

Source.

Highlights of the study include:
-
Looking at the first 3 years of ownership, 31% of laptop owners reported a failure to SquareTrade. Two-thirds of this failure (20.4%) came from hardware malfunctions, and one-third (10.6%) was reported as accidental damage.
-
Netbooks are projected to have a 20% higher failure rate from hardware malfunctions than more expensive laptop computers.
-
ASUS and Toshiba were the most reliable manufacturers, with fewer than 16% having a hardware malfunction over 3 years.

FWIW - I have owned Toshiba laptops as well as having repaired [software] problems on the systems, and I must agree that the company makes a very good product. But what about you? Who do you think makes a good laptop?

For the prices Apple charges one would think it would have a higher reliability rating.

Comments welcome.

Source - Square Trade in .pdf

Here is the map:

This is how Verizon has responded to the allegations in the court filing:

In the court filing, Verizon outlines the reasons that AT&T’s arguments are without merit. They include:

• Because the ads are truthful, AT&T is attacking them under faulty theories, including a claim that they are misleading. But Verizon says there’s no real evidence - aside from an AT&T commissioned survey - that proves that consumers are misled by the ad.
• There is no emergency that would require the court to issue an immediate restraining order - as AT&T has requested - without giving Verizon the opportunity to conduct its own research and present evidence to prove that consumers are not being misled.
• The harm to Verizon and the public, in general, caused by pulling the ads is greater than any alleged harm being inflicted on AT&T.

But this is where it even gets better:

AT&T seeks emergency relief because Verizon’s side-by-side, apples-to-apples comparison of its own 3G coverage with AT&T’s confirms what the marketplace has been saying for months: AT&T failed to invest adequately in the necessary infrastructure to expand its 3G coverage to support its growth in smartphone business, and the usefulness of its service to smartphone users has suffered accordingly. AT&T may not like the message that the ads send, but this Court should reject its efforts to silence the messenger.

Maybe AT&T can use a map comparison for land line coverage! LOL

Comments welcome.

Source.

This person is one of the new breed of folks who will be making the switch from Windows XP to Windows 7. So I thought I would ask you people what you would recommend?

Let me know please.

Comments as always are welcome.

Windows 7 Simplified at Amazon

Americans, it turns out, are less willing than people in many other Western countries to pay for their online news, according to a new study by the Boston Consulting Group.

Among regular Internet users in the United States, 48 percent said in the survey, conducted in October, that they would pay to read news online, including on mobile devices. That result tied with Britain for the lowest figure among nine countries where Boston Consulting commissioned surveys. In several Western European countries, more than 60 percent said they would pay.

Sounds good. Especially if you are the N.Y. Times which advocates paid subscriptions as being their savior.

So when I read this article it was even more confusing:

While publishers continue to weigh their premium digital content prospects, a new Forrester Research reports indicates that 80 percent of U.S. consumers maintain they will no longer access newspapers and magazines online if the content is not free. Among the 20 percent of consumers who would agree to premium access, 8 percent favor a subscription model to access all online content, another 8 percent prefer a subscription approach that combines web, print and mobile device access, and just 3 percent desire a micropayments-based model charging for each article read.

So with 128% of people being surveyed, it seems that there are quite a few opinions about paid subscriptions.  LOL

I do know one thing for sure. I won’t be one who will pay for news content. I can almost guarantee you that the news will remain free for the access on the Internet provided by someone. Who that someone might be is anyone’s guess.

What do you think? Will you pay for news?

Comments welcome.

N.Y. Times source

Fierce Mobile Content source.

On the flip side, the makers of the game, are doing the following:

Infinity Ward has opted to patch the level out entirely for Russian consumers, and an edited version of the game is expected to be re-released in less than a month, pending government approval. Even that may not pass, however, considering the entire game is based around a war between the US and Russian forces.

Russian gamers are apparently very unhappy with the game’s content. One Web site, GotPS3, railed against Infinity Ward for catering to an American audience and ignoring the sensitivities of other cultures. The site believes that Infinity Ward portrays the Russians as terrorists.

Interesting. This afternoon I was playing a game which involves shooting World War II German soldiers. This makes me wonder if the people of Germany should complain that they are victims as well.

What do you think?

Comments welcome.

Source.

In a recent news article the retailing giant also stated:

Last week, the retailer announced $3.2 billion in third-quarter income, and a record 84 cents per share in profit.

“The sales environment continued to be difficult this quarter, but customer traffic is up throughout the company. We gained market share, especially in the United States, the United Kingdom and Mexico, as customers around the globe.

Earlier this month, the retailer announced a series of weekly price cuts on thousands of items across all departments. Wal-Mart has frequently in the past lowered prices to undercut rivals and generate sales volume. Its economy of scale allows the company to procure items at a lower cost than its smaller rivals.

Which does make one wonder how other vendors will be able to maintain lower pricing and lower profit margins trying to compete against Walmart. What do you think? Does Walmart have an unfair advantage over other retailers because of their size?

Do you shop at Walmart and why?

Comments welcome.

Source.