Apple Stock

Years ago, before Apple made it's big comeback with the iPhone my wife had bought me $60 worth of Apple stock as a lark. Now years later it is worth just under $1000. The news though is that Apple has dropped to $122 per share (along with much of the rest of the market)

A good buying opportunity I think! 

Is being fat bad?

This has nothing to do with technology but I thought it was interesting. This article disputes some of the claims that being overweight is bad for your health. Or at the very least that the research is exaggerated.

HBO online

If you have Time-Warner cable in Wisconsin, HBO,  and a Windows based PC you can check out HBO on-demand

I haven't tried it yet but it is a pilot that they are testing and it is worth a shot. 

I am not sure if I have mentioned this before but I subscribe to this video game service and I like it. (Although it is a little expensive) 

GameFly is a US online video game rental subscription service that specializes in providing games for game consoles and handheld game consoles.

Similar to the DVD rental subscription service Netflix, Gamefly sends games to subscribers via the United States Postal Service in re-mailable, pre-paid mailers. (Non-US residents are ineligible for the service, as GameFly does not ship overseas.) The subscriber then can keep the games for as long as desired while paying the monthly fee, although the number of games is limited by the type of subscription plan chosen by the subscriber.

Free Office Software

When you buy a new computer many times the next purchase is a productivity suite of software. (such as Microsoft Office) 

What I have found is that many people never use a fraction of the features on their home computer. You might want to consider saving some money and checking out Open Office. 

It is free and available for just about every major computing platform. 

Computer Consulting

I participated in a seminar the other morning. I was one of the younger people in the audience and while we were waiting for the session to begin a conversation started about tech support. I didn’t tell anyone that I did computer consulting on the side and just listened to the conversation.

 

One of the people talked about how they called for help on the computer and someone from India “took control” of their PC and helped fix the problem. This is pretty common today with large companies such as Dell outsourcing tech support to low cost countries.

 

I still find that we learn best from simply having a person sitting next to you and walking through the steps. For some things the remote support works well but not for everything. I really enjoy helping people with technology but I have to say I am amazed that a small computer company doesn’t offer in-home training. (not set-up mind you – but actual training)

 

Until some company steps up, I hope you might call me for your next computer need! J

 

Microsoft to buy Yahoo?

Microsoft bid $44B for Yahoo. Microsoft is interested in taking on Google and feel that need they need Yahoo to do this. It will be interesting to see what happens but honestly I am not sure what Microsoft thinks they are really getting in this deal. What does Yahoo have that isn't already in Microsoft's portfolio?