An Open Letter to Grisoft

For the better part of the past year I have been recommending AVG to both my consumer clients and business clients alike. With the release of AVG Free 7, you have completely left the home users to rot. I have been getting nothing but complaints from home users that they havent been able to get updates for over a week now. I also have a large seminar for a consumer group that AVG was going to be highlighted as a free/low cost anti virus solution. How am I supposed to recommend a product that you feature prominently on your website but dont allow people to get updates? What about mirror sites? What about using torrents? Anything? Not one of these clients is going to buy the professional version for their companies if the free version they use at home doesn't work.

What am I supposed to tell these people now?

Kerry Garrison
Tech Data Pros

Get A Free Mac Mini

Well I just qualified today for the free iPod so its time to turn attention to the next coolest toy on the planet, the Mac Mini. You just need to sign up, complete one of the final offers (such as signining up for Video Professor and then canceling within 10 days, or signing up for Blockbuster online, stuff like that) and get 10 people to do the same and a $500 Mac Mini is all yours. Please start by clicking on my referal link as I need one for testing purposes.

http://www.FreeMiniMacs.com/?r=14667110

Burning the iPod Oil

MattX calls me tonight from Microcenter to tell me there are 13 shuffles in stock and nobody there. I grab the wife's Focus and blaze a trail to the store 5 miles away. They still have 10 left when I get there but only th 512mb size. I decide to forego spending the extra dough and end up buying two of the 512mb versions (one for me, one for wife).

So all of you in search of iPod shuffles, be sure and check the smaller stores that dont have so many distribution center to go through before the product hits the shelves. Give up on the Apple stores unless you like spending a few hours before they open with 200 total strangers that all want to be ahead of you.

Installation was a breeze, the CD installed a small updater for the iPod and in no time we were filling our new toys with tons of music from iTunes.

For testing, I took the dog out for a long walk. The sound quality is awesome! The walk went by very quickly while jamming to some hits of the 80's.

The iPod Adventure Continues

The Apple Store opened yesterday at 10am, I was on the phone with them at 10:15. They tell me that they had 100 in stock and 200 people in line. Sure makes me think somebody was telling people that there would be stock on Saturday even though thats not what they told me. Worse, the customer-non-service person tells me they have had them all week even though they had told both my wife and I they havent come in yet. The Apple person tells me its not a lie, its that they are trying to be discreet. What the hell does that mean. This is the WORST service I have ever had from Apple.

FreeOfficesApps.com Launched

Software costs are increasing every year, its extremely difficult for small businesses to stay current with software. The best kept secret around is just how good some free software is. To help push this point further, I have launched a new site called Free Office Apps. From replacements for Photoshop to Office and much more, you can outfit your home or office with these incredible pieces of software. Check it out.

Doing The iPod shuffle dance

Being a technogeek my entire life it now takes quite a bit to impress me so it is a rare day when a new product announcement gets me excited. Both my kids have iPods and so do all of their friends, I myself have been content with an early Creative Nomad that runs though 4 AA batteries in 2 hours, is sensitive to shock and vibration but generally plays well. Its only use is in my car that I spend about 90 minutes a day in. I have never wanted an iPod since the excess of "disk" space on it was far more than my feeble music collection could do any justice to.

Along comes Apple with a new iPod the size of a stick of gum and weighing only 3/4 of an ounce. Ok, this is cool. I want one. Thus the quest for finding one in stock begins. Best Buy continuously says "two days" and every day you call its "two days". The truth is, nobody at Best Buy has a clue when they will come in. The Apple Store says "this saturday", this remains to be seen.

Today I find myself in a CompUSA and low and behold, an iPod shuffle is on display. I grab the counter person and sure enough, they are in stock. When she returns from the back empty-handed, the second counter-help-person reminds her that he told her they sold the last one two hours ago. Strangely enough, the actually got stock on January 17th which appears to be the only store on the planet I can find that has actually got them in so far.

Tomorrow is another day and hopefully they will arrive somewhere and still be in stock when I get there.

Here goes

Alrighty then, time for me to finally get blogging and spill forth my wisdom, knowledge, and opinions for the world to see. Why now? Lord knows, but what the hell, maybe a simple way of me being able to puke my words out easier will get t out of my system. If you are entertained, I'm glad, if you are educated, I will be ever happier, if you are bored or dislike anything I say, tough patootie,