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newsletternewsletter 294
The Economy The Economy Not good. If your sales are down, you’re not alone. I sat through two Economics courses in college. That makes me eligible to be Treasury Secretary. I was on the list, but turned down the job. I wanted to give each and every tax payer $10,000 towards purchasing a car. There are 131 million people who filed a tax return last year. This would cost the government about $1.3 trillion dollars. Let’s say that half of all tax-payers took advantage of the $10,000 off coupons. Now we’re only talking about $650 billion dollars (far less than the present bailout plan). Hey. Maybe we can give consumers a choice. You can use your $10,000 coupon to buy a car or to pay down a mortgage. Maybe we can make it a $10,000 gift card good at BestBuy, Staples, Macy’s, or any retail store or restaurant (including your store). Many people will use their $10,000 to put money in the bank (thus saving the banks). Many people will buy stocks raising our depressed stock market. Unless my math is wrong, my plan will cost far less than what Congress is presently talking about. Imagine putting $10,000 in the hands of every tax-payer (and taking it out of the hands of Congress). We would all be running to buy things. BestBuy and Macy’s won’t be able to keep items in stock. GM won’t be able to make enough cars. Unemployment will be reduced to under 0. We will have to import people from Mexico, Canada, China and everywhere. We would have to release non-violent prisoners from the system in order to help make more cars. The money will then go to where the taxpayers show the demand is. Whatever companies still fail after that, deserve to fail. So I am asking you to please submit my name to Congress for approval as the Treasury Secretary. I will make sure that your retail store has so many customers that you will have to turn many away. Let’s take the money away from Congress and place it in the hands of consumers. Back to reality … we are in a recession. Unless we have reached a complete meltdown (complete anarchy), we will recover. Lots of retailers are throwing in the towel, but lots are surviving and some are actually doing better than last year. My forecast is that the economy will bottom out this month and start improving as of January. We will have gotten by the holiday season and started working towards getting customers back into our businesses. The losers will be gone leaving the business to those who have figured out how to survive. Remember, your present customers are your best customers. It’s Vista’s Second Birthday and Nobody Noticed ”Windows Vista's second birthday passed, and nobody noticed. Some kids sleep anxiously for fear parents will forget the big birthday. Two years ago on Nov. 30, Microsoft launched Windows Vista for businesses. But yesterday there was no fanfare, no obligatory look-back posts in commemoration. Not even from Microsoft employee bloggers. Oh, my, what has Vista become?” (from eWeek) http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/vista/vista_two_years_later.html?kc=MWMSWEMNL12032008STR1 I’m very happy with my Vista computers. I think it’s a step up from XP, but not a big enough step for me to tell you that you really need it. Microsoft will soon be releasing Vista SP2 (that’s Vista Service Pac 2). This is a major upgrade that fixes some of the remaining Vista problems and adds some additional Vista features. To read about it, go to:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/154912/ Those of you who are not using Windows Vista, Windows 7 is on the way, sometime next year. Windows 7 will replace Windows Vista as the latest and greatest. My guess is that it will be received well. After all, I don’t think Microsoft is going to push another loser like Vista. Actually, Vista is not really a loser. It just hasn’t taken hold in the corporate world. Happy Birthday Vista!!! (For those of you not familiar with my Vista recommendations...Here it goes. If you like or prefer Windows XP, keep it. There is no great necessity for you to switch. If you are buying a new stand alone computer from a store, your computer will come with Vista. It will work just fine and probably better than an XP machine. If you own a business and are using XP on all your stations, you should probably buy another XP machine. If you decide to buy a new computer with Vista on it, you will have a significant learning curve. Once you have figured Vista out and used it for a few months, you won’t want to go back to XP). Dell Offering Free Inspiron Mini 9
There’s a new type of laptop out there called a netbook. A netbook is a very small laptop with a screen usually smaller than 12 inches. The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 pictured above has a 9 inch screen. That’s a pretty small screen but great for portability and travel. HP, ASUS, Samsung, MSI, Lenovo and lots of other manufacturers have also come out with various types of netbooks. A netbook is a full computer. Depending on which netbook you choose, you can access the internet, communicate with other computers wirelessly or connected to a network, do word processing, spreadsheets, and anything else you do on a full sized computer. Most netbooks use the Intel Atom Processor. They are slower than larger laptops, but fast enough for the internet and fast enough for word processing, spreadsheets, and most ordinary business work. Netbooks come with Windows XP (not Windows Vista). Most netbooks are under $500 and come with 1/2 GB or 1 GB of RAM. You have a lot of people out there using the Apple IPhone and other phone devices to access emails and the internet. These devices have a really tiny screen that makes it difficult to use the internet. Netbooks are a compromise between using a tiny telephone device or using a larger laptop to access emails, the internet, chat, and those types of activities. I haven’t actually purchased a netbook yet, but it is high on my list. I don’t really need one since I always have access to a computer. It’s just great for travel. It’s nice to be able to travel with a two pound computer that can do almost anything that you normally use a computer for. It is certainly not a computer replacement, but not too far away. The small screen and small keyboard are not perfect, but certainly usable. Back to Dell...they are offering a FREE Inspiron Mini 9 with the purchase of select studio systems. See the Dell offer at: Shop the Dell E-Catalog on the left hand side of the screen and go to page 17 to see the offer. Or go here to see more information about the Dell Inspiron Mini 9. http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop-inspiron-9?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs
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Last
week, I talked about how to select a laptop. I recommended that most
of you should purchase a laptop with a 14 inch screen or 15 inch
screen.
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