Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock
Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock

Adios. Its over. No more Blueman Group, no more Weird Al Yankovic songs, no more MMX – Pentium is dead. The Pentium-Class processor officially ended its 13-year run as Intel’s flagship processor today, while its replacement, the Core 2 Duo, takes center stage.

When the Pentium processor was released in 1993, it revolutionized the world of computing. Intel’s unique microarchitecture allowed a processor to complete tens of thousands of instructions much more quickly than its predecessor, the 486dx. Rivals soon fell by the wayside as the Pentium overdrive processor boosted processing speeds to a staggering (at the time) 90 MHz. Technologies like MMX allowed for more detailed graphic processing than ever. The Pentium processor was a recommended system requirement for Windows 95, and the world took its first toddler steps into home supercomputing.

I received an alert today from Symantec about a disturbing rise in the number of fake email messages that purport to be from legitimate online retailers. Apparently, these messages are sent via bulk-email to unsuspecting individuals. The emails state that an invoice for a recent purchase at the online retailer is attached, and that you should open it to verify your order.

When the email attachment is opened, the user’s computer is infected with a Trojan horse virus that allows an unknown party to take control of your computer and its Internet connection at a later time for any number of nefarious purposes.

If you fail to ride the wave of change you will find yourself beneath it. For the past 4 weeks that overused motivational phrase has been my compass as all of the employees of Schrock from our web developers to our technicians have come together to launch a new chapter in Schrock Innovations history.

As many of you may have heard on the radio Saturday, I launched Schrock’s 2006 Back to School Sale. For the first time ever, we are now carrying notebook computers in stock. While I could bore you with all of the logistics and reasons we have not done this in the past, I think it is much more interesting to explain why it is important for the future.

On a voice vote today the United States Senate passed the 163-page revision to the Child Protection and Safety Act. The bill would make it a federal crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison to lure minors to a website using words like “furby” or “barbie” that is intended to deliver pornographic images.

This revised version of the House bill is expected to be signed by the President and enjoys bi-partisan support. Among other things, the bill would:

The Journal Star’s feature article today about the new E-Waste recycling program available at Schrock Innovations has generated a surge in demand for computer recycling services.

Last week Schrock Innovations announced a major change to its policies on recycling old and obsolete computers. We are now the only place in Lincoln where businesses and consumers can recycle unlimited e-waste with no disposal fees.

I received a call today from a Deputy Attorney General with the California Attorney General’s office regarding MoviePass and their MediaPipe software.

Last week I tracked down the individuals who own the corporations responsible for MoviePass, MovieLand and MediaPipe and published it on the Schrock Innovations website.

Between now and January – and even a bit beyond that – I will probably be asked a thousand times if it is wise to immediately purchase Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows Vista, as soon as it is released.

My answer is always that the pioneers are the ones who take the arrows, so sometimes it’s ok to wait a couple months so you know if the product lives up to the marketing hype. While this was true of Windows XP (remember Service Packs 1, 1a, and 2?) it will be an even greater concern in Vista. Many pieces of Vista have been completely rebuilt from the ground up to be more secure and stable according to Microsoft, but the new code is fresh and not tested to the extent that Windows XP’s core has been over time.

Dell has announced it plans to begin shipping its laptop computers with the brand spankin’ new draft version of the 802.11n wireless network standard. However, those who adopt the “n” standard now may have a headache on their hands next year if the standard is not adopted as written today.

802.11n promises a faster connection, greater signal range, and more networking possibilities, but not everyone is in agreement that the technology is ready for prime time.

I started to digest the bid they had already received, understanding the implicit suggestion that we beat their price. The hardware they quoted for the system was decent for what it was going to be used for, and the price for the hardware was agreeable. I was getting myself prepared for a razor-thin margin push to get the job until I read the software section of the quote.

Windows XP Professional with Software Assurance $20.00/ea
Microsoft Office Professional 2003 with Software Assurance $30.00/ea

Jennifer Murray with Alltel sent me an email today to inform us of an upcoming change that will impact all Alltel telephone and Internet customers. Alltel is separating its land line business from its wireless business and merging the land line business with VALOR Telecom. The new company will be named Windstream Communications.

To promote the merger, Windstream (formerly Alltel) is introducing new promotional Broadband offers to compliment the Windstream company launch. The new promotions will run from July 17th – September 30th. The promotional rates are only valid for new Internet customers. See below for details.

DSL Lite Broadband 1.5Mb Broadband 3MB Broadband 6Mb
Stand-alone or with Dish $19.95 $24.95 $29.95 $39.95