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

We have been on a quest for the past two months to find firm pricing numbers on Window Vista that has lead us to Microsoft conferences, channel partner phone calls, and countless blogs. Ironically enough, the answer came today on Amazon.com.

After numerous delays that pushed the retail availability of Windows Vista back beyond Christmas, Microsoft has set a firm release date of January 30, 2007.

Amazon had a list of 16 different ways you could purchase Windows Vista, based mostly for the 6 different full and upgrade versions of the operating system. Here’s are the basic prices for those of you who plan on being in line when stores open on the 30th.

If you own a laptop or a notebook equipped with an Intel Centrino processor, you need to manually install a patch NOW, or your computer could be taken over by anyone with some technical savvy. Oh, by the way, if you have already installed the patch, keep reading. You are not out of the woods yet.

Over the past week, a vulnerability has been exposed in Intel’s PROSet wireless networking software that comes preinstalled on all notebook computers equipped with an Intel Centrino processor. Apparently, there is a security flaw in the PROSet wireless software that can allow an unauthorized user to take complete control of a laptop or notebook computer that is equipped with an Intel Centrino processor. You can download the Schrock Innovatiosn “Detect and Patch” utility here to see if your system is effected.

In April of 2005 I brought you a story on our radio show Compute This (Saturdays from 10-11 in Lincoln, NE) about a small Fremont law firm that managed to successfully sue Microsoft for 22.6 million for anti-competitive practices in the state of Nebraska.You can listen to the archived interview here.

Microsoft settled the class action suit and agreed to pay 50% of any unclaimed funds from the settlement in the form of technology vouchers to Nebraska’s public schools. Schools were awarded the vouchers based upon need as measured by participation in the Federal School Lunch Program.

Based on those calculations, the Omaha World Herald reported today that Omaha Public Schools was awarded $4.05 Million after filing some grueling paperwork to prove that they were qualified to receive the funds under the settlement.

Today on Compute This I had the opportunity to speak on the air with Jeff Schwartz, of the Law Offices of Manuel H. Miller from California. Jeff is the attorney who is working to assemble a class action lawsuit against the makers of the MovieLand, MoviePass, and Popcorn.net spyware infections.

For those of you who are not aware, these three software programs solicit people on the web to install a “free” 3-day trial service that allows them to download movies and other media files from the Internet. However, unless you cancel the 3-day trial before it expires, you will be haunted by continual pop-ups that nearly debilitate your computer until you pay their subscription fees.

If you missed the show, you can listen to the entire interview here.

With everything going on this past week, Microsoft’s visit to Omaha for a technical seminar was unfortunately buried in the news. However, our own Blaze was in attendance and asked the questions our customers have passed to us about Office 2007 and Vista over the past few months.

The question I have been asked more often than not is how much the products would cost. The question caught the presenter off guard, as he seemed very qualified to speak to the technical aspects of the software rather than the business and supply channel plans. He told Blaze that he was not absolutely certain, but he could not imagine Vista costing more than Windows XP does now.

As many of you heard, Schrock Innovations began accepting E-waste (old computers and computer equipment) at no cost early this month from businesses and consumers. Many people believe that we are making a profit on sending E-Waste to recycling facilities, despite my comments to the contrary. Unfortunately circumstances which I did not anticipate are forcing […]

I was just informed today that Schrock Innovations was voted the #1 Independent Computer Repair Company in the 2006 KFOR Best of Lincoln Survey for the 4th year in a row! Thank you to all of our radio show listeners and KFOR fans who voted for us.

This year we will be trying something new with the radio show. Typically we move to Sunday mornings during the Husker season to avoid any potential conflicts with football game coverage. this year we are going to buck that trend and stay on at 10:00 on Saturday mornings. Listeners have told us that they lose track of our show for a few weeks when we move to Sundays, and again when we move back to Saturdays after the season concludes (hopefully in January this year!).

Channel 10/11 stopped by the Lincoln Service Center today to interview someone about Dell recalling 4.1 million batteries that could overheat and explode. The batteries, made by Sony, span more than 4 years of Dell notebook computers.

I was giving prepared remarks at the LIBA Luncheon, so Blaze filed in for me and did an outstanding job. You can watch the video on the 10/11 website!

Today the Lincoln Business Journal ran an article on how to pick the right e-commerce consultant or company for your business. We have done some e-commerce work for our clients, so the Lincoln Business Journal asked me to answer a few questions.

The article is full of useful information if you are planning on establishing an e-commerce presence on the web. Pick up a copy if you get a chance!

Schrock Innovations is sponsoring August’s LIBA Lunch meeting next Tuesday. I will be addressing the membership about the often underestimated value of a website as part of a well rounded marketing plan. I also had a corresponding article published as part of this month’s LIBA Magazine that is mailed to the membership.

Although the majority of my prepared remarks have been ready for well over 2 weeks, I will have an 8 lb 12 oz. helper who will help me drive home the value of a well constructed and deployed website.