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

Microsoft has officially released its newest member of the Internet Explorer family, IE 7. While the reviews from many industry leaders are mixed, as usual you can count on me to give you an unbiased evaluation of the new web browser.

As a preface, a few months ago I started recommending that all Windows users who currently use Internet Explorer should also install Mozilla’s FireFox browser. While there are FireFox proponents who claim the open-source browser is safer than IE, we do not recommend it for that reason. I feel it is important to have alternatives should either browser malfunction. Since IE is built into Windows already, installing FireFox as an alternative makes good preventative maintenance sense.

With that said, Microsoft has introduced some features that are new to IE users. These features have been present in browsers like FireFox for some time, but they are a definite improvement to IE 6. The new version of IE includes the following new features:

• A redesigned interface
• Tabbed browsing
• A built-in RSS feed reader
• A new Favorites Center
• Anti-Phishing Technology
• Other Minor Improvements

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I had the opportunity to attend last Tuesday’s LIBA lunch, and boy am I glad I did. There was a lively debate between Jeff Fortenberry and his Democratic opponent. As far as debates go, it was fairly informative and there were just enough political jabs going back and forth to make it entertaining.

But I have to say the best part of the event was when I had the opportunity to award a brand new notebook computer to Paige from Strictly Business Magazine. Paige recruited 19 new members for LIBA’s membership drive, besting all others in the effort.

Congratulations Paige, and good luck getting your email set up on that! I know a LOT of people who would love to be able to email you

With all of the talk about the bad things you can find on www.youtube.com, I thought I would find something funny and entertaining that would show you how this technology can be used to entertain as well.

The Colbert report is a news-like show on Comedy Central that takes the news of the day and addresses complex issues tongue-in-cheek.

In this episode, Colbert hosts Nebraska District 2 Congressional Representative, Lee Terry. This one is pretty funny, so take a few minutes to have a look!
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In the past I have not been a big fan of Symantec’s online renewal system. Over the past two years however, they seem to have made great strides in improving the system. My main beef was that renewals were too complicated to install and were often fraught with technical glitches.

I had the opportunity to renew my Norton Antivirus this week and I noticed that the online renewal was much easier, but there was also a LOT more fine print. As usual, I tend to read the fine print so my readers do not have to. Before you click I agree to that online payment for renewal, there is something you should know…

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For the first time ever, Schrock Innovations will be holding a launch event open to the media to kick off our 2006 Holiday PC. The Holiday PC Launch Event will be held on Friday, November 3, at the Villager Inn and Suites in the Lincoln Ballroom from 2-4 PM. We will be giving away special discounts to those in attendance and there will be a drawing for a free weekend in a Branson, MO condominium!

We will have a number of awesome speakers present interesting content including Coby Mach – the host of 1400 KLIN’s Drive Time Lincoln, Mayor Colleen Seng (or a representative from her office), Rod Scher, Editor of Smart Computing Magazine, Gene Hanlon with the city of Lincoln Recycling Office, and of course, Thor Schrock from Schrock Innovations.

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I have been invited to speak to a rotary club at the Knolls Country Club today. This is the second time I have spoken to this group in the past five years, and they always have excellent questions afterwards.

I will be talking about the importance of considering a Modular PC when it is time to buy a new computer. Rather than heading to the box store and buying a “canned” PC, consumers can get an amazing value by choosing a Modular computer.

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I just received an email message from someone (supposedly) by the email address of harriet.gunn_aq@prodigy.net. The message in the email was a multi-page tirade about the Iraq war, the evils of America, the corruption of the Bush Administration, and the damage the Freemasons and Zionists have done to the “Citizens of the World.”

I skimmed the message and quickly determined that it was just the usual cook conspiracy garbage – Dick Cheney & Halliburton, economies of the world are ruled by Jewish bankers, and a new one – Did you know that Woodrow Wilson’s presidential campaign was paid for by Rothschild’s? I attempted to reply to the email message, but I was not surprised to find that the email address bounces back as undeliverable.

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Maybe this is just something that gets techies like me excited, but I was very pleased to see that today the Schrock Innovations home page received a Page Rank of 6 from Google!

Page Rank (PR) is what Google uses to measure the value of a webpage on the Internet. The scale offers ratings ranging from 1 to 10, with one being irrelevant and 10 being extremely relevant. Each time you go up one number, it becomes exponentially more difficult to move up again.

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Since 2001 a lot of computer designs have come and gone at Schrock. The one consistent design feature between all of our PC designs has been their Modular construction. Despite these design principals being the cornerstone of our computer hardware business, our customer service surveys consistently show that many of our customers do not know what makes a computer a Modular PC. Since more computers are purchased October-December than any other time of year, I think it is important to explain what a Modular computer really is, and how it is different than most mass-manufactured PCs on the market right now.

I preface my remarks by acknowledging the fact that there will always be some percentage of computer users who prefer a national brand PC regardless of any other contributing factors. These consumers believe that owning a computer assembled by a national company offers a greater degree of quality over a computer manufactured locally or regionally. Their opinions are as valid as anyone else’s opinions, and nothing that I can write here will change their minds.

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For almost 2 years customers have mentioned that our Service Center is difficult to find the first time around. We have wanted a larger sign for some time, however the covenant in our business park heavily restricts what signs may and may not be posted on the office building.

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