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

After a bit of a posting drought, we have started posting our Compute This shows again on the Schrock Innovations website for those who couldn’t listen live, or live outside of the local market.

I have heard rumors that KFOR may be posting our shows as podcasts as well. I will look into it, and get you a link so you can subscribe through iTunes is you would rather do that than download the .mp3 files individually.

September 12, 2009 Show:

Click Here to listen to the September 12, 2009 show.

During this show we launched a new sale called the Great XP Escape Sale.

There was an early Husker game this week, so the call volume was a little light, but we did have a few callers and they asked questions like:

• Should I buy a laptop or a desktop computer?
• Why does my music sound different when I burn it to disc?

September 19th 2009 Show

Click here to listen to the September 19th show.

During this show we wrapped up the Great XP Escape sale, talked about which browsers are the most energy efficient, and took a few calls as well.

Our callers asked questions like:

• My DVD drive disappeared from My Computer. How can I get it back?
• How can I fix a broken VGA cable?
• Why did my auto-fill stop working in the Yahoo Toolbar?

Compute This airs every Saturday morning on KFOR 1240 in Lincoln, NE from 10-11 AM CST. You can listen live on the KFOR website and call in toll-free with your questions at 800-825-5865.

I had a little debate today with some of the staff about Schrock’s 2009 Holiday Special system.

We have always offered a complete system (CPU, monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers) for $1499 in past sales. We have offered a tower-only option for $200 less, dropping the price to $1299.

So here is the question…

Do we advertise the Holiday Special as a $1299.99 tower only system and then offer the monitor and accessories as separate items for purchase or do we assume that most people will want the accessories, market it at $1499 and then offer the take-away discount?

If you Were Buying a New PC Right Now

If you were in the process of buying a new PC right now would you want to replace your monitor and accessories for the $200 or would you fly with what you have?

We have been hard at work for the past few weeks designing the Schrock Innovations 2009 Holiday System, and the first prototype testing is underway.

This year’s Holiday Special will feature 2 new technologies that have never before been used in a Schrock build. The result is a new Modular PC that is faster (not seconds faster but STUNNINGLY faster) more reliable, and better prep[ared for tomorrow’s technology than ever before.

What is the Holiday Special?

Schrock’s Holiday Specials are always highly anticipated because the systems push the limits of technology at an unbelievable price. We offer a complete system (including monitor, wireless keyboard and mouse, and speakers) for only $1,499.

These systems are configured with amazing specifications. This is not the typical Dell up-sell routine, where you are lured in for $499 and end up spending way more than you planned.

These computers are configured to rock your PC experience with no modification required.

This year’s Holiday Special Modular PC is no exception. We are keeping the exact details close to the vest at the moment, but I can tell you it will be running Windows 7.

Faster than Anyone Expects

ONe of the big reasons we are so excited for the 2009 Holiday Special is because one of the new pieces of technology we are introducing will bring MASSIVE speed increases to the table that will be unavailable anywhere else in Nebraska (even by special order form Dell).

This new technology will unleash AMAZING speed that most computer users have only imagined. In our tests this technology has cut processes that used to take HOURS down to mere minutes.

We get excited whenever a system we produce can dramatically improve a PC users’ experience. To put it bluntly we have not a game-changing PC since we introduced Lincoln to Windows XP and LCD displays ion 2001. This system will be just as revolutionary.

Reliable Beyond Anything You Have Imagined

The 2009 Holiday Special is going to be faster than anything we have ever built before at Schrock, but it is also the most reliable system we have ever built.

This system runs COOLER (temperature wise) than any previous computer we have built, even though it sports a quad core processor. Because it runs cooler, it also uses LESS POWER than other quad core systems we have released in 2009.

Another new pieces of technology cuts the odds of a PC breakdown by an amazing 75%. This PC has more up-time, less lag time, ind its overall cost of ownership is dramatically lower over its expected 8-year lifespan.

Power for Today and Potential for Tomorrow

As always, this Schrock system is Modular. That means your computer has everything it needs to meet your demands today, and it can grow with you as your needs change in the future.

Schrock Innovations is the only company in the country that offers Modular computers, and that is why our Holiday Special systems last more than 8 years while other manufacturers are lucky to get three years out of their builds.

How Can You Learn More About This Computer?

Unfortunately, you will have to wait a little while longer before we let everything out of the bag. But there are some things you can do to make sure you catch the tidbits when we do let them out.

1. Subscribe to the RSS Feed on this blog. You’ll get an email as soon as we release anything.
2. Follow me on Twitter – I am prone to moments of weakness. If something slips, it will happen here
3. Get on Schrock Innovation’s mailing list – Contact Schrock and ask to be added. It’s free and rumor has it there is a coupon involved 🙂
4. Listen to Compute This every week. Chris Goforth has a way of getting me to talk

Kim and I had a great time cheering the Nebraska Cornhuskers to victory yesterday over the Florida Atlantic Owls. This was the Husker’s season opener and the first game that Kim and I have been able to enjoy from the skybox.

It was a blowout game with Nebraska winning 49-3, although the Huskers are going to have to tighten some things up if they expect to do well in Big 12 Conference play.

Our skybox used to belong to Larry the Cable Guy. Even though the bathroom is literally right outside the door of our skybox, every time Larry left opened his door there was a throng of autograph-seeking fans waiting for him. Larry (Dan is his real name) has kids, and it made it tough to enjoy the game with his family at times.

Larry moved on over to one of the new North Stadium skyboxes that has its own bathroom to resolve the situation. Aside form giving Larry a new kind of stadium seat, it gave us the opportunity to log some hours in his old skybox!

The skybox was definitely nice (it had better be at an annual price tag of $85,000). We had a dedicated hostess who was there to make sure we had everything we needed. All of the typical stadium favorites were available (hot dogs, pizza, etc..) and they are even more irresistible when they are absolutely fresh from the oven.

Nebraska Athletic Director Tom Osborne sat about 20 feet from us, and he was just as calm and reserved as he was when he was coaching the Huskers on the sideline. He mechanically ate one tortilla chip every 42.5 seconds, took notes after every play, and did not speak to anyone that I saw.

Once and a while you would catching him nodding ever so slightly in approval. By the third quarter those chips started catching up with him and if you were really quick you could see him nodding off ever so slightly once the Huskers had the third string in the game.

We can’t wait for next week!

My morning (and possibly most of my afternoon) today has been tied up in depositions in a case brought against Schrock Innovations by one of our local Lincoln competitors.

One of our local competitors is claiming that I have said things on this blog that have damaged their business. They are demanding $7,500 in unspecified damages.

We have offered a settlement, which was quickly declined. We have tried to move this case to trial, but have been thwarted by procedural tactics for almost 4 years by the plaintiff.

On one hand I am annoyed that I have to spend a half day on this, but on the other hand I am happy to finally start moving this thing to a conclusion.

Despite everything that has happened over the past four years between Schrock and this competitor, I hope that one day we can all sit down together peaceably and laugh about all of this.

Follow me on Twitter for up to the minute updates…

Brad Donner has been an entry level web design employee at Schrock Innovations for a few months now, but many of our customers don’t know that he is an amateur photographer as well.

Last year Brad asked all of his friends and family to vote for his company, Donner Digital Photography, in the KETV viewer survey. And he won!

I work every day with Brad and I know he works hard every day to improve his photography skills.

Take a moment to look at Brad’s best picture and vote for him in this year’s KETV survey.

I happen to have some inside information about KFOR’s Best of Lincoln survey (due out in October) and its only fair that I do my best to help an employee win a consumer award when my employees give their all so Schrock can win one as well.

Only 2 days remain to get Schrock Innovations’ Preventative Maintenance Checkup on sale for only $19.99! This is the FINAL maintenance checkup sale of 2009, so it you miss this one its a long wait until 2010!

We are “officially” launched the sale on last weekend’s Compute This radio show, and our staff has done an amazing job keeping up with the workload. Unlike the previous sale, our turn around times are very reasonable (3 days or less).

A PC Maintenance Checkup is a complete head-to-toe examination of a computer that takes between 8 and 12 hours of bench time to complete. Our Maintenance Checkup is normally a great deal at its usual price of $60, but for next week only we will be discounting that price to an amazing $19.99.

Schrock Innovations’ web development division started off in 2001 with just one website – its own. We hooked up with a company in Lincoln called Binary.net that handled hosting for all of the websites we would come to manage flawlessly.

Schrock is a high-service providing company and our web customers expect us to be there when they need us in the capacity that they need us.

Schrock Moves Hosting to Rackspace

To help meet that service expectation, we decided the time to move our hosting infrastructure to another company had arrived. We moved all of our serveres to Rackspace Hosting about 4 months ago, and we haven’t looked back since.

Rackspace was voted one of the best Fortune 500 companies to work for in 2008, and I can honestly say I have never had a bad experience dealing with them over the phone or email.

Schrock Innovations might be closed today, but we are celebrating Independence Day by supporting a fund raiser for children our US service men and women.

The “Golf for the Troops” charity golf tournament is in its third year and has raised more than $25,000 locally in Lincoln to fund scholarships for our troops’ children. Schrock will be contributing a gift card to the list of prizes available to those who participate in the tournament.

My wife was an Air Force Brat, so I have an understanding for some of the stresses that military families go through between multiple moves, long deployments, and time lost.

Our armed forces take on these stresses in a selfless desire to serve, and this event shows our local military members that Lincoln cares about their sacrifice and appreciates it.

The tournament consists of two 18-hole rounds of golf, a silent auction, couple of meals and many prizes. The tournament is scheduled for July 9th at the Wildreness Ridge Golf Course. Contact the golf course for information on how you can enter and be a part of a great cause.

Have a safe and fun July 4th weekend, and thank you to all of the men and women who have served over the years to keep the US a free and safe place for everyone.

Alarm Equipment Inc. (AEI) in Omaha, NE came to Schrock Innovations for a website “freshening” a few months ago.

AEI’s website was not ranking in Google for the key search terms they needed to bring in new alarm business. Today more people use Google than the Yellow Pages so ranking when it counts can be vital to a business’ success!

AEI Asked Schrock Innovations to modify their existing website to modernize its look and improve its SEO performance without changing the basic layout and styling of the existing website.