Tim Beard made the MSPMentor 250 List! Congrats Tim!

According to Reuters (if you can believe them) Microsoft has offered to put other browsers into their operating system in order to settle a lawsuit from the European Union.

In the old days where profits were consistently up quarter over quarter, MS would hang in there and fight out lawsuits to the bitter end. In today's market, it could make more sense for MS to cave in and settle the lawsuit.

I wonder if this is a sign of times to come from the Redmond campus. Let me know your thoughts, please. The entire article may be found here.

To Your Success,

Tim

I have finally taken some much-needed time off. The family and I are taking a week to spend some time in Florida. To be sure, I'll never officially stop working, even on vacation. But this reminded me of something that all small business owners deal with: namely overworking oneself. Remember to take some time off with family regularly. Assign your tasks to someone else temporarily, or plan for the downtime with your customers in advance. The point is, everybody needs time away from their business, even the most hardcore type A's need downtime. Just taking the time off and only checking in once a day with the office has helped me tremendously. It's allowed me to get the creative juices flowing again, and put the priorities back in order. The net effect? While some things may not get done quite as fast while I'm off, in the end everybody benefits, as I'll be back in the office refocused, rejuvenated, refreshed and ready to take care of my clients' IT needs. So don't forget to take the occasional time off with the family. It's actually good for business!

The BBC is reporting that Etisalat, a United Arab Emirates telecommunications firm, sent a text about an update to Blackberry users, suggesting it would improve performance. Those who downloaded and installed the application, found their battery life reduced, and their cellphones crashing. 

Today, Microsoft has officially RTM'ed, or Released To Manufacturing the new Windows 7 Operating System. Not a huge deal really, but there is one fact worth noting. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, ATT, Verizon, Sprint and some others are under investigation by the Department of Justice. It seems the DOJ thinks they may be abusing their power on the cell phone market. How, you ask? One reason that comes to mind is the fact you can only get an i-phone from one carrier, and it cannot be used on any other carrier. 

Windows 7 has been in Release Candidate status for a few months. We have received information from Microsoft that Windows 7 will go to RTM, or Release To Manufacturing on October 22, 2009. That means it will be released in its final production form, available for purchase. 

According to Amazon, You Don't Own It Even If You Buy It! According to a news report, Amazon removed some electronic versions of George Orwell's books from the kindle store, and deposited a refund in accounts of people who had previously bought them. 

Just after I posted regarding the Internet taking over as the preferred medium for news, I ran across a small article about a newspaper company that has continually grown where others have not. It's the TriCityNews of Monmouth County, New Jersey, and it has grown at over 10 % a year since the dot.com bust. You can read all about it here. 

I ran across an article from the New York Times regarding the hows and how much of texting via your flavor of mobile carrier. While the article is a little technical, it explains why it costs the carriers virtually nothing to carry your sms messages. It raises the question of why the carriers have doubled the cost of texting over the last 3 years. 

Microsoft released Windows 7 in beta form last month. Then they closed the beta, then opened it again. For those that don't know, Windows 7 is Microsoft's latest operating system, set to replace Vista. 

Just a quick blog to say Happy New Year to everybody who follows my ramblings. I hope 2009 finds you healthy, happy, and profitable in your business. Forget the doom and gloom that the media seems to thrive upon. If your business is down, find a way to bring it up. Adapt, adjust, do what you have to. Find a way to distance yourself from your competition during these times. Invest in your business. Find marketing that works, and use it! 

According to Isuppli, world sales of notebooks surpassed those of desktops for the first time in history. In the 3rd quarter of 2008, 38.6 million notebooks were sold. During the same period, desktop sales declined to 386 million. That's an increase in notebook sales of over 40 percent for the same period last year. That's a lot of notebooks! 

Microsoft has extended the cutoff date for PC makers to install XP on new systems yet again. The new date: May 30, 2009. Now, it may seem to you that this is hardly worth blogging about, especially since it's Jan. 9th, 2009 and the new cutoff date is little more than 4 months away. But, before you pass judgement on this particular post, consider this: THE ORIGINAL DATE FOR XP'S DEMISE WAS JANUARY 30TH......OF 2008! 

Rumor has it that Best Buy is having problems, and they are offering 4000 employees a buyout. The plan is voluntary. Benefits of this buyout include ony year of health care benefits, and 7 1/2 months of severance pay. Employees have to signup by Jan. 5th, 2009. 

Here's some stats on Internet searches from comScore, a company that "measures" the digital world. 

Recently I blogged about the dramatic reduction in spam across the Internet, literally overnight. It seems that nothing lasts forever. The huge crime cartel responsible for the majority of spam sent across the Internet managed to resurrect itself after being shut down back in November. The post is copied below for your review. All the more reason to have a GOOD Antispam solution in place for your company. The money you spend for employees to sift through this junk would amaze you, and the cost of a decent antispam solution will immediately pay for itself, many times over in a very short period of time. 

Today, Microsoft released a patch out of band (OOB) or separate from its normal patch schedule. This is the second time Microsoft has released a patch in this fashion in as many months. This patch resolves a publicly known vulnerability called the "Zero Day Exploit" that affects Internet Explorer in various versions.