Linda's Line - January '08

Miscellaneous Goodies for the Holidays!

You can still buy a pc with Windows XP on it but not from your local stores. The companies who still list options for buying a new pc with XP on them are:

http://www.dell.com/
http://www.hp.com/
http://www.toshiba.com/

You have to go online and buy direct from the company and not all models will offer the XP operating system as a choice. But they are there. Microsoft is coming out with Service Pack 3 next year, probably in January if the current release plans hold true. This will be the last service pack for this operating system. They have also extended support for XP until 2014 for security updates. This means that it is not going away anytime soon!

The must-have, hard-to-get electronic toy for the holidays was the Nintendo wii. Stores could not keep them on the shelf nor could shipments keep up with the demand. Move over Playstation 3, Nintendo wii has arrived! The removal of the perennial little girl favorite, Easy Bake Oven from the shelves just prior to the holidays left parents and grandparents frustrated and kids disappointed on Christmas morning. It's hard to explain that Santa had to quit delivering Easy Bake Ovens in his sleigh because it was put on the 'hazardous to children' list after delivering 40 years enjoyment to little girls everywhere. These are just a couple of the electronic toys that made the holiday brighter or sadder for folks this holiday season.

I recently tried out some new (to me) optimization software. PC Pitstop's PC Optimize 2. At $29.95 it seems to be a reasonably priced solution for cleaning up your pc and improving performance. You can run a scan to see if your computer is having problems that PC Optimize can fix. Check it out for yourself.

http://www.pcpitstop.com/store/optimize2.asp

Grisoft still has a free antivirus program for home use on a single computer. That website to download the free program is:

http://free.grisoft.com/

Skins are popular these days. You can skin your laptop, your cell phone, your palm and your iPod. What a marketing tool! Make your own skin with your agent marketing information and picture on it. Give away skins for any device you choose. Create a skin for your own laptop. Promote a property on a skin to give away. Check it out!
http://www.skinit.com/

May the New Year bring Joy, Peace and Happiness to you and your family. Happy 2008! It's looking 'MAH-VELOUS'!