Game Console Price Drops Coming
166 words eaten alive on August 14, 2008 - Filed Under Entertainment, News, gaming |
Lots of rumors flying around about some price drops coming next month. The Xbox 360 Pro 20gb has already dropped from $349 to $299 which is just $20 more than the Arcade bundle that only comes with a memory card. Next month however the Arcade system could be as low as $199. 60gb versions of the Pro are starting to show up in stores at a price of $349 but I have a feeling that once the 20gb inventory is all sold we’ll be seeing the 60’s down to $299 by Christmas. The 120gb Elite is expected to drop to $399 next month as well.
As far as the PS3 goes, it’s 40gb version has been down to $399 for quite some time now, but from what I’ve been reading that model will soon be discontinued and replaced with a fresh 80gb for the same price. The current 80gb bundles are still pretty high, being $500 or more and including 1 game.
Burning DVDs
134 words eaten alive on August 14, 2008 - Filed Under Internet, Software, computers |
Finding good software for audio/video editing is easy. Finding that same software for cheap, or even free, is a challenge. Programs like Premier and Photoshop go for hundreds of dollars each and that’s a little too much to swallow for the average home user. Now however you can get Blaze Media Pro for just $50! It’s a pretty sweet deal that includes audio/video converters, DVD burning software, editing software and lot more. Take your home videos, whether shot with a full size video camera or your little digital camera, and put them on DVD. Rip your favorite audio CDs to MP3 so you can take them with you on a portable player. Blaze Media Pro can handle just about any audio/video format you can throw at it.
Slow Summer for Movies
84 words eaten alive on August 14, 2008 - Filed Under DVD, Entertainment |
Summer tends to be a little slow when it comes to new DVDs being released, but this one is even worse than usual. On average there’s only 1 ‘big’ name movie coming out a week along with 1 or 2 of the lesser known titles. September will probably be flooded with movies, once the kids go back to school and summer vacations are over. It’s going to be a busy fall in general since some good games are coming out as well.
Online Meetings
136 words eaten alive on August 14, 2008 - Filed Under Business, Software, management |
Back when I started this business and we were buying/selling store returns we’d normally take a couple trips a year to Toronto to meet up with our suppliers and pick out the goods we wanted to buy. Travel isn’t cheap though, along with the air fare and car rentals you need a hotel and food. Now we can realistically do our meetings online using web conferencing software. Video conferencing has come a long way in the last 6 years, the quality is much better and you can see multiple people at multiple locations at the same time. One of the packages I’ve been looking into is the e/pop powered software from WiredRed. They offer a 14 day free trial so I’ll be trying it out for our next online meeting.
Holy Crap, Viruses! (Virii?)
155 words eaten alive on August 14, 2008 - Filed Under computer repair, computers |
It’s been a busy few days here, lots of computers coming in with bad virus problems. Again! This time it’s a rash of similar ones such as XP Antivirus 2008, Vista Antivirus 2009, Virus Scanner 2008 and so on. At first these appear to be legit virus scanners, suddenly popping up near the system tray, claiming you have a bunch of infected files on your computer and for just $29.99 (give or take) you can purchase a full version to clean out your computer. The thing is, these programs ARE viruses, or at the very least malware. Most of them were picked up by a combination of AVG 8.0, Spybot 1.6 and Ad-aware 2008. The problem is, it can take around 3 hours to run the full scans. The best part, most of these computers have Kaspersky on them, what a wonderful job it seems to be doing!
Label Makers
223 words eaten alive on August 11, 2008 - Filed Under Business |
In a business like this having some sort of label maker is a necessity. Movies and games for sale and rent all need index labels so we know where to find the disc and so we can find them in the computer. Everything for sale needs price stickers, computers in for repairs need to be tagged so we know who it belongs to and what needs to be done.
And now we have a lil’ monster who’s about to start school in less than a month and she’ll need a way to keep track of her lunch box and school supplies. Using something like a DYMO Labelmaker is a good way to do just that since they have a built in keyboard for typing out whatever you want on your labels. Print ‘em out, peel off the back and stick ‘em on whatever you need marked. All without needing a computer & printer and having to fuss around with full size label sheets.
Whether you need a small hand held battery operated label maker that you can carry around in a backpack, or a full featured unit to leave on your desk at home or in the office, DYMO has got you covered. Label cartridges are all self contained so there’s no messing around with messy inks either.
AVG 8.0
120 words eaten alive on August 11, 2008 - Filed Under Business, Software, computer repair, computers |
AVG has been my favorite virus scanner for quite some time now because it doesn’t take a lot of resources and seems to do a pretty good job. Version 7.5 free was pretty good but they ended support for that a while ago. When they killed support for 7.5 they cranked out a free version of 8.0. Personally I’m using the paid version now though thanks to their new ‘Surf Safe’ features. When you do a web search, it scans the results. When someone sends you a link in MSN, it scans it. Very handy little addition to an already great scanner, and it’s only $35 US a year, $52 for 2 years.
Showcases, Racks and Desks for Sale
123 words eaten alive on August 11, 2008 - Filed Under Business, sale |
I have several showcases and racks to get rid of, and some desks as well. I’ll add pictures later, but the showcases start at $50 and some of the racks are as low as $10. The desks are just a rather plain 5.5′ long by around 20″ deep, I’ll let those go for $25 each. The racks are mostly just for post card sized items, DVD cases would fit as well. I think there’s a clothing rack or two left, made for more ‘heavy’ stuff like sweaters or jackets although you could hang ‘dainty’ stuff like lingerie as well. Drop in if you’d like to see any of these items, open Monday to Saturday from 12:30 til 9pm.
Recycling is getting Crazy
229 words eaten alive on August 10, 2008 - Filed Under Ranting, This Town |
Years back we had one garbage can. Then recycling was introduced and we had a garbage can and a blue bag. After that it was decided that throwing food into the garbage was a bad thing, and composting was introduced. So we had a garbage can, a blue bag and a compost bin. Then they decided that the average joe should do more work in order to ’speed up’ the sorting process, so we had a garbage can, a blue bag for plastics & containers and a blue bag for paper and cardboard boxes, and a compost bin.
Then the blue bags were deemed unnecessary and we were told to use clear bags for recycling. Then it was determined that black garbage bags were evil and just had to go, because God only knows what could be hiding in one of those little bastards. But wait! We’re using clear bags for recycling and clear bags for garbage, oh no! Lets make people use blue bags again for recycling and clear bags for garbage. And you know, despite all this extra work we’re doing at home and all the space we now devote to garbage sorting and storage, our garbage collection bill hasn’t gone down at all.
Is it this fucked messed up everywhere? Or just here in Good Ol’ Yarmouth, NS?
Routers Dropping like Flies
122 words eaten alive on August 10, 2008 - Filed Under Business, computers |
Typically after a bad thunderstorm we get a few people in with fried modems or network cards, but this summer it seems to be routers that are suffering the most damage. It’s not a lot really, just a couple here and there, with Linksys routers in particular this month. I’m not saying Linksys is more prone to lightning attacks of course, just bad luck, since I’ve seen several other brands come in as well. Some completely dead and others that would light up but not let any traffic through in either direction.
When a storm comes and you unplug your computer, make sure to unplug that phone or cable line as well since either one can also zap your computer.
9th Anniversary is Upon Us
165 words eaten alive on August 10, 2008 - Filed Under Business |
Another year has come and gone, I almost can’t believe we’ve been in business for 9 years now. There’s been ups and downs, like with any business, and some changes have been better than others. While I like our newest location, I do miss the size of the first store. We had enough room to do whatever we wanted without needing to stuff the extras into the basement. I also miss the days when we did clearance type stuff, sure it was hit or miss as to whether you’d make money, but it was definitely interesting! One week we’d have car stereos, the next it could be treadmills and after that it might be curtains.
Having said all that though, I do like where we’re at now, being Yarmouth’s best (only?) used game/video store. And computer repair shop. And computer sales shop. Among other things. So here’s to a good 9 years and several more to follow.
Hayfield or Lawn?
81 words eaten alive on August 10, 2008 - Filed Under Life, kids |
Note to self: mow the damn lawn more often! After 3 or 4 weeks the grass in our front lawn was getting to be very long, I figure we could have made a bale of hay out of it. Normally it only takes 10 or 15 minutes to mow, this time took a half hour with the mower almost stalling out every couple of minutes. What fun! We put Chloe to work helping Kate with the raking.
New Wii Game
161 words eaten alive on August 7, 2008 - Filed Under Entertainment, gaming |
I’ll be the first to admit I’m not a big fan of the Wii. It just doesn’t have the games I’m looking for, but there’s no denying it’s mass appeal and wide variety of games. Even cooking games are becoming pretty popular on this system and the last cooking game I remember was Pressure Cooker on the Atari 2600. I guess the genre is long overdue!
Using the Wii-mote you slice up potatos to make french fries, chop veggies, flip burgers and so on while working in a restaurant. You start at the bottom in a fast food joint but your ultimate goal is learn new recipes and get better jobs until you eventually own your own restaurant.
You can check out the Order Up! trailer over on YouTube and if it looks like your type of game you’re in luck, it was just released a couple of weeks ago and should be available in stores everywhere.
Chloe Likes School
138 words eaten alive on August 7, 2008 - Filed Under Life, Uncategorized, kids |
Turns out Chloe really enjoys going to school and she didn’t even cry on the first day. It’s day 3 now and they’re having a show & tell today, she brought a toy horse to share with the class. Tomorrow is the last day of the Ready, Set, Go! program and they’ll be having a little graduation type ceremony for the kids at the end of the day.
If anyone local is interested in helping support this great program, I have tickets available at the store. There are prizes to be won and tickets are just $2 each or 3 for $5. All proceeds go toward funding the program the following year so every penny helps. Hopefully by next year they will be able to go back to running 2 week sessions again.
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