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December 30, 2008

Are we there yet?

Seems a lot of people are walking around post Christmas, post Boxing Day, pre-New Year. The retailers are reporting good sales figures. Is that because for months, now, we’ve been told that we should buy existing stock hoarded from the days of near parity AUD vs USD rates or is it because we feel that this is a last hurrah before February sanity hits?

There are crowds for sure, but the parking lots don’t look that full these days and shoppers are driving really hard bargains. Aussies are learning to negotiate and bargain – several times in the shops, the sales people have been overheard saying “I’ll do the best I can but I can’t do miracles”. I was helping a friend buy a Macbook (our first Mac buying experience) and unexpectedly I went into a Dick Smith’s who had it at AUD 2099 RRP and mentioned I had seen it at AUD 18xx – the salesgirl went away for a while and came back with that price (or a few dollars lower). Whether that’s a good price for the Core2Duo 2.0 Macbook, I don’t know, MLS hadn’t whispered any indications.

In the meantime, there are Boxing Day sales and then there are Boxing Day Sales. Photo fans would see Canada’s Futureshop dropping prices on an outgoing Olympus E-410 kit that does not seem to have similar parallels, Aussie style.

The new mini, bite sized netbooks seemed to attract interest – the price is also bite sized, with some brands offering close to AUD 100 discounts on AUD 600 type machines. Will the the public will establish a long term multi-function use for them or will they eventually become Vivienne Tam clutch items?

While at the bookshops, I see senior couples wandering in to look at those highly illustrated, how-to-use-Windows or Email books. It would be a good time for forum members to add their guides-with-a-slant to the wiki or the forum. Like Amit has done in his Dear Mom letter.

Posted by Anandasim at 10:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 10, 2008

CD Copy ends in shattering FAIL!

I intended making a quick copy of what is left of this CD last night though sadly it went horribly wrong.

1. Insert CD.

2. Heard weird noise.

3. Heard loud BANG!

4. Get screwdriver.

What has been your most catastrophic fail this year?

Posted by Stephen at 12:11 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

December 09, 2008

Blogging means you don’t have to hear my accent

Toad Leader and I have often discussed what drives bloggers and more importantly how they monetize the issue. Here’s a quick, hilarious interview – Arianna Huffington with John Stewart. There are some sound bites that you can walk away with.

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• Arianna Huffington on Blogging
• Arianna Calls On Jobless To Enrich Her [Struggling Writers]

Posted by Anandasim at 07:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack