Thor's Archive
I just wanted to take a moment to with all of my readers a Merry Christmas. Please stay safe and treasure the time you spend with your family and loved ones. That is what it's all about, no matter where you come from or what you do.
I was one of the first people to blog about 12 seconds, but I am not one of the first people to remove the 12seconds widget from my website and give up on the fledgling service.
The last straw for me was when they started displaying some other guy's video inside my widget on my blog sidebar. I understand that the service is beta (after an extended public alpha) but if they can't send the right video to the right website, that's a little too beta for my use.
12seconds was supposed to be a twitter-like video service that allowed you to post a 12 second update - no more and no less - about what you were doing.
The idea was novel, but the service has suffered from a seemingly stagnant active user base (just look at the recent updates), a massive number of disruptive technical issues, and basic systems that just don't seem to work quite right.
For example, my wife snapped up one of the alpha invitations I had obtained and signed up in case she ever wanted to use the service. Like other users, she gets the update emails about what is new with the service. Since she never uses 12seconds, she tried to unsubscribe. That function doesn't work either FYI.
12seconds was a great idea with future promise it just isn't doing it for me and I don't think its going to catch on. For every Twitter there are a lot of failures, and 12seconds is unfortunately one of the failures of 2008.
Although our new computer repair service center opens in February, we are starting to get our data recovery equipment in (the stuff that doesn't require a clean room) so our techs can get trained up on it.
In the last two days we have resurrected data from:
- A physically damaged USB flash drive
- A hard drive with bad sectors
- An iPod hard drive
- A Compact Flash Memory Card
We have only had one failed attempt so far. The clean room would have been required for a notebook hard drive that made a horrendous screech noise and literally jumped in your hand (video coming soon on that). Since we couldn't safely open the drive we didn't, but if that's the limit of what we can do now then that is a pretty cool limit!
I believe that the demand for data recovery will increase in the coming years and right now the industry does not have a high-service providing leader. Schrock Innovations plans to position its self as that leader over time.
Today Microsoft will be pushing out a critical Windows Update designed to seal the browser vulnerability that as been gaining fame in the national media over the past few days.
This security vulnerability was announced shortly after Microsoft conducted its "Patch Tuesday" monthly update in an effort to get as much mileage as possible before the next scheduled Microsoft patch release.
For the second time in two months, Microsoft is releasing an unscheduled update to address this kind of situation. In October, Microsoft pushed out MS08-067 to fix a critical worm hole that affected Windows XP and 2000.
Earlier, Microsoft released a pre-patch advisory that explains that the attacks have targeted IE 7 on Windows XP SP2 and SP3, Windows Server 2003 SP1 and SP2, Windows Vista (including SP1) and Windows Server 2008. This update will download to your computer automatically if you have automatic updates turned on, or you can retrieve it manually by doing a Windows Update.
It's been a little while since I have sent our a security alert, but after what I saw today in our Service Center I wanted to take a moment to warn you about an immerging threat that could harm your computer.
There was an article in the Journal Star today about a security vulnerability in Internet Explorer that could allow an attacker to steal passwords from your computer. In the past several hours that attack has also expanded to include the distribution of rouge anti-virus programs like XP Antivirus 2009 and similar variants.
Microsoft patches are normally released once a month on "Patch Tuesday." Patch Tuesday was last week, so unless Microsoft releases an out-of-cycle patch this threat will continue through next month.
It is important to take action because your antivirus will not protect you from this vulnerability, no matter what version you have. The threat is simply too recent. Until Microsoft patches this vulnerability, it is highly recommended that you do one of the following:
- Install and use Firefox until IE is patched. You can download the free Firefox browser from www.getfirefox.com. The browser is free to download, easy to install, and works much in the same way that Internet Explorer does.
- If you don't want to switch to Firefox, you can increase your IE security settings to protect you. It will cause some pages to not function properly, but you will be safe until a patch is released.To make these changes, do the following:
- On the Internet Explorer Tools menu, click Internet Options.
- In the Internet Options dialog box, click the Security tab, and then click the Internet icon.
- Under Security level for this zone, move the slider to High. This sets the security level for all Web sites you visit to High. If no slider is visible, click Default Level, and then move the slider to High.
- Click Apply.
- Click Internet, and then click Custom Level.
- Under Settings, in the Scripting section, under Active Scripting, click Prompt or Disable, and then click OK.
- Click Local intranet, and then click Custom Level.
- Under Settings, in the Scripting section, under Active Scripting, click Prompt or Disable, and then click OK.
- Click OK two times to return to Internet Explorer.
- Click Apply and OK.
- In Internet Explorer, click Tools, click Internet Options, and then click Advanced.
- Click Enable memory protection to help mitigate online attacks.
I know its a lot of work, and to be honest it is just easier to install FireFox for the next couple weeks. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us anytime at the Service Center or via email.
I mentioned this on the radio show last week, but I thought I would post it here as well.
Schrock Innovations is hiring in Lincoln, NE. We are looking for a very special person to head up the administrative side of our operation.
I say special because we need an administrative assistant with familiararity with computer hardware as well as customer service.
You can read our posting on Craig's List here. The position starts at $32,000 annually.
While Nebraska's agricultural hedge helps insulate the local economy against the kind of tough times the people in Michigan or South Florida are experiencing, it is surprising to me how many small business people are just sitting back and waiting for the "economy" to inform them of their company's future fate.
I have even had people ask me why I am expanding my business in the face of such economic uncertainty. I believe this mentality of fear will separate the next decade's successful entrepreneurs from those who struggle.
You might think I am crazy - and I suppose the results will judge that - but here are some of my basic business principles that I follow in an economic downturn.
Never, Ever Stop Advertising
There are times in every industry when downturns happen. As money gets tight it is very tempting to look at the big ticket items on your balance sheet and start slashing. It is very tempting to reduce advertising spending to cover ongoing operational costs.
While this is an easy decision that gives immediate short-term relief, it CAUSES a major long-term problem. Don't forget that you advertise to attract new customers. If you stop acquiring new customers, you earn less revenue. If you earn less revenue you have to cut more costs. This longer this cycle continues the more difficult it is to pull out of it.
In 2009 I have signed major year-long advertising contracts for TV, radio, and yellow page advertising. By signing annual contracts I received some substantial discounts and more importantly I will avoid the temptation to cut my advertising budget no matter how bad things get.
Maintain Your Customer List
It's vital to continue attracting new customers to your business to ensure its long term success. With that said, it is always more expensive to attract new customers than it is to market your new products and services to your previous customers.
One of the easiest and least expensive things you can do to grow your business in an economic downturn is to maintain a customer list with as much information as possible. Don't overlook details like cell phone numbers and email addresses.
Use this list to communicate with your customers at every opportunity through email, text messaging, phone, and through postal mail. Every sale you generate by sending an email is just as valid as one that results from a radio advertisement!
I communicate with every single one of my customers no less than four times a year.
Offer Value in a Recognizable Way
In an economic downturn people are looking for a deal, even if they don't financially need one. Play to this demand by advertising a value to get new customers into your operation.
For example, in 2009 Schrock Innovations will be pounding our free hour of labor deal for new customers. We want people with broken computers to bring them to us for repair. This allows us to build a mailing list (more on this soon) and introduce ourselves as a company.
(We also send coupons to our existing customers to head off any new vs. old customer rivalry)
Most of the time we fix the customer's problem in that free hour. The only thing people in an economic downturn love more than a great deal is bragging about the great deal they just got.
By offering a free hour of labor ($80 value) to a customer we have added them to our customer list, we are now their default computer repair provider if they have future problems, and they are telling their friends about us.
While it might seem like an expensive way to attract customers, let's compare it against other forms of advertising. Most radio commercials cost about $40 and TV spots can go into the hundreds. Imagine spending $80 for a guaranteed customer, a personal endorsement to their friends, and their future business. Its a steal!
What does your company have that it can offer for free to bring new faces in the door?
Do Not Become a Low Cost Leader
This is the most tempting and dangerous principle of all. In an economic downturn people seek to escape joblessness by marketing their own personal skills and abilities.
Michael E. Gerber, author of the E-Myth explains that most entrepreneurs who fail are simply technicians suffering from an entrepreneurial seizure. That is to say that they know how to perform a skill, but they don't have the necessary supporting skills like strategic planning, marketing, and accounting.
When unemplyed technicians enter a marketplace as service providers they typically charge less for their services then the competition. They are also hungry for work, so they tend to provide levels of service that are unsustainable when compared to what they are charging their customers.
As marketplace conditions improve, they can't raise their prices because their customers will all flee to the newest low-cost leader. They also can't lower their service levels with out losing their value-conscious customers. They are trapped and most of them will be doomed to fail.
As an established business you should not lower your prices to meet this new competition. Remember that you have a sustainable business model and they don't. You have a track record of success and they don't. You will be in business tomorrow and they won't.
This doesn't mean that you sit by and watch these competitors take your value sensitive customers. Use your marketing prowess to offer special sales, coupons, and one time discounts that maintain the precieved value of your product or service while at the same time keep your price-conscious customers loyal to you.
There is opportunity in every boom and every bust and that is why I am expanding my business now. I am betting that my competition won't adhere to these principles when the going gets really tough. I am betting that if they do, the systems I have set up will be better than their systems. I am betting that I will absorb their customers as they exit the marketplace.
Will it work? I believe it will, but the results in 2010 will speak for themselves :-)
There is opportunity in every economic uptrend and downturn. In a time when online retailers are eager to match their products up with paying customers, Top Affiliate Challenge veteran Collin DeRuyck is working to line up sellers with interested buyers.
In fact, his affiliate marketing cell phone accessory website is becoming very popular. It is currently the leading website in the Pepperjam Store Builder Contest and you might be surprised to find that it doesn't sell a single thing!
Rather than stocking cell phone accessories for sale himself, DeRuyck has chosen to use his technical expertise to create a website that sells other the existing inventory of other companies. In exchange, he earns himself a commission on every sale generated. This industry is globally referred to as affiliate marketing.
You can help DeRuyck attract additional attention for his store by voting for it in the Pepperjam Store Builder Contest. Congratulations Collin and keep up the great work!
After closing its doors on November 1, 2008, the Lincoln Computer Renaissance franchise will be unable to honor its warranty commitments to previous customers.
Schrock Innovations is announcing today that it is assuming all warranty obligations from Computer Renaissance.
Computer Renaissance customers have 90 days to bring their computer into Schrock Innovations for a complementary tune up and inspection. After the inspection, the units will be granted a full 1 year Schrock Innovations warranty regardless of the current terms of their existing warranty.
Customer who have questions about the warranty program should contact Schrock Innovations at 423-9595.
Computer Renaissance is a franchise that was built on a simple concept - why buy a new computer when we can build you a used one for a fraction of the cost.
But as the prices of new computer equipment fell dramatically over the past 10 years, that crisp, clean model was muttled, tweaked, and diluted. In fact, the Computer Renaissance corporate about us page reads like a laundry list of services that were added each year without much thought to their overall product and service mix.
That cloudy message was part of the reason Lincoln's Computer Renaissance location closed its doors and disconnected its phones on November 1st.
Why Did Computer Renaissance Fail?
The slide of the local CompRen franchise has been going on for years and is a testiment to any entrepreneur in the computer repair and service industry.
In a world where local service providers are pined under the oppressive marketing thumb of the Geek Squad - not to mention the host of me-too office supply stores selling outsourced Indian technical support - survival and successes directly attached to service levels.
Unfortunately, when you sell used equipment that is already beyond its mechanical life expectancy you are setting yourself up for a service nightmare. If a rebuilt computer from CompRen failed, the failing component was replaced with another equally ised component that would limp the user through the end of the warranty period when they would have to pay to have it replaced yet again.
I can only imagine how it must have worn on the management of that store to have their customers so upset with them all the time. I am sure that some people found a genuine value in the CompRen business model, but we sure do see a lot of their customers coming into Schrock Innovations who did not.
What Lessons Can Be Learned From This?
I personally know of a couple local competitors who rejoiced at the demise of Lincoln's Computer Renaissance. While there is no doubt that CompRen's retreat from the Lincoln marketplace means less competition for us, I am not so interested in gloating.
When any company fails it is a tremendous learning opportunity for those willing to look at the situation with a close eye.
The lesson to take away from this is that in a world where computer parts are getting cheaper and low-cost leaders are abound it is foolish to attack the low-end of the PC market place unless you are heavily capitalized and ready to lose a LOT of money to put your competition out of business.
Only companies who realize they are selling the computer repair SERVICE and not the parts or new system will survive the coming PC repair consolidation.
That doesn't mean you don't sell computers or parts. It just means that the sale of a computer or the sale of a component should be either seeding a future service job or satisfying a current one. Let the Geek Squad Be the Geek Squad - do you really want the guys who install car stereos and hook up plasma TVs repairing your PC?
If you excel at service and genuinely BELIEVE that you are there to meet your customer's needs you will survive to see many of your less flexaable competitors fall by the wayside over time.
Anyone who has encountered software errors can vouch for the frustration these errors bring. Computer users are known to spend a lot of time trying to resolve these errors, often without positive results. Moreover, these errors are often encountered when a certain work deadline is approaching, further aggravating the user.
Here are a few steps that will help you prevent these software errors from occurring and will also help you solve them, if they still occur even after you take precautions.
Step 1: Keep Your Software Updated
You must make sure that you are using the latest version of the software and all the updates have been installed. Using old versions of software may make your system susceptible to bugs or security loopholes. If you encounter a software error, it is possible that this error has been taken care of in the latest update or service pack. Some software manufacturers may provide free automatic updates while others may be available on a subscription basis.
Step 2: Keep Your Windows Registry Clean
A Windows registry that is full of redundant information and is corrupt can interfere with the normal functioning of your software and can generate errors such as install/uninstall error or error code 41. You can clean your registry manually or use a reliable registry cleaner tool that will help you prevent as well as resolve many such software errors. It is critical that you perform thorough scans on a regular basis for this registry cleaner tool to be completely effective. If you decide to proceed manually, please make sure you make a complete backup of the registry.
Step 3: Ensure proper Installation of Your Software
A computer user may face problems while installing a particular software such as Acrobat and CorelDraw or may face problems later on while running the software due to poor installation. This problem could be due to several reasons. In this case, to fix Acrobat, CorelDraw or any other software installation problems, you may try the following alternatives:
- Verify if the CD-ROM is in good condition
- Uninstall and then reinstall the software
- Verify that your user account has the sufficient rights to install a software.
Step 4: Use Reliable Anti-virus software
The presence of a virus on your system may make your computer and any software installed on it, prone to errors. It is recommended that you ensure that a good anti-virus software is installed on your PC. You should also make sure that the anti-virus is updated with the latest virus definitions and is scheduled to make thorough system scans to scout for any malicious software on a weekly basis.
Step 5: Only Use Genuine and Reliable Software
With the spread of the internet, computer users are being offered a huge number of software, often free of cost. As many users have already found out, many of these software come with coding and logical design errors. So, making a choice of software should be preceded with extensive research about the feedback of the software by existing users. Also, make sure that you do not download or buy pirated versions of software that often contain viruses or are incomplete versions of the software you need.
Remember the good old days when all you needed was antivirus software to secure your computer from the threats of the outside world?
Those days have been replaced with the need for antivirus software, antispyware software, firewalls, anti-phishing filters and popup blockers.
So exactly what do you need on your computer to keep you safe on the ever-increasingly dangerous wilds of the Internet?
Regardless of what you use your computer for, if you connect to the Internet at all you must have at a bare minimum:
- Antivirus Software
- Antispyware Software
- A Firewall Application
- A Popup Blocker
- A Phishing Filter
Antivirus Software
Technically speaking, a virus is any computer program that is capable of replicating itself on other computers without the knowledge or permission of the computer’s user.
Antivirus software detects automated activity that is consistent with the spread of viruses, stops it, and then eliminates the source if possible.
Antispyware Software
Often confused with antivirus software, spyware does not spread its self from computer to computer. Instead it emits from a central source like a website or piggyback on a program that a user might install for a legitimate reason.
Typically, spyware is designed to track online activity and deliver advertisements that make money for the spyware maker. If you get enough spyware on your PC, it can become sluggish and the continual popup advertisements get to be very annoying.
Antispyware software removes these performance leeching spy programs from your computer.
A Firewall Application
A firewall is a barrier between your computer and the Internet. Depending on the firewall’s settings, certain communications are allowed and some are disallowed.
The idea is to allow the common communications like opening a web page or sending an email without opening up all other communication channels that can be used to stealthily install viruses or spyware on your computer.
A firewall is a preventative measure that acts as a first line of defense. While a firewall might seem redundant if you already have good antivirus and antispyware software, it often can prevent nasty infections from getting into your system before your other programs get necessary updates to handle the latest threats.
A Popup Blocker
Popup blockers became wildly popular as spyware infections spread across the Internet like wildfire in the early 2000’s. These programs suppressed the advertisements that were generated by spyware that had found its way onto a computer.
With the added security of Windows Vista as well as the wide assortment of free antispyware software in the marketplace today, popup blockers have taken on more of a security role.
Some threats are now delivered to your computer via a tiny, almost unnoticeable, window that pops open, infects your computer and then closes. Popup blockers eliminate this threat.
A Phishing Filter
When cyber crooks can’t get software on your computer to steal your information, they try the next best thing – they try to trick you into giving it to them.
Phishing is the practice of sending an email to a person and giving them a reason to click a link in the email and log into an account. The link takes the visitor to a page that looks just like the real thing, but is actually an imposter. When the login information is entered, it is recorded and then the user is forwarded to the real log in page as if they had typed their password wrong.
In 2007 TD Ameritrade, eTrade, and other online brokerages went into lockdown mode because Phishers had captured thousands of investors account logins and were using their funds to inflate the price of a particular stock.
Phishing filters act like a community alert system. These emails are sent out by the millions, so after a few people fall for the trap the entire community is alerted by a silent software update that informs you that the link you clicked on is a fake. This is a must have for online banking users.
What Software Does Schrock Innovations Recommend?
We recommend Norton 360 because they have the best protection in the industry and the 360 product covers all of the bases for you in one neat, easy package.
Schrock Innovations installs Norton 360 for you and stands behind it with a one-year warranty. If anything gets through it, you can call us free of charge to fix it. Give us a call when you are ready to have the best security software in the world installed on your computer.
Many of us can remember discovering a forgotten trunk in grandma’s attic containing bunches of photos gathered with rubber bands and other mementos.
But what will our children discover sixty years from now in our attics? Grandma’s trunk won’t be a trunk at all. Instead the dusty shadows and old cob webs will give way to reveal grandma’s old computer tower. Scrawled across the top of the tower in thick black strokes of ink are the words dead, bad hard drive – reading almost like an epitaph.
Just like the old trunk you found as a child, the old computer tower looks out of place in our children’s modern world, but the treasure of family history locked inside of it is just as valuable as what was in your grandma’s old trunk. If they could only access it…
There is no question that the type of data we are storing on our computers today is considerably larger – and more important – than the data we were storing just 10 years ago.
With the knowledge that few of us back up our data like we should, one of the single most catastrophic computer problems in existence today is a failing hard drive.
That seemingly simple small device contains family photos, business records, home movies, letters, and emails. Imagine what you would lose right now if you pressed the power button on your computer to hear the dreaded clicking noise of a failed hard drive. How would you get that data back?
In 2008 your hard drive would have to be shipped to either the West or East Coast for data recovery services, where technicians would inform you that your data could be recovered, but the ransom would be $2,000 - $3,000. Would you pay?
Some of our customers have faced that exact scenario, and depending on the importance of the data on the drive, some have paid. Others have decided that the family photos they have printed out or backed up will have to make do, and let the hard drive slip into oblivion – a trunk that will forever go undiscovered.
In February 2009 Schrock Innovations will bring you another option. Our new Lincoln Service Center is going to contain a small room – merely six feet by 10 feet. This room will house state of the art equipment imported from two different countries. IN this room, using this equipment, our technicians will perform data miracles on a daily basis.
The Schrock Innovations Hard Drive Recovery Center will offer a local, fast, and cost effective hard drive recovery option. Its 60 square foot class-100 clean room will be the only one of its kind in the Midwest – dedicated exclusively to unlocking old trunks.
Right now we can successfully recover data from about 22% of the bad hard drives we encounter in our service center. Our new facility will boost that percentage to over 90% and allow us to service our customers at ¼ the current industry-wide price.
As always, you will never hear us tell you not to back up your data. But if circumstance gets the better of you, Schrock Innovations will soon have the key you need to unlock your data from a failed hard drive.
Ever since Windows Vista was released in February 2007 the over-hyped operating system has absorbed repeated and targeted attacks against it from just about every corner of the computing world.
The attacks have been so ferocious that no one really seemed to notice that Microsoft had delivered what it had promised - a stable, more secure replacement for Windows XP.
To this day the popularity of Apple’s Mac vs. PC commercial campaign and the resistance of stubborn IT administrators to adopt Vista are the only forces propping up Windows XP against its inevitable extinction.
While it is true that Windows Vista requires more computing power to accomplish the same tasks Windows XP could complete with less, most of that additional overhead went toward new and visually exciting trim as well as the new User Account Control feature that for the course of a year made Vista almost impenetrable to spyware infections.
As the saying goes, the pioneer takes the arrows and Vista was no different. The new operating system necessitated computers with dual core processors, more memory and faster hard drives.
Slowly other device manufacturers started to realize they too could take advantage of the sudden surge of computing power under the hood of Vista equipped machines. Over time faster printers, higher detail digital cameras, and games with dazzling graphics came into the marketplace, falling in line behind Vista’s bulldozing lead.
Hardware has advanced so much over the past two years that it has surpassed Windows XP’s capability to use it. Fewer and fewer new devices are XP compatible, and the IT managers who before so stubbornly clung to Windows XP have slowly started to let go seeing the opportunity that Vista presents.
Realizing the marketplace opinion of Vista is changing, Microsoft released a new commercial series nicknamed the Mojave Experiment. In these commercials clipboard carrying individuals dressed in white doctors smocks interviewed regular people about Windows Vista. They all responded that Vista was a terrible operating system, and offered a variety of rehashed second hand opinions they hard heard from friends or the media.
The interviewers then asked these same people to test out the newest Windows Operating System, “Windows Mojave.” In reality Mojave was Windows Vista, but the people in the focus group did not know it. After allowing each of the people to lay thick praise on “Mojave” for its visual beauty, smooth function, and stability the interviewers revealed that the operating system was in fact, Vista.
Many of them were quite surprised. The commercials served to illustrate that while many people have opinions about Vista, few of those opinions are based on real information. The commercials revealed that when you stripped away the amazingly effective disinformation campaign, Vista was indeed superior to Windows XP.
While Windows XP still has its place with portable computer users who appreciate its lightweight hardware requirements, consumers buying a standard tower desktop system should insist on Windows Vista.
Despite what you might have heard elsewhere, Windows Vista is solid as a rock and is actually patched less frequently for security issues than Apple’s OS X Leopard or even Windows XP itself.
Well, the lights are out and the party is over - for McCain supporters anyway. Just a few words of clarity the day after an election.
Right now is the time to pray for for our president elect and hope that he has the ability to lead us forward for the next 4 years.
There will be mistakes, but in the end we are all Americans and we are one nation under God. Let's do something that the Democrats never did - let's unite behind our president and heal as a nation.
The sun will come up tomorrow. Just because the election is over does not mean the battle of ideas has ended. This election shows that when you line a moderate up against a liberal, the liberal wins every time. This is a phyrric victory that illustrates the need for a strong conservative candidate in the next presidential election.
The voters have given Obama a chance and I think it will shock many people how few things will change under Obama in the short term.
Healing does not mean agreeing necessarily, but it does mean that we must support our president despite how we feel about him. He will have his referendum in 4 years and in the mean time we all need to be watching, listening, and most of all remembering so we can hold him accountable to his word.
From this conservative in exile, congratulations to Barack Obama and all of his supporters on a campaign well done.
I am speechless. It is unbelievable to think that a Black Panther can tap a night stick in his hand while blocking the path of a white voter IN THE DOOR of a polling place. CNN and MSNBC ignored it, but thank God for Fox News:
Love the Geek Squad or hate them, there is no doubt that Best Buy's money and Robert Stephens' marketing have been a force to be reckoned with in most local computer repair markets.
While scandal after scandal expose the Geek Squad's tenancy to hire questionable technicians, their raw marketing muscle as well as point of purchase pressure tactics give the Geek Squad an unearned advantage over their local counterparts.
Geek Squad Abuses Customers' Trust
Just imagine if any local computer repair company did any one of the following things:
- Geek Squad Steals Media Files from Customers
- Geek Squad Peeping Tom Takes Pictures of Showering Woman While Fixing PC
- Best Buy Can't Trust its its Own Geek Squad
- Geek Squad Steals Copyrighted Music from Customers
If any of our local competitors would have done any one of these things it would be a business death blow.
Geek Squad's Questionable Hiring Standards
I mentioned in a previous post that Schrock Innovations is running a series of 12 commercials throughout 2009 on Channel 10/11 in Lincoln, NE that will contrast and compare our service offerings against those offered by the Lincoln Geek Squad. Watch the first commercial titled "Hired" here:
This commercial comically highlights the Geek Squad's hiring standards and will air tomorrow night during the election results where it is sure to be seen by tens of thousands of people in Lincoln NE.
Tell the Truth About Geek Squad
If you have been a victim of the Geek Squad, or have a service story to tell, feel free to post it below.
If you would like a copy of this commercial to place on your website, feel free to embed our copy from YouTube, or download the commercial directly using this link
Sometimes brevity is the soul of wit. I don't want to pay my mortgage or pay to put gas in my car anymore either!
This video speaks for itself.
The other day I was getting my teeth filled at the Dentist and my phone vibrated telling me my Dentist had just tweeted!
It seems like everyone is on Twitter these days. Some people use it for marketing, some people use it as a public diary, and some people elect to password protect their updates so only their friends can see them.
The people who enable Twitter's password protection feature probably feel comfortable that their nosy parents, ex-boyfriend(s), or their boss at work won't be able to read their less-than-public tweet thoughts.
The trouble is these tweets are anything but private.
A few weeks ago a colleague at a conference told me about a service called www.tweetbeep.com. This service sends you an email alert when a tweet is posted anywhere on Twitter that contains the words or phrase you specify. It works a lot like a Google Alert.
I signed up for a tweetbeep account and set some alerts on subjects I like to follow. In mere minutes tweets were gathered and emailed to me. Some of the people who posted the tweets seemed interesting, so I went to their Twitter page to follow them.
I was surprised to see that their Twitter page said their updates were protected and I had to submit a request to the user to follow them. I couldn't see the updates, but somehow tweetbeep was able to?
I am not a programmer or anything, but I know that Twitter has an API, and I am pretty certain that tweetbeep used Twitter's API to monitor tweets and aggregate them into emails to their subscribers.
That must mean there is a loophole in the Twitter API that allows programmers to read private Twitter time lines. If this is the case, it is only a matter of time before websites start popping up that will allow you to read a Twitter user's private tweet time line.
Does anyone out there protect their updates on Twitter for privacy? Is there a service out there that allows people to see protected Twitter time lines already?
For the past couple years Schrock Innovations' on-site technicians have been moving through the streets of Lincoln and Omaha in our fleet of plain white Oldsmobile Aleros.
In the past we did the magnetic sign thing, but they never held up and always seemed to get lost in a car wash or stolen off of our vehicles.
We decided it was time for an image upgrade so we called on our friends at Revolution Wraps to transform our plain white vehicles into marketing masterpieces. Take a look and see how they did it:
A few days ago I was watching Charlie Brown's The Great Pumpkin with my son and as Linus was writing his letter to "The Great Pumpkin" it occurred to me that his letter might also be a metaphor for Barack Obama's candidacy.
Chalk this one up to a moment of brilliance or a tired dad watching a cartoon I have seen a hundred times. I had a few minutes, so I cut a video that illustrates my point.
Take a look and see for yourself. Is Barack Obama The Great Pumpkin?
When we sell a new computer or re-program a computer from scratch for the customer, we usually set the wallpaper by default to a Schrock Innovations wallpaper.
The wallpaper we have been using was themed to our old website and logo so we decided to task the Schrock graphics guys to come up with a new wallpaper that more closely modeled our new logo.
This is what they came up with. Go ahead and download the wallpaper and try it out on your desktop. Simply installing our wallpaper may not make your computer a Modular PC, but it sure is pretty to look at :-)
My wife and I are laying the groundwork for our second adoption. Part of that process is getting an updated home study. During the home study social workers assess your ability to afford another child, parent properly, and provide the basic necessities.
To help them in their task, they ask us to solicit letters of recommendation from people who will vouge for our character. My friend Bob Bankus sent me a letter for my approval before I told him it was ok to send in. Thank God I read it and did not just tell him to mail it off. Here is what it said:
To whom it may concern:
I have know Thor for over 8 years and Kimberly since they started dating.
Ever since he got out of the slammer, Thor hardly ever blacks out from drinking too much anymore. He’s doin’ real good.
Most of the loaded guns are hidden or put away so the kids can’t reach them yet. The rest of the guns aint loaded so they aint gonna hurt nobody.
Kimberly done stayed clean and sober now for a while. I think she has her 30 day chip. So she’s got that goin’ for her. I know she has been working real hard for that.
Jake is wearing clothes on a pretty regular basis. And they got plenty of food stamps so you don’t gotta worry about the kids havin’ enough to eat.
Some people might think the reptile sanctuary in their basement with the alligators and snake collection is a little strange, but I will have you know that theirs is one of the most impressive and complete private collections of reptiles anywhere in the Midwest.
So I gonna shoot ya straight, with all them positive traits, I think it is a no-brainer. Give’em a kid!
Thanks,
Billy Bob
Thanks for sending the the REAL letter in a separate email Bob :-)
The second of our election 2008 billboards will be airing on KOLN/KGIN Channel 10/11 throughout election night as results is being released today.
I really like advertising during election returns on local stations because its the one time that you KNOW local people of a certain demographic will be watching the local television stations to see the results of the local races.
Typically people who vote are better educated, have higher levels of disposable income and are more likely to select a service provider based on the quality of service provided than the price point it is provided at.
Some people suspect that Obama mania may bring in a lot of younger voters, but in a state like Nebraska where the median age is just over 55 years old, I don't really see that as being a factor in this cycle.
In a few days we will be pre-releasing the first in a 12-commercial series that will highlight Schrock Innovations computer repair services while contrasting our value against the value of our competitors.
Of course, the commercials will be hilarious and if we are lucky, they will go viral :-)
The new Schrock Innovations website I talked about a few weeks ago is now live and more content is being added daily.
I completely underestimated the amount of content our old site had archived, so we decided to launch the redesigned website and add the old content in as time allows.
As if that was not enough work, I have been so absorbed in the development of our new Lincoln Service Center that I hadn't noticed that our web development team had been franticlly completing other websites as well.
We are adding new websites almost daily to our Web Development Portfolio. SOme sites are old ones we did in the past and some are new ones that have been completed just recently.
Please take a moment to check out the new website and let me know what you think!
We just received the first of the video billboards that will be airing on Lincoln, NE's largest television station the week leading up to election 2008.
We ended up sharing this one with Information Analytics, but if we were going to share with anyone they are good company.
We expect to get one additional billboard that will also be in the mix of election 2008 coverage that is focused exclusively on Schrock Innovations. As soon as we have it I will post it here.
Schrock Innovations has purchased a banner advertisement to appear on various pages within the KOLN/KGIN website for the next year.
The advertisement is nothing fancy, but will reinforce the impact of an agressive radio and television campaign scheduled throughout Q4 2008 and 2009.
The website ad will precede the launch of two election 2008 related :10 billboards that will air throughout the next two weeks on Lincoln's most watched television station, channel 10/11.
Election night Schrock is launching a year-long television commercial series that will highlight its own service capabilities and compare them to the capabilities of its competitors in a humorous way.
As soon as we have the video from the production team I will post it here for you to see as well.
Need a chuckle today? I was online looking at a newspaper from Sydney, NE called the Sun Telegraph. They have some pretty good writing, but their IT budget could use a shot in the arm.
If you open their "place a classified" link in their sidebar you get the form depicted to the left.
The staff must not have the greatest confidence in their web developer because in giant black bold letters the words "THIS FORM MAY NOT WORK. PLEASE CONTACT THE OFFICE" were hacked into the HTML section of the page.
I am sure they don't get a ton of advertisements placed online, but seriously an onine form is so easy and inexpensive to fix there is no excuse for this.
So for all of you out there who are excited to place your classifoied ads in rural Nebraska, make sure you call the Sun Telegraph's office AFTER you fill out the online form to confimr their IT people did in fact get it right :-)
I want to take a second to welcome our newest sponsor, Motive Interactive.
They are releasing a new performance ad network and they have asked me to take a look and let everyone know what I think about it.
Over the next week I will be playing with their system for a review I will be writing.
One of the biggest talking points for the new system is the way it combines a publisher centric advertising network and a direct lead generation network into one synchronized entity.
This should be interesting to dive into and I am very much looking forward to making money with their new system!
We are launching a couple new commercials to promote Schrock Innovations computer repair and support services in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The spots will be airing on 102.7 the Breeze and 1240 AM KFOR for the next two weeks.
Listen to the :60 second commercial titled "Experience the Difference"