A big sigh of relief...

All I can say is...

Wow.

Tech Fair '08 was an awesome success. Humor me now while I thank:

Joe Ruiz from D&H who flew all the way in from Pennsyl-freakin-vania, missing his own anniversary, to help us out.

Herb from Mobile Edge - of all the laptop case vendors we deal with, he was the only one who came to show his love in person.

Kepano, Christina and Grant from Apple who gave us all FREE APPLES!!!

Roy from Dell and his side-kick Zach who pulled together that COOL Guitar Hero event!

Larry, Sandra, Jody and the gang from ITS who put so much effort into their Phishing game!

Jason from Honolulu CC who dropped everything to lend a hand.

Glenn, my GM, who did so much of the grunt-work for me because I was clueless about logistics.

The entire MES crew who did the heavy lifting.

Kawika from HP for showing up at the last minute.

Donna and the gang from marketing who dropped everything to lend a hand.

My utterly amazing staff - Roland, Altair, Jeff, Kelli and Racquel, who always play along with my goofy schemes with minimal groaning.

My customers, who are so loyal, fun, and downright COOL.


Okay. I got that out of my system. Now for the news items: CS4 is starting to ship; different products are scheduled to go out on different dates over the next month. The new MacBooks are expected in a week(ish); call us at 956-4317 if you wanna get on a wait-list. I celebrated my 29th birthday yet again; Jeff thoughtfully gave me the gift of cheese. Roy-the-Dell-Boy had his 21st birthday but TOTALLY BAILED the day we were all gonna meet at the Garden to share a round. Prices on discontinued Macs are AWESOME and they're going FAST; check out our prices on Pros in particular... oh... my... goodness. You really need to check out our new line of Isis Dei laptop sleeves; interestingly enough, our biggest sellers are the ones made from hemp. And on that note, is it merely a coincidence that our most popular headphones happen to be the Skullcandy "Smokin' Buds"? Hmmmm.... And October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - we carry laptop cases, iPod cases and flash drives from brands that contribute a portion of their sales to research. And they're cuuuuuute!

Adobe Creative Suite 4

Big announcement today. If you are in the market for Adobe software, PLEASE READ.

Today, Sept. 23rd, Adobe announced the release of their CS4 software.

We will not have this product in-stock before early to mid November, as the tentative first shipment from Adobe to our distributors is slated for October 29th. That's for the regular retail product; it'll be a few weeks later for student licensing.

But it is still a great time to buy and here's why. First, there are some anticipated price changes for the CS4 products. Some prices will remain the same, but others will rise between $50 and $100 each. Specific information has not yet been made available to me yet as to which titles, specifically, will experience price changes.

Second, if you purchase CS3.3 between now and December 22, you are eligible for a FREE upgrade to to CS4, by following these instructions:

Technology Guarantee (Grandfather) Information:
Eligibility Period: September 23 – December 22, 2008
End of Claims: January 6, 2009
Process:
· Shrink/Box/Student license customers must contact Adobe Customer Service (800-833-6687) directly to claim their post-announce upgrade. They will need to supply the following:
Dated proof of purchase from an Adobe Authorized Reseller
Product Serial Number
Product, language and platform
Name and physical shipping address
Daytime phone number and email address

Your very own bailout...

Wow. I'm mad as...heck...

I tried to write a blog post last week. But I couldn't publish it. Was too angry.

My point was that prices are going up. And it ain't right. And it ain't fair. But that's the situation. It'll be toner cartridges and headphones in the short term. More to come, I'm sure.

And I HATE raising prices. Why? Because I love you guys. I really do. I firmly believe and try to instill in everyone I hire that we work here for the sole purpose to support and enhance the academic experience of the students of the University of Hawaii. And I know how broke college kids are (it wasn't THAT long ago I was one of you), and I know departments are strapped for cash. And the price of everything you need to keep body and soul together is high and going higher.

So I HATE raising my prices and making you feel any more squeezed than you already are. But what makes me EVEN angrier is the government handing out BILLIONS - even a HALF-TRILLION just this week - to bail out the lying, cheating, stealing bankers and pin-striped bandits on Wall Street while you people get the shaft.

So, I'm very HAPPY to give you - my lovely, wonderful, loyal customers - a bailout of your very own. You want cheap iPods? How's $49 for a 4GB 2nd gen nano, $79 for an 8GB nano or $129 for an 80GB 5G iPod sound? Cheap computers? How about we take $100 bucks off your MacBooks, $150 off iMacs and $200 off MacBook Pros?

Cheap not good enough for you? How about FREE?

October 15th we're gonna host the first of what I hope becomes an annual tech fair here at Manoa. Apple, Dell and Sony are gonna offer up FREE laptops as prizes. Also plenty of free prizes from Logitech, Adobe, Case Logic, Belkin, MobileEdge, Speck, and more.

Lots more.

Thanks to Joe from D&H Distributing for helping make this happen. He's AWESOME, and he's coming all the way from PA because I told him how cool you all are, and I hope you all get to meet and share some aloha with him. Come to Campus Center from 10-2 on the 15th. Challenge our Dell rep on Guitar Hero. Show some Sony love. Test your Apple smarts. Get free stuff and have fun.

Save the date - see you there!

Like reading Life Magazine

For those of you who prefer to look at all the pretty pictures rather than reading too many big words, we have a Life Magazine style blog entry this week.


Jeff, Altair and Mariann, as we waited for Nico to show up for lunch at Bubba's. He was roughly an hour late at this point. Which, as you can see, just THRILLED Altair.


Altair and Jeff with the newest addition to our zoo...er...sales staff, Kelli! Hooray - finally a little class around this place!


Jason, the Manager-in-Training over at HCC. That's Kepano, our Apple Dude, in the background. Seems Jason got the wrist injury in a Judo match. We'd tell you how the match turned out, but they haven't yet finished contacting his opponent's next of kin.


We're giving away REALLY cool stuff for the HCC Tech Fair. So cool, in fact, that this particular young lady is trying VERY hard to win (much to the embarrassment of her out-of-the-shot boyfriend).


Our unsung heros, Shipping and Receiving, plus a Friend of the Department, from left to right: Lloyd, receiving; Kenji, shopkeeper; Debbie, clothing buyer; Kevin, shipping; Reynold, warehouse

It's heeeeeeeere!

ADOBE. STUDENT LICENSING. IN-STOCK NOW. GET YOURS.

In other news...Office Pro 2007 is still $89 through Sept. 15...

...this weekend we said our official goodbyes to Nico and Mariann. The pain of our parting was matched only by the pain of our overstuffed stomachs from lunch at Bubba Gump...

...Jeff's back, new and improved - come see for yourself! Also, we're adding a new member to our team. Be sure to stop by and say Aloha to Kelli, who'll be starting just as soon as HR gets the paperwork processed...

...HCC people - we've got a new facebook page just for you! Fan us! AND we'll be having Tech Daze 2008 up there on the breezeway all next week. Stop by to play with the equipment and register to win free stuff - and I mean GOOD free stuff! Altair will be up there on the 4th for "Meet the Geek Day", so write down all your questions and see if you can stump him. Roland will be there on the 5th to talk to anyone who has questions about departmental purchasing...

...MCC people - be there for the Bookstore Grand Opening on the 4th. Sales, games and GOOD PRIZES. Yours-truly will be in da house (am I too old to use "da"?), so stop by and say hey...

Okay, that's it for now. I'm closing the shop today and it's just about time to hit the lights and give the stragglers the oh-so-subtle hint that we wanna go home. Blog ya later!

IMPORTANT ADOBE UPDATE

Okay, the mystery SEEMS to be solved with the missing Adobe Student Licensed Software. It seems that, instead of shipping via air, it all wound up on a cargo ship. I finally got the tracking number on it from my vendor. The last time FedEx scanned it was on the 18th in Mira Loma, CA. No official ETA on it according to FedEX, BUT our receiving department did get a call asking to schedule a large drop on Monday. Soooooooo....

...IF this stuff is with that order they called about...

...and IF the truck drops as scheduled...

...we should, in THEORY have this stuff on Monday. Now, please bear in mind that even if everything gets delivered, there's still about 800+ pieces of this software that must be counted, sorted and tagged before we can sell anything. So please don't show up at 8:00am looking for it. FedEx delivers mid-day normally and it'll take us a few hours to process everything. Once it's all ready, if you're on our wait list, we will call or e-mail you ASAP. I will also post here and on Facebook immediately once it's all available.

In other news, congrats to all the lucky people who entered and won in our NSO resource fair drawing. Check out Facebook for photos of their smiling faces!

The good, the bad and the ugly

The savvy movie fan will note that the photo of Clint Eastwood shown above is technically NOT from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"; that's him as The Man With No Name from "Fist Full of Dollars". At a previous job I pursuaded the people making IDs to put that same photo on my ID in place of my lovely face. I wanted to run an experiment to see how long it took the unobservant security guards to notice the error.

One year later I quit to move here. It was never found out.

Anyway, hey, awesome news! First, the Adobe student licensing HAS SHIPPED AT LAST. Looks like it's coming via UPS ground, but we should have it in a week. After contract issue we had invoice issues and then a credit limit issue - since I ordered about $250K of the stuff. But it's all be resolved and is on it's way. Yippeeeeee!

Next, Microsoft is having pity on all you poor starving college kids, grossly underpaid staff and faculty (tell me about it!) AND underfunded departments and is going to be offering Office 2007 Pro for PC for (drum roll) $89. No, that is NOT the student license - it's the regular boxed version. Yes, it allows multiple installs! Yes, departments and non-UH academics can buy it! No, I'm not kidding!

Unfortuneately, poor widdle Mac folks, you always get the shaft. The best deal I can do for you is $20 off. Both of these sales will start Monday, the 11th and run through Sept 15th.

All iMacs are back in stock. We'd run out of 3 models while I was out, but we begged and pleaded and got them back in WITH the continued $50 discount. Boo-yah! Also, got some more MacBooks and Pros, and we'll continue to hold our present discounting throughout the BTS season.

New Sonys are on their way, including one model we're gonna start at just $689. Because yes, we are just that awesome. Look for a pricelist up on our website by next week.

Now for the bad and the ugly news (cue the violins)...prices on HP toner cartridges are starting to rise dramatically, and I now find myself having to start raising prices for the first time since I got here almost 3 years ago. Stinks, don't it? Me, I lay the blame squarely in the hands of Ben Bernanke and the Fed govenors who, by printing money out of thin air to bail out bankers are devaluing your savings and paychecks. Nice of them, eh? Reward the irresponsible with money stolen from the honest and hard-working. And if you REALLY wanna know what I think of these jerks, feel free to stop in to the store and engage me antytime. A caution - only do so if you have PLENTY OF TIME to listen to me rant.

Anyway, I promise I'll try to hold prices down as long as I can. The next shoe to fall will be us being hit with fuel surcharges on the shipping, but it hasn't hit yet.