On that subject, thanks to all of you that sent us Christmas and New Years cards. Very much appreciated.

So here is a deal for you. You are no .com CEO until your butt is in an Aeron chair by Herman Miller. These pieces of furuture are medals of success in the IT world, and they are going up in price tomorrow – January 4th. So if you’ve got some extra $$$ time to bust it on a new shiny executive Aeron – http://www.homeofficesolutions.com

Your ass will thank you.

Ok, so I thought long and hard whether I should to post this or not. Even though I hate when people just blatantly sell themselves I’ve posted about a number of deals on here so count this as one of them.

If you are not using ExchangeDefender today, you need to be.

Those of you that follow our blog know that many changes have been going under the hood of ExchangeDefender lately. Why I can’t tell you yet, but I can tell you that if you have anything to do with small to medium businesses you really need to be in our partner program and have at least one paying client by January 6th. Thats the day we publish our roadmap for 2007 and its also the day when I go back to ‘round-the-clock development. Being on the inside track of what will be going on with Longhorn, Exchange, Centro and Cougar has really inspired me to address some of the issues that they likely will not. And as you know, we take really good care of our partners so… read between the lines here folks, if you’ve got customers with email its time to fill out those orders now. 

Today is Cyber Monday, not the biggest online sales day of the year.

It’s not? Um.. Then why is it important?

Cyber Monday is the opportunity for retailers to screw Americans that were too lazy to wake up at 1AM last Friday.

That’s all there is to it. Simple as that.

Millions of people will go back to work today filled with guilt and emptiness put in them by the media blitz coverage of people standing out in the freezing cold to buy that bottom-of-the-line $20 DVD player, $200 computer. They will use their work computers, between ragging on their family and lying about how much time they won’t be spending in the gym to shake off the Turkey weight, to buy items retailers could not move off their shelves throughout the year. Everyone needs a gift after all. Who wouldn’t appreciate a Celeron laptop. Or a big HDTV made by respected electronics manufacturers like Westinghouse or Syntax. Or that brilliant Aiptek camera, winner of the prestigious “Most Returned Item of 2005” award?

I’ve spent the entire weekend on Dealnews and Slickdeals, looking for something that I would be compelled to buy. The only half appealing item I found was a trailer-park edition of Xbox, of which only 1000 were offered as a test of what would trash amazon.com. Has your experience been significantly different? Have you found a killer deal that you could not negotiate in a store or see at virtually every other fake American holiday?

I watched the local news last night and just laughed at the way they try to dramatize everything. It’s funny how my video blogging has brought me closer to the story development process. Here is how you make a big deal out of anything:

• Begin by stating the obvious or generally accepted myth: “Thanksgiving sales were packed with great deals…”
• Large numbers justify your points: “Here is the picture of what this place looked like at 6am on Friday morning…”
• Get an independant opinion: “Oh, I saved so much. At least 20–50%, at least according to the window marketing which never lies…”
• Appear to provide relevant content: “Here are 5 tips to follow tomorrow… Pay with a credit card, check out the merchant…”
• Close with meaningless banter: “People really saved a ton…”

I am never amazed with just how stupid people are. However, I am impressed with how stupid I am — with all of the above, how come Own Web Now doesn’t have a Thanksgiving sale?

I’ve mislead you with the title intentionally.

Do you consider Microsoft Technet webcasts, offered for free, as a bargain in terms of ITPRO training? Even the level 100 courses would cost several hundred dollars at a training center not to mention the investment of time to read a book to comprehend the basics.

So here are few webcasts during December that I hope you get a chance to attend. Courtesy of Eileen Brown.

A First Look at the 2007 Microsoft Office System: Five Useful New E-mail and Collaboration Features (Level 100)
Thursday, December 07, 2006 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time

A First Look at the 2007 Microsoft Office System: Five Important New Features (Level 100)
Tuesday, December 19, 2006 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time

An In-Depth Look at Windows SharePoint Services and Office SharePoint Server 2007 (Level 200)
Friday, December 01, 2006 – 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM Pacific Time

Real-Time Collaboration and Office SharePoint Server 2007 (Level 200)
Monday, December 11, 2006 – 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM Pacific Time

A Sneak Peek at Mobility Features in Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office System (Level 100)
Tuesday, December 12, 2006 – 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Pacific Time

Crazy Ligman sale on security this weekend! How would you like Microsoft OneCare Live, full version, shrink-wrap, media, manual, license AND a glossy box for.. $49.95? Of course you would. But you won’t pay $49.95. No. You won’t even pay $39.95, and believe me friends, its worth every penny. You won’t pay $35.95, not $34.95.  Not even half way to hell $33. No siree.

What would you say if I told you that you can have OneCare Live, full retail copy, in your hands for just $32.99? (hold for applause) Butt wait friends, wait. Yes, its a great deal but we can better than that. What if I told you that you can protect your other PC with this box as well? Yes, legit. Well, we’re throwing it in there. Thats right, protect two PC’s and don’t pay a penny more. Oh what the heck, we’ll take care of Uncle Bob too! Promise to tell a friend and we’ll protect all three PCs and don’t pay a penny more!

$32.99 friends, just $32.99 protects three of your PC’s for a year! Thats less than $0.001 an hour? How many web sites do you visit an hour? How many emails do you get? Do you backup? Well, you need Live OneCare.

$32.99. $32.99! Get it today at your neighborhood Cotsco and tell them Crazy Ligman sent you, where L stands for Lower prices for Legitimate software.

Pretty cool thing actually, onecare.live.com site wants $50 but the FPP at Cotsco is $33 plus tax. And the pic was snapped on the T-Mobile MDA, looks decent for a cell phone camera, doesn’t it? I downsized it quite a bit to make it fit on the blog but I’m impressed. Also I ate some sort of a cheesesteak while cruising around and I wish I wrote down what the heck it was. I don’t know if I was hungry or what but man, that steak really tasted good.

Now this has to be the funniest blog post I've read in quite a while. I like the numbers breakdown, too. Here is my take on it:

Get your unbeatable bottom price on SBS, SBE Office, XP Upgrade deals this weekend at Crazy Ligman's software sale. All business platform SKU's must go! We got a huge shipment from the factory and ALL must go before June 30th. $922? Forget about it. $800? No way! Just $797 gets you in a seat of a brand new SBS CAL, XP Pro Upgrade Cal and SBE Office. $797, fully loaded! You'll be cruising your office documents – anywhere. Don't have a PocketPC? We'll throw that in too! Everything but the kitchen sink! Come and see us at the corner of 1 Microsoft Way at Crazy Ligmans where our volume means savings for you! We finance eeeveryone! (guarantee not a guarantee, must be a small business and qualify for the financing. all tax, tags and financing charges excluded)

Now all joke aside this is a pretty good deal. First off, you can stack all the discounts described in the blog, standardize on a platform for the next 3 years, get a free upgrade to R2 when it comes out and probably get Vista in there. They'll even hook you up with a phone and financing. If you've got a business thats been avoiding an upgrade they will not see this good of a deal anytime soon. Plus the time is just ripe to get in before the Vista upgrade cycle. If they don't sign the dotted line for this you likely just have a lost hope on your client list, cut them loose and go win some business with this one. 

Yet another post in the Gooback category on net neutrality. Today Skype announced that they will no longer charge Americans and Canadians for placing calls to land lines (or cell phones) in USA and Canada. No strings attached, it will be a free call from now on.

This is why the telcos are fighting so hard to tier themselves and eliminate the possiblity of their customers dollars going to the competition or anywhere else but their pockets. I know that Google is the favorite posterboy for the Bell vs. Civilization but their successful separation from common sense and ethical business will guarantee that things like the above free calls never happen. They are still pissed they can't charge you $0.25 per minute anymore, but now they have people just giving it away? Well, without net neutrality that will not be a problem because you will never be able to send packets to the Skype network unless it pays hefty fees to connecting to the Bell network. Think it will be free then too?

Update: Hold the celebration, looks like a good part of IP addresses are unable to reach SkypeOut specifically between 70.x.x.x – 79.x.x.x.x; Take out 10 class A's, ouch. Oh well, I'm not on that range so it's all good Skype.

Just like Jesus, the free MCP exam retake is back from the dead and many are happy to see it. Basically, you sign up for an exam and if you flunk it you get to take it over again except you don't have to pay $125 again.

Microsoft's free exam retake offer is back by popular demand! Simply complete your exam(s) at any Pearson VUE Authorized Center by June 30, 2006 and retake the exam(s) for free if you do not pass on the first attempt. Initial (paid) exam(s) must be completed by June 30, 2006; second shot (free) exam(s) must be completed by July 31, 2006. This offer is valid for all Microsoft exams worldwide. Any means of payment, including promotion codes and vouchers, may be used on the paid exam(s). You must pre-register for this offer with Microsoft. For complete details, visit www.PearsonVUE.com/ms/2ndShot.

Simple enough, get to studying. Unlike other worthless occupations, computer science and engineering requires constant re-education and re-certification , so if you've made a choice to be in IT you should get to working.

I just love competition. I love it even more when it leads to free tools that make me better. Now this is just a rumor, but one that is simply too good: Vmware is planning to release Vmware GSX server free of charge. This is no doubt in part to compete with Microsoft entering the market with Virtual Server R2 (and R2 looks incredibly sweet) at $99. Guess Vmware is going to give them a run for their money, however, Vmware GSX server is heads and shoulders above VS. It allows you to create clusters within virtual machines, it has a free player and is a very mature product. So lets collectively cross our fingers and hope this hits the street.