Google Is Laying Off People. Yikes!

Yikes! Google is laying people off. Since when does that happen? Well, apparently it is. Yikes.

For you luddites out there still reading dead tree newspapers, USA Today, you may have seen the USA Today article with the interesting headline, Russian Kaspersky Lab Offering Antivirus Protection in the US. Strange, given Kaspersky has been available for US PCs for about as long as there have been viruses.

Its light and efficient, well-supported, and you can get an OEM of Kaspersky 2009 AntiVirus single-user from Software Supply Group for only $19.95, as of this posting. Yay!

We also offer Trend Micro PC-Cillin Internet Security 2008 for only $11.84, as of this posting. You luck dog, you! We also offer anti-virus from Panda Security, like Panda 2009 Internet Security Full Version OEM for only $13.77.

We have lots of other software too, like System Management Software 2003 (10 Cal) and Adobe Ovation 1.0 for Windows.

The economy is shaky. If you need new software, I recommend you buy it at a substantial discount from Software Supply Group.

Microsoft Office 2007 for Only $79.94? Can it Be Possible?

Yes, it can be. As of this posting, on 11-20-08, you can get Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student OEM (part number 79G-00007-OEM) for only $79.94!


Not quite what you need? Well, we offer a fulle range of Microsoft Office Home, Academic, Professional and Small Business products in multiple configurations, and all at great prices.


Office 2007, or Office 2003, or Office XP 2002, or Office 2000, or Microsoft Works, or even Office 2008, we've got it all.

Planning on buying an Apple Mactinosh, or have you recently bought one? That sharp Macbook Air, for instance, or a new Macbook Pro? Or maybe you've gotten yourself a fancy new Mac Pro 8-core Superfast Multiprocessing Behemoths? Boy, I'd sure like one of those. Hint, hint. Would make a much more powerful server for work and getting things done and being productive and so on. Hint, hint.

Anyway, if you've done that, I'm sure you know you can run Windows on your Mac. All you need is the included Bootcamp or Parallels (which is just $79.99 from the maker, maybe cheaper if you shop around), and . . . a copy of the Windows operating system.

After spending $3000 bucks on that new Mac tower and $80 for parallels, now you gotta spend $300 on brand new copy of Windows, too? Well, not so fast, buckaroo.

We've got Windows Vista Business 32-bit OEM for just $139.95. But, even better, avoid any hassles you might associate with Windows Vista (it's not that bad, seriously, but I must confess I still run XP on my work machine, and still have a soft spot in my heart for the venerable Windows 2000, which we have for $89.95 OEM or $159.95 Pro full, BTW). But XP is a little lighter, largely bulletproof with all the service pack updates (though those service packs are important, let me tell you) and is compatible with almost any program you want to use Windows to run.

The best news? Get Windows XP Home Edition with SP3 (so you don't have to spend hours downloading all the XP service packs) for only $89.95. Then, run your favorite Windows apps in XP, right on your Mac. Pretty cool, huh?

Or, get Windows 95 for $17.49. And then buy Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Workstation. And why?

With Parallels, you could make virtual multiple machines on a single Mac and easily run Mac OS X, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows Vista, and some other flavor of Windows or Windows Server on your Apple Desktop, and run critical custom software, play Windows-only games, or do whatever it is you need a particular version of Windows to do for you. And it's fast.

Gonna skip all that and wait for Windows Seven? Well, here is a Windows Seven demo real. Or there would be, if the video hadn't apparently been pulled since I read this article on multitouch in Windows 7. Ah, well.

Windows 7 Is On It's Way, And Windows Vista Will Vanish

Windows 7 will almost certainly replace Windows Vista before folks can stop buying Windows XP, or even getting official support of it. At that time, Windows Vista as a nomiker will completely vanish. It will, in many ways, be as if Vista never existed. They will push upgrade from "your old Windows" or "Windows XP" or "all previous version of Windows" but Windows 7 will be as distant from Windows Vista as possible.

And it's not because Windows Vista sucks. It doesn't. It's a pretty solid operating system, with problems no different than you might expect from an operating system that has to run in seriously heterogeneous environments, and was going to have to run on something like 100 million more desktops and laptops than when Windows XP shipped.

And if you think Vista has problems, do you remember when Windows XP first came out? Vista actually got a lot more right, right out of the box, than XP did. Or, for that matter, Windows 95, but Microsoft marketed the heck out of Windows 95, in a very positive, cool product launch sort of way. Given Microsoft's current too-little, too late marketing strategy, apparently those people must not work at Microsoft anymore.

The problem is, Microsoft mismanaged and mis-marketed (i.e., did no real product launch marketing for Windows Vista), and it shows. Their current ads and the Mojave experiment really didn't do them any favors. Windows Vista has become synonymous with "buggy" and "insecure", even though that isn't fair.

Without Windows 7, expect them to barely mention Windows Vista again. And, if they're smart, they'll roll it out with a splashy product launch, lots of commercials (that don't acknowledge that the Macintosh exists, BTW) and celebrity endorsements and appearances on Jay Leno and David Letterman. Or they'll do something stupid and incomprehensible, and leave the hyper-critical blogosphere to define their new product. That would be really smart.
More Windows 7 News Here. And, Windows 7 is Going to Support MultiTouch. Now, that actualy makes that technology useful.

Also, just to remind you, we've got Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Full Version OEM for only $92.33, or $89.99 each if you purchase 25 or more. Handy if you want to stay compatible.

TR2N! And Panda Internet Security for only $13.77

Man, wasn't David Warner Perfect in TRON? I doubt there will be a role for him in TR2N--maybe a voice roll--which is too bad. He really rocked as Sark/Dillinger/MCP in the first movie.

I'm looking forward to TR2N with baited breath. While there seems to be long periods with no news, now there is. Steven Lisberger, director of the the original Tron, has apparently given TR2N his blessing and is a consultant on the production. TR2N will be released in 3D! Mr. Beaks at Ain't It Cool News talked about this with Joseph Kosinski, who is helming this 28 year later sequel. Jeff Bridges talks about the new TR2N (it'll be motion-capture).

Cool beans. Can't wait for 2010. Assuming the market hasn't totally crashed and I still have money to buy movie tickets.

In other news, we've got Panda Internet Security for only $13.77 as of this post. Avail yourself of it now or live forever with the regret. We also carry other Panda Software, so you've got other choices of Panda Internet Security isn't a perfect fit.

Oh, and in case I haven't mentioned it before, we've got Peachtree Complete Accounting 2008 for only $100. Try beating that with a stick! Or just buy it. It's a deal.

It's Google Chrome

Recently, Google released it's new web browser, Google Chrome. Unfortunately, Chrome isn't yet available for the Mac, despite being based on Apple's Webkit, which seems odd, but I know they are planning on getting around to it. Eventually.

There are concerns about Chrome. If you listen to Security Now with Steve Gibson, you'll know it's not a secure browser, and lacks features. And Steve Gibson reveals more Chrome security flaws in Episode 162 of Security Now.

That having been said, I like it. It's clean, simple, and handles huge web pages better than any other browser at there. It also has a fast Java Script parsing engine, the V8 Java Script engine.

But that's not nearly as handy as being able to open of huge files better than any other browser out there. Much better than Safari, better than Firefox, better than Opera, and even better than the best browser at handling large web pages before chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.

By the way, I should take this opportunity to mention, this week only (that is, as of the week of this posting), we are offering Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student OEM for only $79.97. Now, that's a great price for Microsoft Office.

What else was I saying? Oh, yes. Chrome opens up huge web pages better than any other browser. A hundred megabyte web page slows Explorer down to a crawl for me, but Chrome handles it. I can scroll up and down, select text within the browser, and operate JavaScript menus on that huge page--something that is almost impossible to due in Internet Explorer, and definitely impossible in anything else. 

I should say, I do a lot of in house development, so my scripts while processing database files can generate huge web pages, depending on what information I have the script display. The more I can display, the handier it is, and with Chrome I can display an awful lot. Occasionally, when opening up a web page with 200 mbs of images displayed, I've gotten an error, but I consider that minor. On the whole, it works great, and I'm glad for it. 

Unfortunately, it currently doesn't search the content of text boxes on a page when doing a find, which Internet Explorer does do. Sigh. One day, there will be an all-in-one browser. One day.

Have I mentioned Software Supply Group carries a variety of AC adapters from laptops and notebooks?

I know I've told you we carry quite a few Peachtree Accounting products from Sage Software.

I've also mentioned that we carry quite a bit of anti-virus and network security products from Panda. Which is cool.

And Kaspersky. With a name like Kaspersky (I keep wanting to type Kazpersky or Kazperski or Kazperzky or anything but the right thing), the internet security has to be good. 

And don't forget Symantec Endpoint Protection, Norton Internet Security 2008, and Norton Systemworks. More specifically, we've got Norton SystemWorks 2008 standard edition for just $32.77. Beat that with a brickbat!

No more news on TR2N! I'm waiting. I've got Google News set up to let me know. But nothing yet. One day.

Palo Alto's Business Plan Pro 11 and More

First, we've got Palo Alto Software's 2008 Business Plan Pro 11 for sale for only $49.95 as of this posting. I think I've mentioned Business Plan here before, but this is another opportunity for you to get Business Plan--and plan your business, see how that works?--for a great price from Software Supply Group.

As of this week (and for only this week, or close to it), we've got Microsoft Office 2003 Professional Pro (Full OEM, part number: 269-06738-OEM) for only $267.43. Pretty good price.

And we've still got plenty of Microsoft Server products, including Windows Server and Microsoft SQL Server and more. We offer a full range of Microsoft Office 2007 Products. Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows XP Pro, Windows 2000, Windows NT and more.

So, come on by. We'll keep the light on for ya.

A Few Specific Products from Software Supply Group

So. We've got Microsoft Windows 2003 Server OEM R2a, 5 Cals DSP P73-02766 for only $609.95, if you buy 10 or more.

Windows Vista Home Premium Upgrade for only $77.00 if you buy 10 or more.

Cyberlink Power DVD 7 Software, OEM Version for only $6.95 if you buy 10 or more, $5.95 each if you buy 100 or more.

Microsoft Office 2003 Professional Pro Full OEM - 269-06738-OEM for only $296.43, or $289.55 each if you buy 20 or more.

Don't forget our High Sierra Laptop Computer Case for only $12.95. It's a bargain, and this is the laptop computer case I use for carrying around my laptop. Big enough for even large laptops, it's got a divider and pockets and pockets for wires and adapters and CDs and DVDs and whatever else you need. A great bargain for $12.95.

More soon!

In Praise of Technology

I often suffer from back pain, and it could become debilitating in the days before I got a Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulator (TENS Units). With that, and adhesive electrodes to apply to (or around) the areas where the pain is distinct, I'm able to manage the pain, and avoid complete debilitation. At least I have been able to so far (knock on wood). And it wasn't that long ago that no such solution was available, especially to the end user, for easy purchase on the Internet.

I may have mentioned my love of my old TRS-80 Color Computer before. All right, I know I have. My first word processor, Telewriter, was basically a big modal window you could type in, with the innovation of allowing the use of lowercase (something not available as a standard on the Color Computer until the CoCo3, I believe). It was awkward, and there was no real formatting, but I liked it well enough and used it until I acquired VIP Office (or something like that), my first suite of "office" applications that included my favorite modem terminal package (VIP Term) and Word Processor (VIP Write) and a not-quite-a-spreadsheet math program (VIP Calc) and some sort of disk editing application--that was back in the days when people who used word processors and power users who would directly edit blocks on their 5.25" floppy disks were one in the same.

Amazingly, I was able to find a review of TRS-80 Color Computer word processors from 1983, that was unfortunately pre-VIP Write, but still interesting to a nostalgic Color Computer nerd such as myself.

VIP Write was vastly superior to Telewriter which, in itself, I still found superior to a plain old typewriter. Even so, it didn't allow any formatting within the application; you had to insert control character strings to specify bold, underlining, or italic, and the nature of that string would be different for any given dot matrix or daisy wheel printer.

Not today! With the advent of laser printers in in-line formatting for word processors, things got considerably easier. Microsoft Office's Microsoft Word allows you to format text any which way, with columns and tables and insert graphics and colors and special characters and foreign languages and on and on and on.

The robustness of the Windows Business Server products dwarfs the mainframes that I used to play Original Adventure on, via an acoustic coupler modem and VideoText, a ROM Cartridge-based, completely featureless, modem program for my original 4k TRS-80 Color Computer. Not to mention, the quality of games has gone up somewhat from the days of breathlessly playing plodding text-based adventures to the modern days of the Xbox (and operating systems like Windows Vista Home Premium that can share media files with the Xbox 360 via your home network. My, how things have changed.

Of course, back in the days of having most of my programs on a cartridge that I stuck into my computer, we didn't worry about computer viruses or malware. Now, such things are all over the place. Fortunately, technology has responded, with dozens of anti-virus products like Norton Antvirus and Kaspersky Internet Security.

When I first got my floppy drive for the my Color Computer, I was amazed by the 250k of data it could hold. I was fascinated to learn that you could carefully cheat with single sided disks, and punch out the hole that told the drive that it could use a particular side of the disc, and double the storage! Wow. Of course, we didn't even had CDs when I first got my computer, and even though I got my first CD player in 1985, I didn't see a CD-ROM drive until 1988. These days, we can burn on our own CDs and DVDs painlessly, and pretty much every computer comes with at least a CD-R built in, if not a DVD-R. And Blu-Ray drives in most computers are coming.

Then, it was amazing to get 64k out of my bulky machine. Now, laptops and notebook computers have gigabytes of ram and can hold hundreds of gigabytes of data on their hard drives. You can keep the books for your business and do your taxes on your computer, and even file electronically. That's pretty darn cool.

And on and on it goes. While I do wax nostalgic for the old days (and often), it is amazing how far technology has progressed. Sometimes, I think we're a little spoiled, complaining about bugs in the latest 3G iPhone or Windows Vista. Compared to what, not having it all? I love technology. Yes, I loved my old Color Computer. But would I trade my modern-day Macintosh for it? No. I'm a bit nostalgic for my old rotary dial phones. But Would I trade my iPhone? Uh, I don't think so.

Technology rocks. We are spoiled. Which is good. That is all.

I Miss My TRS-80 Color Computer

I miss my first real computer. I miss reading my thick, bound Rainbow Magazines. Or Hot CoCo Magazine.

If I ever get too nostalgic, thanks to modern technology, I can go work on a Color Computer right now, by going to the JavaCoco Emulator, a TRS-80 Color Computer emulator that runs in Java. I can program it in Microsoft BASIC (the great-great-grandpappy of Microsoft's Visual Studio 6.0), just like I used to in the old days, and it works the same way. There were a number of editing functions that were related to the editing BASIC programs using the CTRL key, and they all seem to work with the Java Applet. Pretty cool. No way to really open or save programs, but there are plenty of real software emulators and CoCo ROMs out on the internets.

If you happen to go there (to the Java Applet), you'll happen to notice the "UNDER LICENSE FROM MICROSOFT" that happens to accompany the emulator. I looked at the screen almost every day for years, and if I had--during that time--invested, say, $500 in Microsoft, I wouldn't be worried about money right now. Because that Microsoft stock would be worth a million bucks, or nearly, depending on exactly when the investment happened. Which wouldn't be too shabby.

And, doomsayer predictions to the contrary, and Microsoft's stagnant stock price to the contrary, Microsoft ain't going anywhere. Could global business run without Microsoft Software. Critics aside, Windows Vista is not only a much better product that it is given credit for being, but it's selling well, and Microsoft is raking in the money. Also, it might be nice to point out that Microsoft's market cap is about 250 billion, which is about 100 billion higher than Google or Apple's, to name two.

Microsoft's Window Server products dominate the server landscape, and will continue to for the forseeable future. Microsoft SQL is becoming the dominant commercial SQL database, as Oracle treads water. Microsoft Office dominates the productivity software landscape, and does anybody think that Star Office is going to displace Microsoft Office software any time in the near future? No? I didn't think so.

Certain markets are weaker for Microsoft, sure. Windows Mobile is big in the mobile device market, but competing against the Apple iPhone and RIM's Crackberry--I mean, Blackberry and Google's upcoming Android platform, Microsoft isn't going to be to mobile what Microsoft has become to the enterprise. But that's okay. Sure, Microsoft has the Zune, but they also have the X-Box. Apple may be making inroads, but Microsoft still owns the enterprise. And Microsoft owns most of the global desktop and laptop operating system market. So, when it's all said and done, I still wish I have invested a few pennies in Microsoft, back in the day.

A Full Line of Computer Hardware and Parts

If you've been to the site, you know we sell some hardware.

But we're actually selling a lot more hardware products than you think.

Somewhat hidden (at least for now, as we focus on software and get some of the hardware and parts selection organized) is a special part of our website where you can get great prices on, and a wide variety of, dekstops, laptops, hard drives, DVD drives, and various other computer hardware and parts.

And there will be more (and more and better images and descriptions) as time goes on.

CRT monitors?

Mobile and portable hard drives?

Power Supplies?

Printers, Scanners and Faxes? All-in-ones?

Oh, we got 'em, and more. Come on by and check 'em out.

Yes, it needs a little more organizing. We certainly need to get more images up. We're working on that. In the meantime, here's your secret link. Don't forget it!

Corel WordPerfect Office X3 Standard Edition OEM

I think I've mentioned this before, but, since it's the Deal of the Week this week, why not mention it again?

We've got Corel WordPerfect Office X3 Standard Edition, Full Version, in OEM (that means no boxes, just the media, manual, license and registration info). This thing can created and edit PDF files. Microsoft Office files? Fully compatible. That means Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel--open 'em all up and save 'em again, in WordPerfect Office X3. Or open up, and save 'em out, in any of 150 other formats WordPerfect Office X3 happens to support.

Customize your workspace using Office X3s groovy Workspace Manager. Save any and all documents without metadata, if you so choose, for maximum security. Comes with a full featured email application (WordPerfect MAIL) that includes calendar and contact management and RSS capabilities, all rapidly searchable.

The best news? It's only $12.42 at the time of this posting. Only $10.95 each, if you want to buy 100 or more, or $12.00 if you want to buy 20 or more. Pretty good deal, if you ask me.

Find this and more great deals in Software Supply Group's Miscellaneous Software Section. Get 'em while they're hot (and still in stock!).

TR2N (Or, Tron 2 For the Geekspeak Illiterate) Is on the Way

Comic-Con 2008 is over, and the most important announcement made at the show? It wasn't even in an announcement.

It was a surprise trailer for Tr2n (or, Tron 2), a 26-years-later sequel to Disney's classic Tron. While it didn't get great box office the first time out, the popularity of Tron has grown over the years, becoming a cult classic. And then, of course, there are folks like me who liked it from the very beginning, and still love it to this day.

Just search for Tron on YouTube and see what you find. Tron Guy.Fan projects like this. Tron-like music videos. And don't forget Cardboard Tron.

While we still can't be completely digitized into the computer and become a program, and talk to, say, Microsoft Office like we're talking to a co-worker in the next cubicle (btw, here's my vote for the modern-day equivalent of the Master Control Program). What would Power DVD 7 from Cyberlink look like? I dunno. I just hope, when they do make it--and, based from the cheers I heard on the bootleg cell phone footage of the teaser they ran at Comic-Con, actually doing it is a no-brainer--they don't make it cutesy with lots of references to things like FaceBook, MySpace, Google, Web 2.0, etc. I hope it takes place in the original world of Tron . . . updated, of course, given 26 years have passed since the original Tron and Tr2n.

And, though we can't get you into the computer to have you hob-knob with you're software, we can still get you great software at great prices. Like Norton Anti-Virus 2008 for only $15.84, as of this posting, of course.

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 / SQL 2005 / Exchange 2007 And More

Microsoft Server products (previously called Windows Server System) have been around for a long time.

While the "Server" branding orginally debuted with Microsoft Windows Server 2003, file sharing had been available for some time and much of the functionality of a typical server was available in Microsoft's Windows NT.

Naturally, this expanded with the release of Microsoft Windows 2000 to the point where, aside from certain specialized enterprise software and policy management features, Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate is, in fact, a robust server platform. Although this hasn't prevented Microsoft from coming up with products like Windows Home Server, or prevented them from developing robust enterprise database and mail server products like Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise and Microsoft Exchange 2007 Enterprise. Both of which, purely by happenstance, we happen to sell. Yay for us!

So, get some chocolates, curl up with a good book, and enjoy unprecedented computer security for a great price.

Am I pimping the Software Supply Group ride too much? Well, I can't help it. We've got great products and great prices, including some difficult to find older software titles that can be a lifesaver when you've got large networks and backwards-compatability issues.

Yeah, you know what I mean.

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac

I started really working with and on computers in 1981, with my first computer, The Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer, which has a long and storied history. Pretty much every evening, and every day during the summers, I started my free time looking at this:

And I'm nostaligic for it to this day. Around 1987, thanks the computer studio at Memphis College of Art, I became an equally big fan of the Amiga 500. Although I had some fun playing with the Color Computer's graphic capabilities, including what could be done in Microsoft BASIC as well as apps like Chesire Cat's Graphicom software (Copy and paste graphics! Invert! Wow!), the Amiga 500 and Deluxe Paint and Digipaint and Digiview, which allowed me to work in tens-of-thousands of colors and play with scanning via a video source (in our case, a black and white security camera with a color wheel to assist in color scanning), blew open the doors as far as what could be done with graphics and computers. Plus, it was fun as anything I've ever done in my life.

Then, after about a year of non-stop action on the Amiga, I started working in the Mac studio. And though I've worked on plenty of Windows and Linux desktops since then, nothing has ever bested the Mac, in my opinion.

Even though, when I started, it was in a studio with a few Mac IIs and several Mac 512ks. Over the years, I have personally owned or have worked on almost 25 models of Macintosh. The Amiga has faded (and I never owned one), and while I still have my Color Computer III (my third or fourth, I lost track) in storage, I will probably never boot it up again. But I fully expect to be using my Mac until the day I die.

Which brings me to Microsoft Office 2008 for the Mac. This edition includes Microsoft Word 2008, Microsoft Excel 2008, Microsoft Powerpoint 2008, Microsoft, Entourage 2008, and Messenger for Mac. While there is still no Microsoft Access for Mac (a slap, indeed), and they dropped support for some of their older productivity apps like Microsoft Project for Mac years ago, it's still a robust suite of Office products . . . and shows that the Mac is more than important enough for Microsoft to throw some serious development resources at. And right now we have the full retail product for only $289.95! Get it while it's hot.

Microsoft Office XP Student And Teacher

One could argue that Microsoft has too many iterations of their products--Home and Professional, Basic and Ultimate, Desktop and Server and Mobile and Tablet and Media Center and . . . and . . . and . . .

Still, they do, and sometimes you can get a perfectly good version of their software at a much better price just because it's a different version will largely the same capabilities.

So let me point you at Microsoft Office XP 2002 Standard for Students and Teachers, Retail Box for only $79.95 (as of this posting) . . . this offer won't last forever, so if you're interested, I suggest you hit it now. Because it'll be gone soon.

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It ain't the only thing we've got for a good price, however. May I also point you at Microsoft Works 2006 OEM on DVD for only $37.95. Microsoft Works includes Word 2002, Microsoft Works 8.0, Money 2006 Standard, Digital Imaging Standard 2006, Encarta Encyclopedia Standard 2006, Streets & Trips Essentials 2006 . . .and Microsoft Works 8.0 by itself is a pretty robust application for productivity. This software does require a DVD-ROM to install, and is OEM. But I suggest you check it out.

And We Sell a Little Hardware, Too

Like this Dell 22" Widescreen Flat Panel LCD Monitor (factory refurbished). And for only $259.95! As of this posting, of course.

We have other great Dell Hardware here.

And, finally, a few other hardware items (cradles, cables) are right here.

Of course, this is all as of this posting. Stock does change.

Taking Care of Business

There are lots of solid software tools for taking care of your business and managing your personal finances, and we have some great prices on them. Microsoft Money Plus Premium is just such a product and, as of this posting, we've got it for $45.95. It consolidates your banking, credit and investment accounts in one place and provides plenty of tools for assessing how much you are really worth (debt vs. equity) and may help you end up with more equity and less debt. And for $45.95, that's a bargain.

Not sure where you're going with your business? Then you might give serious thought to Palo Alto Software's Business Plan Pro 11, 2008. Hundreds of sample business plans, wizards for quickly building your business plan, and toolks to automatically organize and collate a "bulletproof" business plan and (this is important) output it in the preferred format of banks, investors and the Small Business Administration (SBA). It's a great business tool, and we have it for only $67.95 as of this posting.

Need to do the books? Check out Quicken 2008 Home and Business Retail. Great for the self-employed and contractors who need to keep track of business and personal expenses and income in one place. And we've got it for $52.95, as of this posting.

The Magic of Branding

As a consumer, business or otherwise, if you didn't already know (or at least suspect) what it was, what would you think Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0 was? It is described as: "It includes Symantec Endpoint Protection, Symantec AntiVirus for Linux and Macintosh, and mail protection which shields against malicious email."

So, it's an Anti-virus program? With anti-malware and perhaps spam-blocking, phishing prevention, or other features? Why is that, exactly, "endpoint" protection?

I'm sure the product itself is fine. I haven't used it, but I've used Symantect Norton Anti-Virus before and it's a bit of a resource hog, for me.

But what, specifically, is an endpoint, and why do I need mine protected? Apparently, it's important enough to protect my endpoint that they've come up with 11different iterations of it!

Reminds me a little bit of the classic "What if Microsoft made the iPod?" video. In a desire to make product branding distinct, unique, and to "stand out" companies tend to obscure what the product is and what the product does. What about "Complete Protection"? "Whole Computer Protection" . . . I dunno, I think there has to be a better way to get the message across than "endpoint" protection.

But maybe that's just me.

Corel Wordperfect for Office X3 for only $17.95

For those of use looking for an alternative to some of the Microsoft Office products would do well to look at Corel WordPErfect OFfice X3 (part number WPX3STDENGPC). There's software for word processing (and some might say much more manageable than Microsoft Word), editing spreadsheets, doing slide shows ala PowerPoint, and more. And for only $17.95!


And it has complete suppy for the Adobe Acrobat PDF format. And it can import PDFs. How about them apples?

But what about all your Micrsoft Office docs? What about the Microsoft Office documents folks are always emailing you? It's easy to open, edit and save Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. So you can work with all your Microsoft Office documents (and save 'em as PDFs), you can save your WordPerfect documents in Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint format to send to colleagues . . . and you get it all at a bargain price.

You really can't beat it. If Corel had done a better job of marketing WordPerfect Office over the years, it'd be on a lot more desktops . . . and it probably wouldn't be nearly such a bargain. Because it's easy to use, slimmer and lighter than Microsoft Office, with 99% of the power and value of Microsoft's product. I've used them both, and there are of course some handy things about using Microsoft Office on Windows, but there isn't a better value in productivity software out there than Corel's WordPerfect Office X3. Buy it today. We have it for only $17.95, or $15.95 a piece for orders of 20 or more.

And, while you are at it, take a look at some of our other bargains on 3rd party software.

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BTW, check out our Excess Software section, which includes stuff like Windows 2000 Server, Adobe Ovation, Microsoft SQL Server 2000, Office XP Pro, Microsoft XP Pro, Microsoft Small Business Server 2003, and more. Have a blessed day!

The Market for Older Software, Part Deux

Like, for example, Microsoft Windows NT 4.0. Why is there still a market software? Because, believe it or not, some people still need it. They have vertical applications that only run on this software, or they've got machines in service that can run later-rev software without problems, etc. Yes, there is still a market for Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Workstation, and we've got it for a great price: only $19.95. For as long as we have it in stock. Which probably won't be forever, because I'm not kidding: people still need this stuff, and sometimes will snap up 100 copies at a time. So, if you need NT 4.0 Workstation, pick it up now. We've got it in stock, and for only $19.95. Did I say that already?

But that's not all . . .

Even better, we've got Microsoft Windows 95 2.1 OEM with USB for only $17.49. Are people still running Microsoft Windows 95? Still buying it? Yes, there are markets for Windows 95. Most of them international, and a few in obscure vertical markets domestically . . . but people still need it, and still buy it. And, with the advent of Windows Vista, you will see later generation OSes like Windows '98, Windows 2000 (my personal favorite) and Windows XP holding on for even longer than venerable classic OSes like '95 and NT Workstation 4.0.

Only $17.49, as of this posting, for Windows 95 OEM with USB. Only $19.95 for Windows NT Workstation 4.0. As of this posting. And as of this posting, we've still got 'em in stock. Get 'em while the gettin' is good.

Trend Micro PC-Cillin

We've sold a lot more Trend Micro software than we're currently carrying, and we hope to again. But right now we've got a great price on Trend Micro's PC-Cillin Internet Security 2008 1-USER OEM (part# TIS085671). That price being $14.95, or $13.95 if you purchase 20 or more.

As I may have mentioned, even though the goal of this blog is in no small part to promote our store (and educate, of course!) I prefer to write about things about which I actually have something to say, or have direct experience.

I have direct experience with PC-Cillin, as it's running on my daughter's Dell Laptop (which is also running Windows Vista, which I'm not a huge fan of--for many reasons--but sometimes you need it and, anyway, this post isn't about Vista). It works well. As with all Internet Security software, the updates are frequent and intrusive, which I'm not a big fan of, but I have yet to see Internet Security software that works (for free, or at any price) that isn't intrusive in some way or others, and updates to have to be frequent in order to ensure security.

For the home user, I'd recommend PC-Cillin over Symantec, or AVG (which I use at work). Panda Anti-Virus and Internet Security (which I've used, and can be a little more intrusive, in my opinion, than PC-Cillin, but does the job and more at a great price) or PC-Cillin are better choices for the home user. We also carry the very popular Kaspersky line of Internet Security and Anti-virus products, but I haven't actually used them myself, so I'm not in a position to review them. But if you've used them and you like them, we've got some great prices on them, so come on by!

Intuit Turbo Tax for Business 2007

We have it. That is, Intuit Turbo Tax for Business, 2007, New Retail Box for only $69.95 as of this posting. Yeah, tax time for 2007 is over, but what better time to pick up a bargain? Things don't change that much from year to year, so if you're looking for a solid business tax package, check out our current Intuit Software section, including Turbo Tax, Quickbooks Pro 2008, and Quickbooks Simple Start 2005.

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Oh, and if you're needing to update or expand your anti-virus protection, we've got Symantec Antivirus 10.0 10 User Business Pack (Part Number 10368462) for only $129.95. Now, that's a deal!

Adobe Acrobat Perseveres

Albeit a little slowly for me. I'm still not exactly won over by the Acrobat reader, or the full Acrobat Suite, but what are the alternatives? None, really.

And Adobe Acrobat as a file format has it's advantages, especially within the Adobe Suite. It offers generally decent cross compatability between applications such as Illustrator and InDesign, and even Photoshop can open PDFs. There are several PDF exporters an annotaters for popular applications such as Microsoft Word and Quark Xpress, and, of course, Mac OS X offers build in PDF support. Any PDF can be viewed natively, previewed extensively with QuickLook, and any thing that can be printed can instead be saved to a multi-page PDF. Which is, if you think about it, pretty darn handy.

And Adobe Acrobat PDFs are now common in pre-press--especially the type of printing one can get done online--as it is a self-contained file, with almost everything you could need. And almost all available browsers have built in PDF browsing, or an easy-to-get plug-in to do the job.

So what's my hang-up? Well, for one thing, it took forever for Adobe to deliver on the promise of PDF as a self-contained pre-press output format. Or, at least, it took forever for me to be able to send a PDF to a pre-press house and get out what I expected. Secondly, cross-compatibility between applications could probably still use some work--maybe Adobe Illustrator CS3 can open all the pages in a PDF document? I haven't checked that yet.

And the Adobe Acrobat Suite never seemed as full-featured, or as easy to use, as I would have expected from Adobe. Added features, such as the ability to fill out PDF forms, took forever to work out the kinks and actually become useful. And now that they've finally gotten all the kinks out and Adobe Acrobat is, on the whole, pretty robust (though still not perfect), I rarely have a need for it. Other than the Reader (which should have an easy way of bookmarking pages, or automatically converting--on the Reader end--tables of contents and indexes into clickable links that take you to that page, rather than depending on the author to set that up (which they rarely do).

But . . . still, on the whole, it's a handy, truly portable document format, and if you need to do more with it (and we can verify that you are a student or school employee--heh!) then Adobe Acrobat 8 Profession, for only $121.95 (as of this posting) is the way to go. We've got it in stock as of this post so, if you are a student or school employee or otherwise entitle to make academic purchases, I'd suggest you shop with us.

If you're not, we've got Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard, which has much of what you need but, like Windows Vista Basic, it'll be that one thing you need most that it doesn't seem to have. Still, we've had standard consumer versions of Adobe Acrobat Pro in stock before and we will again, so if it has been a while, come check out all our Adobe software.

And have a great (and blessed) day!

Software and Comic Books and Music CDs and Half.com

I sell a few items on eBay's Half.com, like Planet P's Pink World, for $75, if you want to pick it up. I started doing that around the time I was working for a company called Licensing Ventures Incorporated, who sold quite a bit through channels like Half, eBay, and the Amazon marketplace.

If you've ever bought or sold on Half.com, you've noticed, no doubt, they don't sell software of any kind, and precious little hardware. They also don't have a marketplace for odd or antique items that are eBay's bread and butter, like cigarette cards (I used to have a lot of these and somehow lost them all, some of them classics, and I can't tell you how depressing that is when I reflect upon it, but nevermind). More common and contemporary are comic books. So what's the big deal? Well, the best thing about Half.com is that it's not an auction site. It costs nothing to list your products, and you can leave them on there, at whatever price you set, for as long as you want. If you have competitve prices on software like we do, then it'd clearly make a great, inexpensive marketplace for our software. Even if they only took major products, like Microsoft and Symantec, it'd still be a great marketplace for us.

For people (like me) who have a lot of comic books but don't want to sell them unless I'm going to get a decent price for them, it'd be a great place to sell them.

The best thing about half.com is that it's a straight competetive marketplace. It's not cluttered with auctions or a mix of "Buy it Now" and only "Buy it Now" and auction products sorted by the end of the auction, it's just a sales site where if I wanted to be a nickel better than my closest competitor, I can be, or if I want to be $5 more than the closest competitor so that I might sell my product after everybody else's is sold and gone, I can do that, too. As a seller of software in a competetive marketplace, I'd love to be able to sell Microsoft Office 2007 OEM that way. Right now, it's only $299.95, or $297.95 each if you buy 10 or more copies, BTW.

Alas, we cannot. So, I'm selling some music and some books on Half.com personally, and that's about all it's good for now. I miss the days of my Filemaker Pro price harvester that I used at LVI, where I'd collect all our competitors prices and then try to price us a penny or two below them, in order to be more competetive. That was fun!

For a little blast from my past, check out in the Internet Archive of HitMeNow.com, which I have some fun stories about. Including how it may have floundered (in my opinion) because we were going in too many directions at one time, but also how they even had a Memphis office for me to get a job at because they had purchased Kozmo.com, that dot.com boom company that was going to deliver music, DVDs, books, food and basics to anybody who ordered them in under an hour. Wonder why that didn't work out. Could be because they spent all their venture capital on limousines and Kozmo.com embroidered shirts.

BTW, the beginning of the end of HitMeNow.com happened, in my opinion, when a guy named Jeff Abrams came on, a guy with a corporate background at big box retailer Best Buy, who some have credited with architecting the largely unsuccessful effort to use music CDs as a loss leader at Best Buy (the idea being that they'd come in for the cheap music and leave with a projection television set)that helped begin the process of putting stand-alone music retailers, like Camelot music,out of business. Click on his name above to read about it, or click here.

One of the big pushes while I was at LVI was to get DropItOff.com off the ground, and I guess they did, because unlike HitMeNow.com, that URL still works, and much has been done since I worked there. Hope it's working for them, I know most of the the stripmall stores I've seen spring up to take folks stuff and list it on ebay, etc., have all ended up closing. I'm not sure there's that big a market for Internet middle-men in the Web 2.0 era. Time will tell, I suppose.

Anyhoo, I still think it's unfortunate that HitMeNow tanked, but it was a fun job and a very interesting place for an entertainment geek like me to work. On the whole, I look back at it with fond memories.

And speaking of entertainment, we've got Roxio EasyMedia7 Basic for $5.95 and Roxio Easy CD Creator for $11.95, as of this posting. If you're interested in that kind of thing.

The Market for Older Software is Growing

And we sell it. Like, for example, Microsoft Office Pro 2002 for XP. It includes Access XP, Excel XP, Outlook XP, PowerPoint XP, Publisher XP, and Word XP. Does almost everything you need, runs great on XP, and people are still buying it.

There are a lot of reasons for that. It's a bit more compact that Office 2007, a little speedier on old machines (for the most part, there are some exceptions) and, quite frequently, the revision of specifications for large corporations and government agencies is a lengthy process. And that's understandable--in big organizations with a lot of machines to support, upgrades can be expensive and paralyzing. Yet sometimes they need to expand departments or deployment of software, and even if there is something more cutting edge on the market, it makes more sense to go with what is tried and true. And if those applications or operating systems are not widely available, then it's up to software resellers like us that have inventory or can locate stock for certain products to fill in the gap.

Another reason is that sometimes the upgrades make radical changes to the interface that are difficult for some people to navigate, or might necessitate updating inhouse documentation (which can be a pricey proposition in some places). Office 2007is an excellent example of that. I'm not a big fan of the ribbon interface in 2007, and if it weren't for certain features (a speedy patch available for searching Outlook and, most importantly, Excel 2007's leviathan ability to open gigantic spreadsheets), I probably pick Word XP 2002, or earlier. Just because none of the interfaces in 2007 struck me as a solid improvement--in fact, they mostly just frustrate me, even though some reviewers have praised them as being wonderful and revolutionary, so I suppose it takes all kinds.

With the release of Microsoft Vista, even Microsoft had to acknowledge the increasing size of the "older" software market. Microsoft announced will effectively be selling XP through 2010.

More of this in the future, especially if we get even more popular older software into inventory. :)

On Being a Yahoo! Store

This post is a bit "inside baseball", BTW. Forewarned is forearmed. Now, on with the show:

Being primarily a PHP/MySQL developer (with a little ASP.net thrown in), I miss the customization that those development environments allow, what with Software Supply Group being a Yahoo! store and all. Still, with custom templates and Yahoo's deeply goofy Lisp-ish RTML development environment, customizations can be made, though stuff I could put together in PHP in 20 minutes ends up taking me all day. Yahoo's RTML is not, BTW, the same as Remote Telescope Markup Language, though when I first started working with RTML, it was actually easier to find information for that than Yahoo's RTML. I certainly got a lot more hits on Google for telescopes than Yahoo! stores.

Anyway, here's one of my proud RTML achievements: A page designed to sort through all the products currently in our store and list them in order of price, from highest to lowest. May seem simple (and would have been for me in PHP), but it was, I guarantee you, a Herculean labor. Doable--and I finally did it--but the development for me is not intuitive, I don't always understand exactly why I finally got it working (and why it didn't work before) and it seems like such a simple and common thing. It irritates me that I have to struggle for it.

And to this day, I haven't figured out how to increment a value arbitrarily in RTML. I can do it in as part of a FOR loop, but I can't do something simple like say "x=x+1". Huh? But, it does have several tools customized specifically for the making of Yahoo! stores, and that's a big plus when it comes to displaying product images or generating links that take you where you want to go in the backend or on the site. And I've seen people do some elaborate things in their Yahoo! stores, although most of them end up using some combination of Ajax to get it working. I've heard promises of Yahoo! getting their Yahoo! stores working with PHP and MySQL in such a manner that you might be able to access the Catalog Manager, thus allowing greater flexibility by pointing to a Yahoo! Web hosting account where a fellow like me could do some customized PHP/MySQL magic on the store. But, so far, no such luck. And while there is much to like about the Yahoo! store platform to like, the creakiness of things like the built-in Yahoo! store search engine demonstrate that Yahoo! is slow to add new features and capabilities to their platform. But, it is a generally robust platform (that's why we use it), so I'm not complaining. Or, only complaining a little.

Anyway, in addition to my list of products sorted by price (I know, it doesn't seem like much, but I did it in RTML which, believe me, for a developer steeped in PHP and ASP.net and MySQL, it's like a successfully navigated the Klingon initiation into manhood) I also managed to develop a sitemap that works the way I wanted it to. See my fabulous Software Supply Group Sitemap here!

As a point of clarification, in the old days site maps or indexes were always a page where you could get to most anywhere on a website, and see it's structure. Nowadayas, they often mean an .xml file describing the site, often for search engines. We also have one of those here, keeping in mind that some browsers may not render XML prettily, or at all, in case you click on it.

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BTW, we've got Sage ACT! 2008 RT Premium EX, single user, and for only $308.95 as of this posting. Now, that's a bargain, people! Do you need contact management, project organizer, and day planner? Well, here ya go!

Mac OS X Leopard Is Pretty Cool, And We've Got It

We've got Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) in stock, for, as of this post, $109.95.

There are a lot of nice things in Mac OSX Leopard, especially in the integration of the Mail app. The new Finder has some plusses and few minuses and, overall, it is a worthy upgrade. Spaces are nifty! The additions to the dock are okay, but I wouldn't write home about them. The idea behind Time Machine is great, but I'm sure the implementation is quite there yet--or perhaps there are custom settings I have yet to discover.

The Quick Look previews are very robust, nd very handy. Much can be done. And, natch, if you have an Intel mac, Boot Camp comes standard as a supported part of the OS. On the whole, a worth upgrade to the already laudable Macintosh OS X family. And, unlike Windows Vista, there's only one version to buy, and it does it all.

Also, if you've already got Leopard and are interested in moving beyond iMovie, you might want to check out Apple Final Cut Express 4, Full Version, Retail Box (MB278ZA) for $138.95, as of this posting. And we've also got the upgrade for Final Cut Express 4, part# MB339ZA for only $83.95, as of this posting. It's a robust, pro-level video editing app--and it works right on your Mac. There is no limit to what you can do with it, video-wise, and if you want a good source for what can be done with Final Cut Pro on the Mac, check out some of the great how-to reviews with Alex Lindsay at PixelCorps.tv, or check out some of the videos at the Apple site here.

We've Got Some Great Deals on Microsoft Office 2007 at SoftwareSupplyGroup.com

Like Microsoft Office 2007 Basic OEM (S55-01347) for only $173.99, as of this posting.

I use Office 2007 every day, and I confess I'm not a big fan of the revised interface. But Excel 2007 offers the ability to open much larger files, and given I was dealing sometimes with spreadsheets with over 200,000 rows, I needed something that could open them. I believe the old limit was something like 56,000 rows--well, whatever it was specifically, that's gone in Office 2007 Excel. It'll open anything, of almost any size.

The search is blazing fast in Outlook 2007, but required that I install Windows desktop search for XP (since I'm still using XP), and download this patch from Microsoft, and run it.

While I'm not a big fan of the new Office 2007 toolbar that was supposed to be the "next big thing" with Office 2007 (while obvious improvements, at least in my opinion, were left out), being able to open huge spreadsheets and search my giant .pst file in Outlook quickly made it for me a very worthwhile update.

We also have Microsoft Office 2007 Professional (269-11094) for only $299.95 each (0r $297.95 each if you buy more than 10), which includes all the big productivity apps from Microsoft: Access 2007, Excel 2007, Outlook 2007, PowerPoint 2007, Publisher 2007, and Word 2007. Alas, no Microsoft Project (why don't they support Project anymore?)

All prices in this post are as of this writing. We often drop prices--and, occasionally, we have to raise them. If you've been wanting to upgrade to Office 2007, I'd suggest you move now.

Wholesale and reseller inquiries are always welcome, BTW. Call us at 866-437-0287 and ask for more information.