FREEMAN-SPICER FINANCIAL SERVICES

Finance • Leasing • Accounting • Premium

316 South Eddy Street South Bend, IN 46617 / 574.234.0069 (V) • 574.234.6414 (F) • surekey@aol.com

Vol. 29, No. 5 • May, 2011 / www.Freeman-Spicer.com

[Remembering Eli Spicer 1914-2009]


Five Gadgets That Will Be Dead In Five Years . . . . In-car portable navigation systems - Why they are going extinct: Today, portable navigation devices from Garmin, TomTom and Magellan are a common sight on car dashboards and windshields; but everything the portable navigation systems can do, smartphones can do as well, if not better. And one of the best smartphone nav apps, Google Maps Navigation, is free. So it should be no surprise that portable navigation system sales dropped 22 percent in 2010. And it should be no surprise that in five years it won’t even be an option. Computer DVD/CD-ROM - Why they’re going extinct: Ultra-fast broadband connections are becoming much more common in the home. According to “Speedtest.net”, average download speeds in the U.S. are not over 11 megabits per second. That means programs can be downloaded in a matter of minutes , or even seconds. So why would you want to pay the extra cost of having a DVD printed, boxed and shipped to your home? You wouldn’t. And in five years it won’t even be an option. Wireless routers - Why they’re going extinct: Wireless Internet access in homes will continue to be big business, but buying a wireless router in a store won’t be. Instead, your wireless capabilities will be packaged with the box your broadband Internet provider - cable, fiber, satellite - installs in your home. And as high-speed 4G cellular services roll out, more people will use their smartphones for broadband Internet, eliminating the need for a wireless router entirely. Netbooks - Why they’re going extinct: Smaller, lighter and cheaper than a laptop, the Netbook was briefly a good choice for people looking for a cheap portable way to get on the Internet. But with an anemic processor and tiny display, Netbooks are an imperfect solution. Today, you can buy a compact notebook with a fast processor and six or more hours of battery life for a small premium over a Netbook. Plus, tablets are much better tailored to those needing simple Web browsing, entertainment and light computing functions. Where does that leave Netbooks? Nowhere. E-readers - Why they’re going extinct: E-readers, including the Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Nobles Nook, are hugely popular devices. With e-ink displays that are easy to read outdoors, and the low power consumption that means much longer battery life, they are the perfect reading devices. But tablet computers, like the iPad, can do so much more. Barnes & Noble has jumped into the tablet game with the Nook Color, which has a special anti-glare LCD screen and can now run selected Android apps, and many expect Amazon to be next. Battery life on color tablets still can’t compete with that of e-readers, but it will continue to get better. Five years from now there will be tables oriented toward e-reading, but the black-and-white e-ink readers will be gone. (Gadgetbox on MSNBC.com)


Bin Laden in Heaven . . . . . . . George Washington meets Bin Laden at the Pearly Gates. Slaps him across the face and yells, “How dare you fight against the nation I helped conceive!” Patrick Henry approaches, punches him the nose and shouts, “You wanted to end our liberties but you failed!” James Madison follows, kicks him in the groin and says, “That’s why I allowed our government to provide for the common defense!” Thomas Jefferson is next, he beats Bin Laden with a long cane and snarls, “It was evil men like you who inspired me to write the Declaration of Independence.” The beating and thrashings continue as George Mason, James Monroe and 66 other early Americans unleash their anger on the terrorist leader. As Bin Laden lies bleeding and in pain, an Angel appears. Bin Laden weeps and says, “This is not what you promised me.” The Angel replies, “I told you there would be 72 Virginians waiting for you in Heaven. What did you think I said?” (P. Brown)


Social Security Mailings . . . . Blame it on the Federal Budget woes, but starting last month, most workers stopped receiving their annual Social Security benefits estimate in the mail. Over the past decade, the annual statement has become an essential part of personal financial planning and has served as a stark reminder of the need for personal savings to supplement those benefits. You can still get a personalized estimate at: www.ssa.gov/estimator, but it doesn’t include the full range of info available on the statement. Mailings may resume when the new fiscal year starts in October, but this time only go to those age 60 and older. (Kiplinger)


Speaking of Getting Old . . . . . . During a visit to my doctor, I asked him, “How do you determine whether or not an older person should be put in an old age home?” “Well,” he said, “we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the person to empty the bathtub.” “Oh, I understand,” I said. “A normal person would use the bucket because it is bigger than the spoon or the teacup.” “No,“ he said. “A normal person would pull the plug. Do you want a bed near the window?” (B. Levy)


Best Free Anti-Malware Software of 2011 . . . . .

•          Ad-Aware Free Internet Security - our new Editor’s Choice for free antivirus apps, effective at not only finding, but also blocking malware.

•          AVG Anti-Virus - Gets top marks at independent labs and does a great job of finding / removing malware.

•          Comodo Antivirus - Does a great job keeping systems free of malware.

•          Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware - Fast and worthy for supplemental malware scans; stick with the free version.

•          Panda Cloud Antivirus - Impresses with its ability to keep a computer clean working from “the cloud”. (PC Magazine)


As The Economy Grows . . . . . More firms are poaching top talent from competitors. Key targets include developers of mobile applications, data security and business intelligence specialists . . . fields where demand is outpacing supply. They’re not waiting for applicants, using headhunters and recruiters to identify and pursue the best and brightest employees working for rival companies. Higher salaries and better benefits aren’t the only bait. Flexible work hours and opportunities for professional growth are big parts of the recruitment effort. Want to keep poachers at bay? Build a workplace folks won’t want to leave with a focus on family-friendly schedules, including telecommuting options. (Kiplinger)


My One Day Employment . . . . . . So after landing my new job as a Wal-Mart greeter, a good find for many retirees, I lasted less than a day . . . . . About two hours into my first day on the job a very loud, unattractive, mean-looking woman walked into the store with her two kids, yelling obscenities at them all the way through the entrance. As I had been instructed, I said pleasantly, “Good morning and welcome to Wal-Mart. Nice children you have there. Are they twins?” The ugly woman stopped yelling long enough to say, “Hell no, they ain’t twins. The oldest one’s 9, and the other one’s 7. Why the hell would you think they’re twins? Are you blind, or just stupid? So I replied.....”Im neither blind nor stupid, Ma’am, I just couldn’t believe someone slept with you twice. Have a good day and thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart.” My supervisor said I probably wasn’t cut out for this line of work. (Fournier)


“You can observe a lot just by watching.” Yogi Berra

Qwerty . . . . . Why do keyboards use the QWETY layout? Not for efficiency. Most early typewriters were arranged alphabetically, but that led to jamming of typewriter bars by fast typists. The Sholes brothers, responsible for the first production typewriter in 1873, decided that letters used frequently in combination should come from opposite directions. QWERTY was invented to prevent key jamming. At the time, the fastest typists used two fingers; touch-typing was thought impossible. As a marketing ploy, the Sholes touted their keyboard as a scientific arrangement requiring the least possible movements. The exact opposite was the truth. (Imponderables) Note: if you have no idea what this is about - go ask an older person.


Proof That You Can Never Underestimate the Innovativeness of American Farm Boys . . . . . . At a high school in Montana, a group of boy students played a prank . . . . They let three goats loose inside the school. But before turning them loose, they painted numbers on the sides of the goats: 1, 2 and 4. School Administrators spent most of the day looking for No. 3! (Fournier)


Today’s Most Popular Reference sites:

*          Wikipedia.org                                                 *          Books.Google.com

*          Answers.Yahoo.com                                      *          Wikia.com

*          About.com                                                      *          WikiHow.com

*          Answers.com                                                  *          Archive.org

*          eHow.com                                                      *          Howstuffworks.com

*          Reference.com                                                *          Mahalo.com

*          HubPages.com                                                *          AllExperts.com (eBtzMBA)

*          Squidoo.com


Are We Kin? . . . . . . Two good ol’ Boys in a Kentucky trailer park were sitting around talking one afternoon over a couple of cold beers after getting off work at their local Toyota plant. After a while the 1st guy says to the 2nd guy: “If’n I was to sneak over to your trailer on Saturday and make love to your wife while you were off huntin’ and she got pregnant and had a baby, would that make us kin? The 2nd guy crooked his head sideways for a minute, scratched his head, and squinted his eyes thinking real hard about the question. Finally, he says: “Well, I don’t know about kin, but it would make us even.” (M. Levy)


Computing . . . . When you want to grab an image off your screen, Window’s own built-in image capture tools will do the trick nicely most of the time. And when the simplest methods don’t work, there’s extra help readily available. The print-screen key normally captures everything visible on your monitor and stores it in Windows clipboard. You can then paste the image to your favorite image-editing app. For real-time recording to a video file, the simple, classic Windows Media Encoder does the trick (the new free version is called Expression Encoder 4). You can find additional recorder and capture software at thefreecountry.com. (Windows Secrets) 

 

“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.”

(Dwight Eisenhower)                                                                               

 

Edward C. Levy

President