Dr. Bill | The Computer Curmudgeon

Here’s the tweet:

“We’ve confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO. This Tweet does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale.”

Wow! The “experts” say that Twitter will be worth $14 BILLION!

Dell is now a private company again!

Dell going private through $25 billion buyout

The Verge – “Michael Dell has finally wrestled control of Dell, the company he founded, back from its shareholders. A board vote this morning ends month of speculation on whether it would approve Michael Dell’s multibillion-dollar offer to take the company private. Dell’s offer saw strong competition in the form of a counteroffer from ‘activist investor’ Carl Icahn, but Icahn ultimately pulled the plug on his attempt, saying that it would be ‘almost impossible’ to win today’s shareholder vote.

The plan to take Dell private was almost approved back in July, but a series of postponements delayed the decision. Since the idea was first floated, Dell has had to up his offer, and the final agreed package is worth $13.75 per share with an additional $0.13 dividend, or a total of approximately $24.9 billion. Though the final vote hasn’t been released yet, CNBC says that it’s been told that 65 percent of votes were in favor of the buyout. ‘I am pleased with this outcome and am energized to continue building Dell into the industry’s leading provider of scalable, end-to-end technology solutions,’ Michael Dell says in a statement following the vote.

What does this mean for Dell as a company? Announcing the acquisition back in February, Michael Dell said it will ‘open an exciting new chapter for Dell, our, customers, and team members,’ delivering ‘immediate value.’ He intends to shift the company more heavily toward enterprise services as the PC industry continues to slow in the wake of tablets and smartphones. It’s no secret that making the turnaround a success will be hard work, and among Michael Dell’s reasons for going private was that it would allow the change to occur outside of the public’s eye.”

So, I was thinking, have you ever noticed that malls are pretty much gone? We had a really large mall sorta near our house… Within a few miles anyway… And it is totally closed down! There are a few straggling “hangers on” businesses left there, but for the most part, the mall is empty.

Think about the malls in your neighborhood, or your city, what is their current state? They’re probably lonely places to be these days. Why, you may ask? Because nobody goes there anymore! It used to be that going to the mall was an American pass-time. It’s something everyone did! Now do you know anyone that goes to the mall? Probably not. Or, if you do know someone that suggests, “Hey let’s go to the mall!” You look at them funny and say, “What?” Again, why do you do that? Because malls are going the way of the dodo bird!

And what has replaced these oases of economic exploration? Why the Internet, of course! Why traipse through a mall when you could go to Amazon.com and order literally anything you want?! It’s simple, it’s convenient, and hey, if you have Amazon Prime you don’t even have to pay shipping, and you get it in two days!

And, if you’re searching for something really odd that they may not have down the local five and dime, you can always use Google and quickly find a site that sells whatever the strange and mysterious thing you’re looking for is! So, lean back in your easy chair, fire up your laptop, and order over the Internet… And, remember you’ll be responsible for shutting down local businesses everywhere!

I was thinking about all this because I was considering the ways that the Internet has changed American society. This is only one of many of the ways that society is experiencing changes based on the Internet. How many can you think of?

This GSotW will adjust your computer screen to match the time of day. It is supposed to make your eyes more comfortable. I am trying it… give it a go yourself!

f.lux Computer Screen Adjuster

“Ever notice how people texting at night have that eerie blue glow?

Or wake up ready to write down the Next Great Idea, and get blinded by your computer screen?

During the day, computer screens look good—they’re designed to look like the sun. But, at 9PM, 10PM, or 3AM, you probably shouldn’t be looking at the sun.

f.lux
f.lux fixes this: it makes the color of your computer’s display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day.

It’s even possible that you’re staying up too late because of your computer. You could use f.lux because it makes you sleep better, or you could just use it just because it makes your computer look better.

f.lux makes your computer screen look like the room you’re in, all the time. When the sun sets, it makes your computer look like your indoor lights. In the morning, it makes things look like sunlight again.

Tell f.lux what kind of lighting you have, and where you live. Then forget about it. f.lux will do the rest, automatically.”

Now you can check it with on new web site feature, the AVG ThreatLabs widget on our web site is below the AVG Family Safety advertisement on the right-hand side of our web page. Check it out!

Now, you can test a site before you go there, to be sure you won’t pick up a malware attack!

Livestream live events can now be viewed on your TV by way of your Roku box! Pretty neat! I lot of podcasters use Livestream to show live video podcasts. Now, you can watch on your HD TV in your living room!

Livestream for TV!

“Now you can watch your favorite Livestream events on the big screen from the comfort of your living room!

Discover live, upcoming, and archived events ranging from local news stations to major brands in fashion, entertainment, music and sports.

Watch adaptive bitrate live and archived HD video, ensuring the highest quality possible for your connection.

The easiest and most affordable way to broadcast live events on millions of Roku equipped televisions worldwide.”

Now businesses that are “nervous” about using an Open Source Office Suite can relax! Some businesses Do seem to have a problem with using Open Source software, because there is no one vendor to stand behind it. Some IT managers talk about, “I need one throat to choke!” Well, now, Collabora can provide paid, commercial support to your company and ease your mind!

Open-Source LibreOffice Gets Commercial Support

eWeek – “Developers from SUSE Linux join the effort to provide support for LibreOffice, an OpenOffice fork.

The open-source LibreOffice office productivity suite—a widely deployed application on Linux operating systems with development led by The Document Foundation—is gaining new backing today with the launch of commercial support from Collabora Productivity.

SUSE Linux has been one of the key contributors to LibreOffice since its inception in September 2010. LibreOffice got its start as a fork of the OpenOffice open-source collaboration suite that is now an Apache Software Foundation project. Key contributors to LibreOffice from SUSE Linux are now joining Collabora, including SUSE Distinguished Engineer Michael Meeks.

‘I’ve moved from SUSE to Collabora Productivity—where I’ll be working on turning the huge market opportunities around LibreOffice into great service for our customers, and improvements across the board to LibreOffice,’ Meeks told eWEEK.

Meeks said that he’s pleased with how LibreOffice is doing from a quality and deployment perspective today. Using that as a base, Collabora will be able to provide commercial support for large-scale deployments.

‘That will include an enterprise-enabled, long-term supported Collabora LibreOffice release, along with bug fixing and security updates,’ Meeks said. ‘For those clients requiring customization and fine-tuning, Collabora will offer consultancy services.’

Additionally, Meeks added that Collabora will also partner with those in the community who have already invested in LibreOffice deployments to back-stop the support they already provide.

The Document Foundation recently announced that it would be benefiting from the support of Advanced Micro Devices. AMD is investing its resources to improve the Calc spreadsheet program to take advantage of new silicon innovations.”