Hijinks Inc.

Category: Aaron Nelsen

  • Blockbuster Hearts Circuit City

    In a move that no one expected, or can even understand, Blockbuster has offered a cash buyout of Circuit City… Wait… What?!

    Zac Bissonnette of BloggingStocks puts it quite well:

    This deal would be the absolute epitome of “two drunken sailors trying to hold each other up.” Both of these companies have experienced precipitous declines in recent years, reporting losses as industry changes and more nimble competitors take their market share.

    Blockbuster is said to be offering a cash buyout between $6 and $8 a share. Shares of Circuit City are currently up 28.46%, or $1.11 to $5.01. Shares in Blockbuster are down 13.74%, or $0.43 to $2.70

    Now I don’t mind Blockbuster, but I hate Circuit City.

    In other news, Google announced its plans to acquire Payless Shoes, citing the pivotal shift in market strategy Blockbuster is forging with its attempted acquisition of Circuit City as the driving factor behind the deal.

  • Firefox 3 On-track for June Release

    Mozilla announced that Beta 5 will be the last beta for Firefox 3, the next release will be Release Candidate 1 (RC1) which should be out in early May. Mike Schroepfer, Mozilla’s vice president of engineering also noted that they are currently on-track for a June release of Firefox 3.0 Final.

    Firefox holds a 17.83% market share according to Net Applications latest report, with Internet Explorer taking 74.80%, and Apple’s Safari trailing with just 5.82%. Both Firefox and Safari have seen significant gains in market share over the past 6 months, while Internet Explorer has seen a nearly 4% decrease in market share since October 2007.

    When Firefox 3.0 hits final, I believe it will have a very postitive effect on Firefox’s market share.

  • Apple Repair – The Fun Continues

    I called Apple for about the tenth time today, and they once again informed me that physical damage isn’t covered under my warranty. However, I did eventually talk to a customer service rep named Geoff who looked at the photos of the damage and called the Apple Store in Omaha and talked to them, even though the guy who originally looked at my computer wasn’t working, they did take a look at his notes which had no mention of physical damage to the machine at the time he sent it off to the repair depot.

    I’m supposed to take it to the Apple Store on Monday to have them assess the damage and make a list of the parts that need to be replaced and try and get them to cover it, if they won’t cover it, I’m supposed to call Geoff back and he’ll try and get the repair covered. Hopefully the repair will be something that they can take care of at the Apple store.

    Even if they have to order parts it’s better than not having a computer for two weeks, though it does mean at least two trips to Omaha.

    We’ll see how the trip to the Apple Store goes, I’ll post an update Monday.

  • GrandCentral is Down

    I use GrandCentral as both a business number and as a filtering system. When I fill out a form online that needs a number, I give them my GrandCentral number, that way if they start stalk calling me I can send them straight to voicemail or block them completely.

    Imagine my surprise when I found out that GrandCentral has been down all morning, with no information posted on their blog or on Google’s main blog. Their website was down earlier today, but it appears to be up now. Though none of my three GrandCentral numbers are currently working.

    For more info, hit up TechCrunch.

  • Improve Google Maps on the iPod touch/iPhone

    This mostly applies to the iPod touch seeing as the iPhone also has cell towers to rely on, but apparently Skyhook has setup a page for users to submit their access points. No word on how quickly they’re added to the database, or if they even actually make it in, but it at least makes me feel like I’m contributing.

    You will need the MAC address for your router in order to complete the submission.

    [ Submit your AP to Skyhook ]

    I live in the middle of no where, which currently yields “Your location could not be determined” on both my iPhone and iPod touch, so I’ll let you know if Skyhook ever adds my AP to their database.