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Featuring marketing tips, tech news, digital wonders, some personal things and everything in between . . .

Month: April 2009

AT&T Virtual Receptionist Comes To The iPhone


Tuesday April 7, 2009

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Still waiting for that Google Voice Beta Invite? Are you an iPhone user? Why Wait?

Announcing the new AT&T Virtual Receptionist. It’s AT&T’s new multi tiered business phone system that comes free with 60 toll-free minutes per month. So download the app and get your own toll free number right now!

And if you ever need more minutes, and who doesn’t? You can add more time to your account. There is even an all you can eat package for $25 bux a month.

With AT&T’s new Virtual Receptionist you wont be Lampooned, there are no long-term contracts and no hidden fees or surcharges of any kind! And according to AT&T the new Virtual Receptionist App does not change your current AT&T wireless or data plans or rates one dime.

Time to update your signature line with that shiny new toll free number!

Darin R. McClure
Director of Social Media
& Technical Services
MCSE MCP MCP+I
http://webconsuls.com
darin@webconsuls.com
darin.r.mcclure@gmail.com (Google Talk)
(949) 370-3069 (My iPhone)
(888) 470-4596 (Toll Free)

Do You Follow Me?
http://twitter.com/DarinRMcClure

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This year the MacHeist III bundle is being sold for $39.00. MacHeist donates 25% of each bundle purchase to a partnering charity of your choice. With only one day remaining in the sale the quotas to unlock the full package have all been met.

This is the last day to grab the entire bundle of software from MacHeist.com.

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Today is Saturday, April 4, 2009. This is one of those historical days that stays in your mind. You wake up and think to yourself what is special about this date. And then you remember, April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated.

In 1968 we didn’t have cell phones, iPhones, the Internet, personal computers. We depended on learning about the news by radio and for the most part black and white television sets, and the newspaper. Your social networks were not virtual like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube; on the contrary your social networks were your friends, college classmates, co-workers, family members.

In 1968 I was a freshman at the University of San Francisco. Spring break was about to begin and I was not going home to San Diego. Here is a clip of the CBS Evening News, April 4, 1968.

As the years have passed, I remember April 4th for many reasons. “There are eight million stories in the Naked City. This has been one of them.”

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The 2009 Major League Baseball season is finally upon us after an extra long spring training due to the World Baseball Classic- (baseball’s version of the World Cup).  The 1st game of the season is this Sunday night- Phillies vs. Braves.

Last season you will recall the national league’s Philadelphia Phillies beat the cinderella Tampa Bay Rays 4-1.  Where the Rays a fluke, and who will be this year’s cinderella?  If you’re not a big MLB fan you should know that unlike the other major sports, just making it to the playoffs is a significant accomplishment in only the division winners and 1 wild card advances.  So a cinderella in this sport to make it to the postseason is more than just exceeding expectations.


Here are my predictions by League:


                                   American                              National


West                          Athletics                                Dodgers


Central                      Indians                                  Brewers


East                           Red Sox                                 Mets


Wildcard                   White Sox                              Cubs


This year the Mets finally get to play in September, but the Cubs will have to wait at least another year for a title pushing it to 102 years (and counting).



World Series- Indians over Dodgers

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When you book a flight, you get the option to chose a seat but how many people actually know what a good seat is compared to a bad seat? For some time, I always thought sitting near the airplane wings would be loud but turns out the end of the plane is louder.

www.seatguru.com lets you select your airlines and the airplane you are traveling on and shows you which seats are good and which are not. They forget to mention that the DC Adapter on some seats is a 2 prong (which was useless for me since my laptop has a 3 prong adapter).

The one thing this site does not have which I was told had is seating for infants. I personally do not like to be seated near infants primarily because they get cranky and loud so your flight for 3 hours (or however many hours) will be of a baby crying.

Check it out, was it helpful for you?

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Well we finally had a month when the major averages moved up. And that is no April Fools joke!

Here is how we did.

Our portfolio of 10 stocks from Fortune Magazine gained $269 and now has a value of $9027.

Name Symbol Last price Change Shares Cost basis Mkt value
Altria Group, Inc. MO 16.02 -0.36 65.74 1001.31 1053.11
Annaly Capital Management, Inc. NLY 13.87 0.41 62.38 1000 865.24
Dell Inc. DELL 9.48 -0.01 96.68 1000 916.52
Devon Energy Corporation DVN 44.69 0.07 15.07 1000 673.31
Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. DO 62.86 -2.96 16.8 1000 1055.84
Fluor Corporation (NEW) FLR 34.55 -0.28 22.06 1000 762.3
Johnson & Johnson JNJ 52.6 -0.41 16.55 1000 870.37
Medco Health Solutions Inc. MHS 41.34 1.74 23.62 1000.71 976.54
Pfizer Inc. PFE 13.62 -0.08 55.9 1000 761.37
Potash Corp./Saskatchewan (USA) POT 80.81 -0.98 13.52 1000 1092.62
Cash -2.02 -2.02
Total 9027.22

Our low risk portfolio gained $285 and looks like this:

Name Symbol Last price Change Shares Cost basis Mkt value
Schwab Total Stock Market Index Inv SWTIX 14.02 0.19 181.52 2800 2544.94
Schwab International Index Inv SWINX 11.21 0.27 90.43 1200 1013.67
Schwab Total Bond Market SWLBX 8.75 0.02 670.77 6000 5869.26
Cash 0 0
9427.87

Our medium risk portfolio gained $360. Portfolio looks like this:

Name Symbol Last price Change Shares Cost basis Mkt value
Vanguard Total Bond Market Index VBMFX 10.1 0.01 390.79 4000 3947.01
Vanguard Total Intl Stock Index VGTSX 9.39 0.22 167.6 1800 1573.79
Vanguard Total Stock Mkt Idx VTSMX 19.32 0.25 195.43 4200 3775.69
Cash 0 0
9296.49

Our rebalancing act gained $320 and looks like:

Name Symbol Last price Change Shares Cost basis Mkt value
iShares S&P 500 Index (ETF) IVV 79.62 0.63 61.1 5476.05 4864.74
Cash 4523.94 4523.94
9388.68

We then rebalace by selling some 2.14 etf shares:

Name Symbol Last price Change Shares Cost basis Mkt value
iShares S&P 500 Index (ETF) IVV 79.62 0.63 58.96 5282.4 4694.35
Cash 4684.33 4684.33

Hopefully we have some good months ahead.