I had a horrible experience with a $50 rebate for an At&t phone. They claimed my upc label was not acceptable yet the gentlemen at the authorized At&t store made me the copy and told me that was all I needed. After some not so friendly phone conversations I had my check in about a week.

I actually have a rebate sitting in my office that I need to send in for my mother-in-law. I am attempting to find any reason possible to put it off. Rebates are miserable to deal with but well worth it when the check shows up three months after submitting it.

Ryan Kazinecs last blog post..Registering a Trademark from Start to Finish

The price is coming down, but it will always be cheaper to do a self install. From what I understand, it is just a matter of disconnecting one hard drive and connecting another one. The main problem is the fact that performance numbers aren’t what they were expected to be.

I predict manufacturers will start to offer SSDs as the main drive with additional (spinning) hard drives. Putting the OS on the SSD should increase the speed of a computer and the second drive would be the larger one for storage (videos, pictures, movies).

As far as being exhausted, this is what irks me about the computer industry. You shouldn’t feel bad about the fact that you may have to go over something more than once because even the experts have to do it. But they would love for you to believe it is all second nature to them – they must study new technology just like anyone else. Don’t be discouraged, be encouraged by the fact that you probably know more now than you did before you read this.

I did two rebates a few years back. They were Christmas purchases. I got each of my kids a VCR. I think I sent each rebate in separate but somehow, they caught that I was the same person. Do you know they told me I could only do one? I can’t remember exactly what I did but it took a long time (about three months) to get even one check. Because of what they said, I eventually settled my mind that I was only going to get one and then a few weeks later a second check came.

The whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth for rebates. I would do it again but first I always try to find the lowest prices possible without having to mess with rebates.

Anyway, I am good as far as computers go right now, and since I know where to find you, I will refer to your expertise and the yellow and black book (lol) when the time comes for me to buy one!