Free eBook

We received this offer and thought we should pass it on to all of the photographers that read this blog.

The Photography Blog Handbook. 

Learn why a blog is a must-have marketing tool to grow your photo business, engage a wider audience, and attract new clients.

Create a blog that will generate sales and develop engaging relationships between you and your clients with the 2012 edition of our Photography Blog Handbook. Inside you’ll find insights into creating a blog routine that fits your busy schedule, and the inspiration you need to help you decide how to write and what to blog about. Learn exactly how a blog can help your business with examples from photographers such as Lisa Devlin and Lauren Major who have successfully used blogging to grow a following.

Go to: http://www.photoshelter.com/mkt/research/photography-blog-handbook

Wisconsin Election

The Wisconsin recall election of duly elected Governor Scott Walker has proven to be an interesting battle between the forces of Good and Evil. Good, of course, was the side defending the Governor and supported by the people who used their God-given brains to think independently. Evil was defending the union thugs who want to force conformity on  everyone. Think of the anti-Walker crowd as the Borg from Star Trek, Resistance is futile.

I have been deeply involved in labor/management battles for most of my life. I was an Air Traffic Controller in 1981 when the union, PATCO, forced the greatest President of my lifetime, Ronald Reagan, to fire over 12,000 of them. I was on the side of good in that battle and ended up with with a 32 plus year career in the FAA.

I was also in Madison, WI last year during the massive protests. My hotel was across the street from the capitol building and I was surrounded by waves of SEIU union thugs. In the spirit of family harmony I avoided conflicts with the mindless drones that yelled evil threats at anyone who dared to think for themselves.

In the end it doesn‘t matter who wins this election because the union thugs will not accept any vote that doesn’t go their way. If they win, they’ll gloat and yell and try to recall every voice of reason in the country. If Gov. Walker wins, they’ll yell and scream for a RE-re-call.

Quiet dignity and grace is something you will never see from union thugs.

Google Chrome Browser Market Share

Google Chrome has now become the worldwide market share leader, taking the lead away from MSFT Internet Explorer (IE). Chrome ended the week of May 20 with 32.76 percent of the global browser market share, while IE came in at 31.94 percent - a 0.82 percent difference.

Those figures are for the whole planet, in the USA things are a bit different. According to monthly data from Net Applications, IE had 54.09 percent of the browser market in April, followed by Firefox with 20.20 percent, and Chrome with 18.85 percent.

Our blog readership numbers don’t reflect those percentages even remotely. The numbers for our readers for the past month show these percentage:

Firefox: 61%
IE: 17%
Safari: 12%
Chrome: 6%
Opera: 1%
Mobile Safari: <1%
Bing Preview: <1%

Sigma Lens Rebate

I found this special offer on the Pentax Forum on Facebook and though I should pass it on.

Sigma has just launched 6 new instant rebates on their Pentax lenses, and renewed 3 more instant rebates through July 31st!  This means that you can save $50-$100 on 9 of Sigma's most popular lenses for Pentax this summer!  Refer to the table below for all the deals.  To learn more about Sigma lenses for Pentax, please visit our Pentax lens database.

http://www.pentaxforums.com/news/big-summer-sigma-pentax-lens-savings.html

MSFT Win 8 Upgrade Offer

MSFT has announced an upgrade offer to allow consumers to buy a Win 7 PC now and upgrade to Win 8 when it’s finally available. The offer allows people who buy qualified PCs to purchase a downloaded version of Win 8 for only $14.99.

This program began yesterday in 131 markets including the U.S. and Canada and is available for consumers buying new Windows 7 PCs that are preinstalled with Windows 7 Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional or Ultimate and include a matching and valid OEM Certificate of Authenticity. The Windows 7 PC must be purchased new during the eligibility period June 2, 2012–Jan. 31, 2013, and redeemed before the program expiration at the end of February 2013.

MSFT feels that there are hordes of people clamoring to rush out and spend big bucks on a new PC just to be able to use Win 8. Are they nuts? When was the last time anybody actually bought a PC? Wake up MSFT!! We are in the post-PC era and Phablets will soon rule the world.

Golla Bags and Cases

We received a reminder from Golla this week and we want to pass it on to our readers. Our regular readers know how much we love Golla’s stylish and useful bags and cases. If you haven’t checked them out, then you should. Go to www.golla.com to see their complete line.

Windoze 8 Release Preview

MSFT has launched the Release Preview version of Win 8 (formerly known as the Gold Beta). Their carefully orchestrated  release process is now one step closer to the final version hitting the streets.

If you haven’t read the extensive coverage of the Win8 beta that we’ve been running in our monthly ePub (with excerpts in this blog) then you’d better catch up! Win8 is going to be an enormous change from previous versions from MSFT and they’re putting a lot on the line with these changes.

MSFT is joining the wave of the future and is getting away from big boxes of software model and into the app model. It will be interesting to watch this story develop and see if MSFT has a winner on their hands.