Proud Geek

Hi folks!  I’ve not blogged for over a month.  Two big reasons why.

Moving:  My family and I finally sold our house, after 7 months on the market.  We’ve been packing and will be moving next week.  Wish us luck!

Free time (what’s left of it): My partner and I both noticed that when we’re on the computer at home, either during the evenings or in between tasks during the day, we become impatient with each other and with our children.  We’ve cut back on our computer use — and you know what?  We’ve got more time, more energy, and more patience with each other and our children.  I’ll be continuing this by spending much less time on the computer than I used to.

With that said …  I miss blogging.  And I miss you folks.  I’ll get back to blogging, although not on as regular a basis as I used to.

See you soon!

CompUSA will be closing down. I can’t say it’s a sad day — I hated trying to get service there, and I still distinctly remember feeling helpless while looking for someone, anyone, whoever, to give me assistance while at CompUSA. And exactly a month ago, I almost gleefully blogged about the fact that CompUSA had closed numerous stores. So, the total closure of all CompUSA stores does not come as a surprise.

That means good close-out sales at the remaining stores. But good luck in getting someone to help you …

This blog hit its 100,000th viewer around noon EST today.  I know it doesn’t compare to other ultra-popular blogs that get millions of hits A MONTH (or even in a day).  But for something that I work on a few minutes a day, 100,000 hits since last March ain’t too shabby.

My peak month (with 17,827 hits) was last August, when several of my Vista Annoyances posts appeared on the front page of StumbleOn.   My most popular post ever is ironically one of my geekiest posts ever, Windows Vista Annoyance #3: file / folder sharing between computers on a network.  It’s regularly on the top of my DAILY list of most-viewed blog posts, mostly because of Google searches, partially because of Stumbleon, and partially because computer shops apparently use this when explaining to customers how to make their computers work nicely with each other across networks.

Since August, I’ve been averaging 13,000 - 14,000 hits a month.  When I write a post on a daily basis, I average about 400-500 hits a day.  But some weeks, I only write one or two blog posts — and my hits go down to around 300-400 a day.

Thanks, faithful readers.  It’s folks like you that makes it worthwhile for me to keep bloggin’.  Stick around, willya?

This caught me by surprise.  Usually, I know well in advance when a large chain store like CompUSA plans to close a good number of its stores. CompUSA, which used to be one of my favorite computer stores until Best Buy became ubitiquous, has closed what looks like a good 50% of its stores all over the nation. That includes closing 3 out of 5 stores in Maryland, and 27 out of 35 stores in California.  I’d visit the Rockville and Gaithersburg (Maryland) stores quite often, but I remember feeling very irritated that it was difficult getting someone to help me.  Best Buy staff, in contrast, always seem to appear at a snap of my finger (not that I snap my fingers, but …).  Both Rockville and Gaithersburg stores are now closed; if I want my CompUSA fix, I’ll have to go to a Baltimore suburb, or cross the border into Virginia.  Whoops, all four Washington-area CompUSA stores in Virginia are also closed, leaving three in Richmond or the Virginia Beach area.  Geez.

Someone did a comparison list showing which stores are closed and which is still open. Green is open, and red (both dark and light) means closed.

Definitely does not bode well for CompUSA …

Living in the DC area and don’t have plans to watch fireworks?  Check out my recent DeafDC blog post on finding a place near you.  Happy Fourth of July!!