As I’ve been telling all of you for the past few weeks, I am finally making the change from being primarily a Windows user to a Mac user. While the process has been fairly painless, there has been a hiccup here or there, and this week I hit a doozy.

On Monday the 4th, I finally moved the Windows monitor out of the primary desk position and moved the iMac over. That day being a holiday seemed to make sense as it would allow me a day to get comfortable with it before starting a full work day.  The first thing I noticed is while a 27-inch monitor is great to look at, it’s a heck of a lot of real estate to transverse with a mouse.  So, using a combination of the Magic Trackpad and the Microsoft mouse I planned to use, I’ve figured ut a pretty good system for getting around the screen.  (Trackpad for distance and simple tasks, mouse for tasks that require accuracy.)  I don’t blame the Mac OS for this issue, it’s just part of dealing with a screen of this size.

Tuesday started off well with no issues, and I was able to do all of my usual work without any issues.  (Note to Adobe: Why in the world does Photoshop hide the desktop on Windows, but it doesn’t on the Mac?  I constantly click out of the program by accident.)  However, towards the end of the day I was on a conference call where I needed to send someone a document, and I couldn’t.  The Mac was totally locked up.  I sent it from another computer and started trying to figure out the issue after the call.  I could get the Force Quit window to open, but I couldn’t click on anything with either the mouse or the Trackpad.

I called AppleCare and they ran me through a bunch of different things to try.  We would reboot, it would work … then lockup.  We tried other things with the same result.  They wanted me to go to an Apple Store, but seeing as the closest is 180 miles away, that wasn’t happening.  They wondered if was my third-party apps, but I told them the exact same apps run on the MacBook Air I use for work/travel, and it has never had an issue.  They finally told me to reinstall the operating system, which, as a 25 year PC user, struck fear in my heart, but with the Mac OS it doesn’t mean reinstalling anything.  Huzzah!  I did it, the system ran, I shut down and went home for the night.

Tuesday morning I decide to come in early in case anything was wrong again.  Yep, it was locking up again.  Back to AppleCare I went.  This guy ran me through a bunch of stuff, issues persisted and I was beginning to think I was going to switch back to my Windows machine.  Finally we got it to boot without issues and we ended the call.

Now, here’s where all my computer experience comes in.  I decided to reboot again, and … lockdown.  Back to the phone I went.

This time I got an older sounding gentleman, and he read over the history of the case, and he goes, “What device are you using for a mouse?”  I told him the Microsoft mouse and the Magic Trackpad.  He told me to unplug the mouse and turn off the Trackpad.  And at that point I mention that if needed, I still had the Magic Mouse laying on my desk if he wanted me to try that.

• Him: “… are the other things off?”
• Me: “Yes … and, whoa … the Magic Mouse is working, it’s no longer locked up.”
• Him: “Pull the batteries from the Magic Mouse, plug your mouse back in and turn the Magic Trackpad on and then reboot.”
• (After doing all that) Me: “It’s not locked up.”
• Him: “Even though you weren’t using the Magic Mouse it was talking to the iMac and confusing it.”

After telling him everything the other two had me do, he just chuckled and said he believed in K.I.S.S. (Keep it Simple, Stupid).  And I have to agree.  I haven’t had one issue since he had me pull those batteries out.

Now, admittedly, I never told the other two about the Magic Mouse, but they also never asked me about my devices either.  All told, tech support guy #3 took less than 5 minutes from start to end, and he did have the leg up of seeing what the other two had done, but my gut tells me he still would have taken only five minutes from start to end.  There is certainly something to be said for age in situations like this.

Otherwise the week has gone swimmingly, although it is taking some getting used.  For instance, changing where my thumb goes for Copy and Paste keyboard shortcuts is driving me batty.  Command-C and Command-V are no where as physically comfortable as Control-C and Control-V on the PC.  Everything else is pretty much a learning curve, but after a quarter century of working with Microsoft-powered computers, I think that is to be expected.

A few years back Apple ran a promotion stating how it had never been easier to switch from a PC to a Mac.  For the most part I would say this is a true statement.  Unlike the old days, most of the programs you’re used to are easily found, or there is something similar you can run.  Overall I am finding the experience of switching my primary computer from a PC to a Mac to be a painless and easy experience.

… and then it came to iTunes.

I’m a music junky and I have a collection of music that is far larger than any human should even contemplate having.  On my PC I had my music files on an external drive, but my iTunes and podcasts ran off of my primary C drive.  I was expecting some hiccups with this setup, but nothing that I couldn’t overcome.  I had moved the collection between various PCs a few times, so I didn’t see why this should be that difficult as it was essentially an Apple product coming “home” if you will.

I started doing some research online and what I found was a mish-mash of haphazard ideas and workarounds.  Seeing as I had paid for Apple Care, I gave them a call … for the first time ever an Apple employee gave me a less than satisfactory answer and actually suggested I call Microsoft to see if they had a tool for converting the files to the required Mac format.

Are you kidding me?  You want people to switch to Mac, but you don’t have a simplified process for moving one of your flagship products?  That ranks up there on the idiotic scale in my book.

So I ended up going to a bunch of forums and asking questions, and much to my surprise, nobody came up with a good answer.

While doing this research I came across an ad for a programs called CopyTrans TuneSwift.  It was $15, but it promised to move your iTunes from a PC to a Mac with ease.  At this point, with days of research under my belt, I figured I had nothing to lose.  I made a backup of everything to another external hard drive just to be safe (which took nearly a full work day), ran the program (which took nearly a full work day) and then did the restore on the Mac … which took about 90 minutes.

End result?  Everything is on the Mac and working without a hitch.  Everything ended up on the main drive, which isn’t exactly what I wanted, but to be honest, at this point I just didn’t care any more: It all moved, it’s all working and I’m just happy.

Apple: Take note of this.  You want people to switch to a Mac, you need to make it far, far easier to move iTunes.  The process was silly, and the fact I had to spend $15 on a program to do it was just idiotic.  Want an idea?  Buy the rights to TuneSwift, because for whatever reason, they got the whole thing to work.

In a move that is sure to polarize people I know, I am switching my main computer to an iMac.

Last Aug. I talked about getting an iMac, my first computer I’ve ever owned from Apple.  My intention was that this particular desktop would stay in my house for use, and that is where it still resides.  The idea of switching my main computer at work to a Mac was still not sitting well with me, but as I have become more immersed in the world of Mac via my work at TechnoBuffalo, the idea was becoming more appealing.

As I’ve gone back and forth on the subject, the final straw was my work computer getting hit with rogueware – malicious software that masquerades as anti-virus software – multiple times in a two week period.  In my role as technology blogger, I am constantly on the Internet, hitting site after site.  It is fair to say I probably visit more websites in one day than most people do in a  week; it’s part of my job, and you just learn to deal with it.  What I haven’t been able to deal with is losing literally hours of work to cleaning my system of these blasted viruses.

When you earn your entire income from being on the Internet, losing your computer to a virus is like not being able to go into work due to car issues.  Except, in our cases, it’s even more infuriating because you technically are at work, you just can’t do anything while your system cleans itself.  (and before you ask, yes, I had protection in place to keep them out, but they kept getting in.)

With the latest update to the iMacs, and the cash on hand to do so, I took the plunge and purchased a new iMac.  The day I never thought would come has arrived, and there is an Apple computer sitting next to me as I type this, transferring files on to it and installing drivers.  While I am aware that Macs are not totally immune to viruses, and, yes, there are even now Mac specific rogues out there, the number is small enough to be negligible.  Having also read through the uninstall instructions for them, they seem far easier to remove than on a PC.

Call me names if you must, say I’ve partaken in the iKoolAid even, but I just can’t take using Windows as my main hardware any more.  I highly doubt I will ever be able to pull myself completely away from Windows, and as a matter of fact there will still be a low-end Windows machine on my desk still which does nothing more than handle writing invoices and printing shipping labels, but for everything else I do in my life, it’s going to be on a Mac from here on out.

If it makes you feel any better, I’m still going to be using a Microsoft Natural Ergo Keyboard 4000 and a Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0 … what can I say, Microsoft makes great computer peripherals.

Working in the world of tech blogging, I have to write about pretty much all of the companies out there, but I have discovered that any time I say anything positive about Apple, I am immediately labeled an “Apple fanboy”, and anything I have to say is dismissed out of hand.

Huh … funny I’m writing this on one of my many Windows-based machines.  Oh, and my Android-based HTC Hero is laying in front of my keyboard.

I’m currently sitting in my office at work and thought I would list all of the computers this “Apple Fanboy” works with:

• I have two totally separate Windows-based towers, both running Windows XP SP 2, here at work.
• Behind me is computer running Windows Me which I only use on occasion as a file server.
• There are four other computers in this room, all running Windows XP SP 2.
• My main laptop is running Windows 7 Professional, which is my newest computer, and I have to say I am loving Windows 7.
• My backup laptop is running Windows XP SP 2.
• My parents, whom I equip their computers for them, have a Windows 7 Home-based laptop and a Netbook running Ubuntu.
• There are other laptops in various states of usability, all running Windows XP SP 2.

Now, as for my Apple products:

• I have a 160 GB iPod Classic
• A 1st generation iPod Touch, which I bought used off of a friend when he switched to a first gen iPhone.  Yes, I have the Touch since about 3 months after launch.
• A 32 GB Wi-Fi iPad … which I also bought used off a friend when he decided he wanted a 3G version.
• A 27″ 2010 iMac.  This is my first ever Mac … as in I bought it at the last refresh.

As I stated earlier, I carry an HTC Hero phone, and before those I carried various models of BlackBerry handsets.  I have never owned an iPhone.  I hate AT&T and I have this funny habit of liking to be able to make phone calls that don’t get dropped because I held the phone in the wrong way.

You know what I’m a “fanboy” of?  Technology.  Plain and simple, I love technology.  I use the tech that best suits my needs, and I don’t really care who makes it.  The only reason I bought an iMac is I’m getting into more media production, and Macs are hard to dispute for their ability to produce and edit audio & video.  I don’t even turn it on on the days I don’t have any editing to do, there’s no point as I’m still much more comfortable in a Microsoft environment.

People have tried to convince me for ages I should buy a MacBook Pro, but I think they are horrendously over-priced.  I always hear the argument, “but they last longer!”  So?  It is still a huge amount of money to lay out initially, and at the speed with which I break down laptop keyboards I can buy three Microsoft laptops for the same price.

If I am guilty of being a “fanboy” to anything related to Apple, it is that I’m a fanboy of Steve Jobs.  I think the man is a marketing genius, and I fully expect there to be courses taught someday in the future over his business decisions.  He pulled Apple from the brink of bankruptcy to become one of the biggest companies in the country with revenues in the billions each quarter.  How can you not respect that?

For whatever reason, this silly Microsoft/Apple war still rages, and humans, for whatever reason, feel the need to label everything in this world.  Nothing can be ambiguous.  What does it really matter what equipment I use?  What does it matter what I’m a fan of?

Oh, in case you think I am always positive about Apple?  Check out the MacBook Paper post I wrote after the introduction of the MacBook Air.  Yeah, I thought the Air was silly, and I still do.

I suppose there are worse things to be called then an “Apple fanboy” — and oh, I’ve been called most of them — but this one truly puzzles me every time someone says it.  My next computer?  A Windows 7 desktop.  I love it on my laptop, and can’t wait to get it on my desktop, but I’m sure that in spite of that, the next time I say something positive about Apple the “fanboy” term will be thrown in my face again.

Bring it on.  It amuses me.

Yes, that disturbance you felt in the force was true … I bought a Mac.  A 27-inch iMac to be precise.

This is something I have wanted to do for years, but I never really had a “need” for such a system, it was always just a “want”.  With the amount of media I’m producing now, and with a lot more to come, I finally felt like I needed the editing power of a Mac.  With the refresh of the iMac line last week, I jumped on it, and here I am … staring into the face of an enormous 27-inch screen.  (seriously, this is almost too much screen!)

I’ve been playing with it for several hours now, teaching myself to do various things, and I have to say I finally enabled right clicking on the mouse, I just couldn’t take it any longer.  I have been right-clicking on things for so many years that I just don’t know what to do without it at this point.

Of course I am not fully switching away from the Windows platform, quite the contrary actually.  I may go days without turning on this Mac as it was bought for specific jobs, but it’s here when I need it.

Overall it’s not a horrible experience, although it’s taking some getting used to not having programs fill the entire screen most of the time … and learning how to save a file to where I wanted it to go took some learning.  Once you get those things down though, it’s pretty quick.  Now … learning the “new” keyboard shortcuts may take a bit of time …

(yes, this post done entirely on the iMac … a first for me.)

The “celebrities” for season 8 of Dancing with the Stars have been announced, and what an odd crew they make.  From computer makers to formerly jailed rappers, they seem to have covered all of the bases this time around.

• Belinda Carlisle (former front woman of the Go-Go’s)
• Chuck Wicks (country singer and boyfriend of dancer Julianne Hough)
• David Alan Grier (comedian)
• Denise Richards (actress)
• Gilles Marini (actor)
• Jewel (singer, girlfriend of fellow competitor Ty Murray)
• Lawrence Taylor (football player)
• Lil’ Kim (rapper)
• Nancy O’Dell (host of Access Hollywood)
• Shawn Johnson (17-year-old Olympic gold medalist, youngest ever competitor)
• Steve-O (from Jackass)
• Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple Computers)
• Ty Murray (rodeo star, boyfriend of fellow competitor, Jewel)

While I have discussed the show a few times before, I have never had a mad urge to blog about the actual non-pros that go on the show. However, when you throw Steve Wozniak on there, I almost feel obligated to do so.

For those unfamiliar with “Woz”, he co-founded Apple Computers with Steve Jobs, but he left the company to pursue his interests in being a philanthropist.  While I have a feeling he will be one of the first eliminated this season, there is still something oddly compelling about seeing one of the “Kings of the Geeks” out there dancing away.  I also think it is an interesting testimonial to how important computers have become in our lives that one of the original home computing people is now considered a “star”.

As for some of the others, I’m not that surprised by them, most of them are low tier celebs, but Jewel?  What the heck!  And Lil’ Kim?  Will she be able to stay out of jail long enough to finish the season?  Steve-O, well, apparently he’s sober now, but we’ll see.  While they grabbed some more recognizable names this time, they sure went with ones with checkered pasts, too.

I am also hopeful that perhaps we can skip all of the insanity over Cheryl Burke’s weight that we suffered through last time.  How dare that woman balloon all the way up to a size 4!  I am also sure Harold Wheeler and the Dancing with the Stars Band will be there to make me miserable with their butchered versions of songs.  Either way, I am sure I will “watch” (more like I only look up when someone is actually dancing) and find something to complain about.

In a not-so-surprising turn of events, Steve Jobs has announced he is taking a leave of absence from Apple through June of this year.

Ever since the iPod event in September 2008, rumors about Steve Jobs’ health have circulated due to how painfully thin he looked.  On January 5th of this year, Mr. Jobs released a letter saying that his weight loss was due to a hormone imbalance.

Today the news has changed slightly, and it is now being reported that Steve Jobs will be taking a leave of absence from his duties as CEO of Apple until June of this year. He lists his reasons as unwanted attention, and new knowledge that his health problems are more complicated then first suspected.

Team,

I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.

In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple’s day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan.

I look forward to seeing all of you this summer.

I can’t think of any other CEO that is more tied to their company than Mr. Jobs.  If you say “Apple”, you immediately think of him.  I don’t think that even Bill Gates of Microsoft was ever tied quite as heavily as Jobs is.

Trading of the Apple stock was halted in after hours trading when the news broke, and has since reopened with a quick decline of over $6 a share.  I find this unfortunate as I am sure Mr. Jobs has left an excellent team in his place while he works on his health.  You can also rest assured that the 2009 product line up has already been locked in at this point, and I think the earliest we might see issues is in 2010, if not even later.  Due to long manufacturing leads, this is almost a certainty.  We also all have to remember that he does not do these products alone, he merely oversees them, it isn’t like he is sitting in a back room crafting the next iPod design of putty himself… wait… he just might, who knows.

I wish Mr. Jobs a speedy recovery, and I would certainly hope that everyone gives him the space he needs to concentrate on his issues.

My battles with malware are getting out of hand.

A couple of weeks ago I got infected with a rogue malware that tried to impersonate something called Anti Virus 2009.  Well, after fighting with it for 9 hours, I finally got it removed. During the course of the battle, it prevented me from installing needed software, and also kept me from going to sites that would allow me to read up on how to fight it.

This was followed about a week later with another bout with something called sagipsul which kept taking over my browser.  It wasn’t horrible, but it still took about 11 hours to fight back.

This morning I got hit with VirusRemover 2008, and that something had to do with sagipsul showing back up again.  At this point I am going to wipe the system and start over.  It is costing me more in time than the money it will cost me to just start over.

I have had it with these people, and I am going to be writing to my Congressmen about coming up with some way to prosecute people who do this.  They are extorting people with strongarm tatics similar to those used by the mafia in protection rackets.

I’m fed up, I’m angry and these criminals are costing me money and productivity.  That NEVER makes me happy.

Did I somehow miss the announcement of new Mac Minis at Macworld?

While I was writing up the Macworld keynote address for StarterTech, I was anxiously awaiting to hear all about the new models of the Mac Mini.

… I’m still waiting.

The Mac Mini is a Mac that comes with no keyboard, mouse or monitor and is perfect for people like myself who want to transition to Mac, but don’t want spend over a thousand dollars on an iMac.  The Mini was last updated in August of 2007 with two models that ran $599 and $799 respectively, and are still available in the exact same configurations that they had at that update.  So, now you are paying the same price for hardware that is woefully out of date as seventeen months might as well be a decade in computer component terms.

Over the past two weeks I have suffered two vicious malware attacks on my work PC that have cost me a combined total of 20 hours to repair.  I was all set for an updated Mac Mini, as just about every Mac rumor site agreed it was going to happen today, but, alas, it didn’t.  There wasn’t one word spoken about the only true entry level Mac computer.

I know I have said in the past that I was finally ready to switch to a Mac out of frustration, but this time I actually had my money at the ready… literally.  I had been saving for a new Mac Mini and was ready to order it this afternoon when it was announced, and yet it never came to be.  Why in the world has this poor, forgotten child of the Mac family been looked over yet again?

Apple continues to boast about how their market share has grown, and thay sold a record number of Macs last year, but they continue to forget about those of us who are nervous about switching.  With Windows Vista now being about the only option on new PCs, and Windows 7 looking as another iffy system, now is the time for Apple to strike and gain a huge portion of the installed user base.  Yet they continue to churn out $2800 laptops like the 17″ MacBook Pro they introduced today.

People always tell me that when you work out the math that Macs don’t cost that much more, but I decided to do a comparison.  I tried to rebuild a 20″ iMac as a Dell computer.  I went with a Vostro 220 Mini Tower, and copied the processors, the  amount of RAM, the hard drive size, one optical drive bay and so on.  When I was all done, the iMac was $1,199 and the Dell I configured was $679.  Gee… which wins?

In these economically difficult times, we need the Mac Mini, or something similar.  Apple is going to have to continue to have an entry level unit for the converts and the totally new customers alike.  I know Apple makes good stuff, I own multiple iPods, but as someone who is responsible for multiple computers, I have never been able to rationalize spending the money that Apple wanted me to.  If they want to continue to keep their growth going, they are going to have to consider what they can do to lure in budget minded buyers.

I’ve often speculated that maybe Apple fears growing too big, but with the success of the iPhone, and it now being introduced at Walmart, that is a difficult argument to stand by.  I have also wondered if they did this as to make their buyers feel like they were members of some elite club… again I point to Walmart and the iPhone.

So what is it, Apple?  Why do you shun the Mac Mini like it is the child you never wanted, and meanwhile you also shun your average day buyers who are cost conscience.  Wake up and smell the coffee, Apple, you could have a market share that dwarfs your current one if you would just try to remember the lower end purchasing market once in a while.

Is it April yet?

One of my guiltiest television pleasures is the Discovery Channel series Deadliest Catch.  As I’ve discussed before, I have no clue what really drives these men to do this insanely dangerous job, but to be honest I don’t really care as they keep doing it.  And the season 5 premiere in April just can’t come soon enough.

For those unfamiliar with the show, it follows the King Crab and Opilio Crab fishing seasons in the Bering Sea off of Alaska.  While it doesn’t sound that dangerous at first blush, you will change your opinion quickly after just a few minutes of this show.  It is considered one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, and it not uncommon for one or more ships to sink each year.  According to the official blog of Deadliest Catch season 5, a cod fishing ship, the Katami, was lost in the same area as the crab fishers with 4 survivors and 5 fisherman losing their lives back in October.

Yesterday I was mentioning to my family that I wondered how the new season was shaping up, and which ships and captains were out this year.  As curiosity got the better of me, I decided to snoop around the Web to see what I could find out.  Luckily on December 23rd, the official blog anticipated my curiosity and posted about the ships being in for the holidays, but with no hints as to which ships are out there this year.

So, being a nosey person, I decided to search some more and located the official websites of some of the ships.

Cornelia Marie – They were out fishing for sure, but no mention if Capt. Phil Harris had returned after his health problems last year.  As he is still pictured on the front page, I am suspecting he is back.

Early Dawn – There is next to no information on this boat, or Capt. Rick Fehst.

North American – Season 4 was the first season for this ship, and its captain, Sten Skaar.  Their site has very little information, and I really couldn’t guess either direction if this boat is even fishing, let alone on the show this year.

Northwestern – Their site really doesn’t spell out that they are out there, but seeing as Sig Hansen and Edgar Hansen have somewhat become the poster boys for the show, along with their ship, it is doubtful that they wouldn’t be out there.

The Wizard – Captained by Keith Colburn, their website doesn’t seem to be updated very often, so no clue if they are even out fishing.

Time Bandit – Andy Hillstrand and Johnathon Hillstrand co-captain this ship, and while the site states they are in port for the holidays, no clue if they are on the show this season.  As Discovery Channel just showed a video on their site of the bothers promoting the show, I think this is another safe assumption they are on this year.

In short, I think Cornelia Marie, Northwestern, The Wizard and Time Bandit are safe bets for season 5, while Early Dawn and North American are up in the air.  My biggest question is if Phil is back on the Cornelia Marie, but I have a feeling there is really nothing that would stop him from fishing.

If you have never watched the show, give it a try.  It is oddly engrossing to watch these men battling the elements, the crabs and, at times, each other.  And for those of us who are already addicted to the show… is it April yet?

UPDATE: See information on Deadliest Catch Season 5 Adds A New Boat

UPDATE 03/24/09: The Deadliest Catch Season 5 Premiere Announced

UPDATE 02/10/10: Capt. Phil Harris of the Cornelia Marie has passed away

Well, the Dell Vostro 1500 I got in late April had something go wrong with the hard drive on Wednesday, and it is completely fraked.

I went home on Wednesday afternoon to do some work, turned it on and was greeted by a blue screen of death. After several attempts, I couldn’t even get it to boot into safe mode, so I called Dell support for some help. They couldn’t have been nicer, and tried everything under the sun to get me up and running, but the final conclusion was that it was a physical error and hopeless. They expressed me a new hard drive that arrived on Thursday, and I was back up and running.

I took the old hard drive to a local tech company, and they couldn’t get the drive to do anything, so all my data was lost. Luckily this isn’t my primary computer and what was lost was fairly trivial stuff, but still a huge pain in my behind to set up a computer from scratch again so soon after having done it.

The most disappointing thing was that just two days before I had signed up with a new off-site backup service, and I was in the early stages of backing the entire system up. I’m a bit concerned since this happened only 2 days into the process that it might be to blame, so I am just foregoing installing that again and will ignore what ever was saved. I am not going to name the service since I can’t be sure that it was the cause, but I had never used them before, so I will give them the benefit of the doubt and not disparage their name on this blog.

So, now I’m stuck. I tried installing another off-site companies software, and it wouldn’t properly install. DocSyncer, which I’ve used to back up documents to Google Docs, is calling it quits on June 20th, so that won’t even be an option for me. I’ve always been nervous about backing up stuff to a hard drive in my house because if there is a fire, I’m still out of luck, so I’m not sure what to do at this point.

How does everyone else back up their files? Do you do it locally, or do you do it off-site?

Well, the party is over.

Microsoft had finally upped their offer to $33 a share from the $31 they initially offered, but it seems Yahoo wanted $37 a share.  Steve Ballmer finally decided it wasn’t worth the games, not the protracted fight it was going to be, so he has opted to move on, leaving Yahoo to their own devices.

Where does either company go from here?  Who knows, probably plodding along on the same paths they already were.  I still can’t quite grasp why Microsoft wanted this deal so bad, but that si for them to know and the rest of us to never learn.  I for one am just glad this is over so it won’t be in the news every five minutes.