• Leave me and our son home: Obviously, he is getting me gifts, so I can’t come along. But our son stays home, too, because he would just get in the way. You should leave unwilling shoppers behind so that they don’t slow you down.
• List the sales: He looks at sales fliers ahead of time, and lists out what is where. He also has a back-up list, just in case they’re all out at one store. Included on the list are special discounts, and places where he has coupons so that he can save a little money.
• Plan a route: My husband plans out a route, based on what is most important for him to get. He hits the most important stores first, and then goes down his list in order of importance, so he has a better chance of getting what he really wants to buy.

Here are some more Black Friday shopping tips, in video form from iMommyTalk:

Image source: Daylife

Post from: EveryJoe

Black Friday Shopping Tips

Jayvee inspects the culture of FAIL on the Internet and finds that video advertising is going to decline. Actually, the rate of growth of online advertising has reached a saturation point even though online advertising itself is continuing to rise.

In these tough times, when the economy has been slowing down, Clair suggests that choosing Linux and open source software has become more necessary. For those who are already in that path, there is a free Ubuntu training course. Ubuntu is Linux for human beings, isn’t it?

A survey found that only 1% of people are using Google Docs, and many of those use Microsoft Office already. However, Colleen feels that the Microsoft’s stranglehold on office suites may be slipping away with Microsoft promising and postponing their next release and the availability of too many options for the users.

Juan says that 2008 is the year of iPhone, which is not very debatable in the user sense though this is also the year for RIAs, Twitter (@bsravanin) and cloud computing. But then, he is an Apple guy. :-) He also shares the offer that MacUpdate is having as a holiday promo. A good offer, far better than dreaming about the Apple 24″ LED display which is about $900!

Speaking of promos, Jason has a post about the Sears Wish Promotion, similar to the HP Magic Giveaway which has recently ended. There is already several Top 10 lists too, like the top 10 viral videos of 2008. I personally don’t like the fact that these lists do not consider the rest of the year that is still to be lived through. The more important news is, in case you haven’t already heard, that a serious security flaw has been exposed in the Internet Explorer and it is advised to not use it for financial and other sensitive transations of any kind.

While you wait for the security update, be sure to take note of the 8 security bulletins that Microsoft is ending the year with. Various OS users may want to check out the 2008 Service Pack 2 beta releases.

Post from: EveryJoe

Tech Channel Roundup of Year End Retrospections and Forecasts