HP tx2500z - still not available in canada / HP price comparison US and Canadian retailers

In my last article titled HP tx2000 vs tx2500 Tablet PC I was hoping that tx2500z will be available by september in canada as a back to school offer. But surprisingly as of Aug 26, 2008 there is no news yet from HP on its release date in canada. I am not sure if HP is holding it for the holiday shoppers??

Anyways below are the current retailer prices for some of the HP models in both USA and Canada. And to mention this again, tx2500z is yet not available in canada.

United States

HP - $900 / Model # tx2500z
Office Depot - $900 (after mail & rebate, $50) / Model # tx2510us
Future Shop - $900 CAD (canada only, est. $850 USD) / Model # tx2514ca
OfficeMax - $950 (online only) / Model # tx2510us
Best Buy - $1050 / Model # tx2525nr
Circuit City - $1050 (after mail & rebate, $50) / Model # tx2510us
Target - $1090 / Model # tx2510us
Walmart - $1100 / Model # t2510us

Canada

Future Shop - $900 CAD / Model # tx2514ca
Future Shop - $1100 CAD / Model # tx2524ca
Costco - $1050 CAD / Model # tx2513cl
Staples - $985 CAD / Model # tx2517ca
Best Buy - $1000 CAD / Model # tx2508ca
The Source - $1200 CAD / Model # tx2510ca

And if you are a college student or in school of any sort you are allowed to buy HP at the student discount that can be found here … easy register.The 2500 has a superior graphics card (to the 2000 and 2100) and the Puma processor is much faster. This model is rumored to take care of the serious heat problem in previous versions. Stores have been moving out the 2100 and 1499 models with some serious deals. That leads me to believe these will be available soon in retail stores.

The prices won’t fall for the TX2500. It is brand new and not even available in stores yet. The pricing is already pretty aggressive at $1049 for basic unit.

Always its worth to mention that HP does not provide north american warranty. So if you are buying from ebay and you are canadian, you might need to buy warranty from some 3rd party warranty houses.

HP tx2500z Features -

Decked out in our new “Echo” inlaid design, the ultraportable 4.59 lb. Pavilion tx2500z is packed with features you’ll love. It has a 12.1″ (diagonal) high-definition touch screen, and it optimizes handwriting capture: you simply write on it with a dockable/rechargeable eraser pen (no batteries needed). In addition, the screen twists for easy viewing of documents and movies in cramped spaces.

Genuine Windows Vista
Get things done, stay connected, and enjoy a variety of entertainment in a secure environment with genuine Windows Vista with Service Pack 1. This series comes with genuine Windows Vista Home Premium, which includes Windows Aero, Windows Media Center, and instant search functionality. For enhanced play and productivity features, choose genuine Windows Vista Ultimate.

Cool adjustable display
The high-definition, spacious 12.1″ (diagonal) display on this compact notebook means comfortable viewing that won’t strain your eyes. You can open it in the standard way, twist it backward for presentations or to view comfortably on a plane, or fold it flat like a slate. This notebook includes a touchscreen and digitizer so you can handwrite, sketch, draw, take notes, or graph, plus use the pad of your finger to navigate Web sites, play games, organize and play music, and view photos, TV shows, and movies.

Dual-core processing power
The tx2500z is equipped with powerful AMD Turion 64 X2 dual-core processors with HyperTransport technology, which improves system performance when running multiple applications. These processors also supply enhanced virus protection as well as PowerNow! for longer battery life.
 
Fingerprint security (select models)
Swipe your finger across the optional integrated reader on the side of the panel to log on to your tx2500z and password-protected Web sites and documents.

Lots of space
The tx2500z supports a hard drive of up to 250GB—plenty of room to store photos, music, and video. A CD/DVD burner is standard, with optional HP LightScribe for laser-etching your own disc labels.

Sleek-looking case
The tx2500z features the same finish as our other new Pavilion notebooks: a high-gloss black case with inlaid “Echo” pattern.

Wireless options
You get 802.11b/g wireless LAN standard with these models, or you can upgrade to 802.11a/b/g. You’ll stay connected virtually anytime, anywhere, without having to hunt for hotspots, with the optional Verizon Wireless V740 1XEVDO PC ExpressCard.

Video chat
Stay in touch with friends and family via webcam (optional) and two omni-directional microphones, which also support VOIP applications.

Entertainment extras
HP QuickPlay will fast-start movies and music, and comes with a mobile TV module that supports Internet TV streaming. You get Karaoke. We’ve enhanced the music, video, and photo features: create a single playlist for all three. A mini remote stores in the ExpressCard slot. You get two headphone jacks; one supports S/PDIF.

Numerous ports
The tx2500z has three USB 2.0 ports, an ExpressCard/34 slot, an S-Video, a VGA, and a Consumer IR, plus a 5-in-1 digital media card reader.

Show / Display icons and text by default on page load for - I Love Social Bookmarking plugin (Wordpress Social Bookmarking)

Most of the Social Bookmarking plugins show only icons and/or text and you need to click on that icon and/or text to display the complete options. e.g. here is a screenshot of ShareThis, this plugins shows only text that you need to click (on ShareThis) to see the bookmarking sites list.

And then some just show icons e.g.

I completely understand this was done to save some real estate on the page as there are a lot of social bookmarking sites and the number is increasing edveryday. But I personally just wanted to list a selected few on my website and I wanted them to be visible to the user with both icons and text and I want the user to undersatnd that if they are clicking on the icon / text, that means they are adding the article to there favorites on those sites.

My problem was that there are not a lot of social bookmarking plugins available which show up by default on page load without any kind of user action and show both text and ions, some plugins available show like ShareThis (user needs to click) and some show just icons (novice/new users will not understand icons).

I liked - I Love Social Bookmarking plugin because it shows both icons / text and when you hover over each list item individually, this plugins ask the user to Add to Digg or Add to Technorati etc. This is necessary as most of novice users will not be able to understand the purpose of just icons saying nothing.

But there was one problem with this plugin - By default this plugin shows only TEXT asking for users to add bookmarks that you can change in plugins settings, you need to hover over the text to see the full list.

e.g. in this screenshot you need to hover over Share the Love to see the list. You can change the text [Share the Love] in plugins settings.

I dont want my users to hover over text to see the list and I wanted that list to be present by default. Now this is what this post is about, how to show the social bookmarking list by default on page load?

I Love Social Bookmarking plugin can be downloaded from - http://www.milienzo.com/downloads/ilsb.zip
This plugin was developed by Aaron Russell but is licensed under OpenGPL and henceforth I have suggested following changes to show the list as default. I am using the same plugin on my website with the following code changes that I implemented.

Now following can only be implemented if you have FTP or file level access to your wordpress hosting. After you download the plugin you need to extract or copy the unzipped files to wp-content/plugins folder of your wordpress installation. Following files will be included when you download it.

includes folder
ilsb.php

Inside the includes folder there will be a javascript file called ilsb.js. Please change the content of this file to following, you can delete the existing content and paste the following js code -

———————From here———————————–

// JavaScript Document
jQuery(document).ready(function()
{
/* jQuery(”.ilsb-parent”).hover(
function()
{
jQuery(”.ilsb-child”).show();
},
function()
{
jQuery(”.ilsb-child”).hide();
}
); */

jQuery(”.ilsb-parent > a”).click(function()
{
return false;
});
});

———————-Till here————————————

and then in the same folder there is a CSS stylesheet named - style.css
In that file change the style from

div.ilsb-child {position:absolute; display:none; margin:0px; padding:0px 0px 6px 0px;}

TO

div.ilsb-child {position:relative; display:block; margin:0px; padding:0px 0px 6px 0px;}

and then go to your plugin settings and leave the List Title field blank. Make sure you select the List style as Horizontal.

 

And that is it you are good to go with both text and icons available for social bookmarking of your wordpress articles.

Building a Javascript Ad Rotator / Slideshow (with 123 buttons, play, pause and stop options)

This script work in all major browsers - IE6, IE7, Firefox 3.0. You can even rotate images and flash objects as everything within DIV’s will be rotating.

Example of Banner Rotation using this script -

These are real banners rotating using this script. You can click on 1 2 3 buttons to see a particular banner or play / pause the rotation. Banners sequence will change randomly everytime you refresh the page

The idea is to pick up all the DIV’s within the main DIV container and rotate them randomly.

Here is an example of the Ad Rotator / Slideshow with some CSS thrown in and play/pause, 123 buttons. Please feel free to use the CSS and code. Leaving the reference back to my site (http://www.coolwebdeveloper.com) in the comments will be much appreciated though.

We will be using a set of open source scripts in addition to my own code to build this javascript adrotator/slideshow.

Please scroll to the bottom of the article to download the zipped files package that we are going to use for this project.

You will find a number of methods inside slideshow.js to control the slideshow. At the top level is a javascript class used to initiate the slideshow object from the HTML file.

Some of the options that can be set are -

duration - sets the total duration of transitioning per image
seconds_per_slide - sets the time per image/div is shown
pause_on_mouseover - whether the rotation will be paused when mouse over happens
onChange: function() {} - You can define here, any javascript code that you want to run when the image changes

Following functions are used to control the behavior of the slide show -

forward()
backward()
jumpToSlide()
start()
pausePlay()
stop()
rndm()
transition()

Class can be initiated by using following code - You can pass any available number of property values when defining the rotation class

var slideshow = new MDSK.Slideshow(”slideMainDiv”, “.slideDiv”, {
seconds_per_slide: 5.0
});

The random() function is used to change the rotation pattern every tine the page is refreshed, as a result the images contained within the object are displayed randomly.

/**********************************/

rndm : function(min, max){
return Math.floor(Math.random() * (max - min + 1) + min);
},

/**********************************/

and then we will call this function every time the class object is instantiated

/**********************************/

this.slides.sort(function(a,b){
return me.rndm(-1,1);
});

/**********************************/

Please fill in the following information to receive the Javascript Adrotator code with fully working example via email and to subscribe to FREE Newsletter and email feed.
Your email address will also be used to provide any important updates and new versions for Adrotator script in near future.

All the scripts are pretty self explanatory but if you have any questions please dont hesitate to contact me by leaving a message in the comments section.

There is a lot of room for improvement in this code and lot of inline CSS can be moved to CSS file. Also, I am working on a wordpress adrotator plugin (enhancing this code) and will be releasing soon. So keep checking this site.

Reporter vs Expert - Why Most Bloggers Are Stuck Reporting

There are basically two types of bloggers in the world - reporters and experts - and some people perform both roles (usually the experts, it’s hard for reporters to become experts, but it’s easy for experts to report).

If you have ever taken an Internet marketing course or attended a seminar specifically for beginners, you have probably heard about the two different methodologies. Whenever the business model is based on content, and if you blog for money then the model is based on content, people are taught to either start as reporters, or if possible step up as experts.

I’ll be frank; you want to be the expert.

Reporters leverage the content of the experts and in most cases people start off as reporters because they haven’t established expertise. Experts enjoy the perks of preeminence, higher conversion rates because of perceived value, it’s easier to get publicity, people are more likely to seek you out rather than you having to seek others out, joint ventures come easier, etc… experts in most cases simply make more money and attract more attention.

Most Bloggers Are Reporters

The thing with expertise is that it requires something - experience. No person becomes an expert without doing things and learning. Bloggers usually start out without expertise and as a result begin their blogging journey by talking about everything going on in their niche (reporting) and by interviewing and talking about other experts (reporting again).

There’s nothing wrong with reporting of course and for many people it’s a necessity at first until you build up some expertise. Unfortunately the ratios are pretty skewed when it comes to reporters and experts - there are a lot more reporters than there are experts, hence reporters tend to struggle to gain attention and when they do, they often just enhance the reputation of the expert they are reporting on.

Don’t Replicate Your Teacher

If you have ever spent some time browsing products in the learn Internet marketing niche you will notice a pattern. Many people first study Internet marketing from a “guru” (for lack of a better term). The guru teaches how he or she is able to make money online, and very often the view that the student gleams is that in order to make money online you have to teach others how to make money online.

The end result of this process is a huge army of amateurs attempting to replicate what their teacher does in the same industry - the Internet marketing industry - not realizing that without expert status based on a proven record and all the perks that come with it, it’s next to impossible to succeed.

Even people, who enjoy marginal success, say for example growing an email list of 1,000 people, then go out and launch a product about how to grow an email list of 1,000 people. Now I have no problems with that, I think it’s fine to teach beginners and leverage whatever achievements you have, the problem is that people gravitate to the same niche - Internet marketing - and rarely have any key points of differentiation.

How many products out there do you know of that all claim to teach the same things - email marketing, SEO, pay per click, affiliate marketing, and all the sub-niches that fall under the category of Internet marketing. It’s a saturated market, yet when you see your teachers and other gurus making money teaching others how to make money (and let’s face it - making money as a subject is one of the most compelling) - your natural inclination is to follow in their footsteps.

If the key is to become an expert and you haven’t spent the last 5-10 years making money online, I suggest you look for another niche to establish expertise in.

Report on Your Process, Not Others

The secret to progress from reporter to expert is not to focus on other experts and instead report on your own journey. When you are learning how to do something and implementing things day by day, or studying other people’s work, you need to take your process and what you do as a result of what you learn, and use it as content for your blog.

It’s okay to talk about experts when you learn something from them, but always relate it to what you are doing. If you learn a technique from an expert it’s fine to state you learned it from them (and affiliate link to their product too!) but you should then take that technique, apply it to what you are doing and then report back YOUR results, not there’s. Frame things using your opinion - your stories - and don’t regurgitate what the expert said. The key is differentiation and personality, not replication.

Expertise comes from doing things most people don’t do and then talking about it. If you do this often enough you wake up one day as an expert, possibly without even realizing how it happened, simply because you were so good at reporting what you did.

You Are Already An Expert

Most people fail to become experts (or perceived as experts) because they don’t leverage what they already know. Every person who lives a life learns things as they go, takes action every day and knows something about something. The reason why they never become an expert is because they choose not to (which is fine for some, not everyone wants to be an expert), but if your goal is to blog your way to expertise and leave the world of reporting behind you have to start teaching and doing so by leveraging real experience.

Experience can come from what you do today and what you have done previously; you just need to take enough steps to demonstrate what you already know and what you are presently learning along your journey. I know so many people in my life, who are experts simply by virtue of the life they have lived, yet they are so insecure about what they know, they never commit their knowledge to words for fear of…well fear.

Blogs and the Web in general, are amazing resources when you leverage them as a communication tool to spread your expertise because of the sheer scope of people they can reach. If all you ever do is talk to people in person and share your experience using limited communication mediums, you haven’t much hope of becoming an expert. Take what you know and show other people through blogging, and you might be surprised how people change their perception of you in time.

Reporting Is A Stepping Stone

If your previous experience and expertise is from an area you want to leave behind or you are starting from “scratch”, then reporting is the path you must walk, at least for the short term.

Reporting is a lot of fun. Interviewing experts, talking about what other people are doing and just being part of a community is not a bad way to blog. In many cases people make a career of reporting (journalism is about just that), but if you truly want success and exponential results, at some point you will have to stand up and proclaim yourself as someone unusually good at something and then proceed to demonstrate it over and over again.

Have patience and focus on what you do to learn and then translate that experience into lessons for others, and remember, it’s okay to be a big fish in a small pond, that’s all most experts really are.

This article was by Yaro Starak, a professional blogger and my blog mentor. He is the leader of the Blog Mastermind mentoring program designed to teach bloggers how to earn a full time income blogging part time.

To get more information about Blog Mastermind click this link:

www.BlogMastermind.com

Toronto Bloggers Meet With John Chow and Yaro Starak

Around 3PM Thursday evening one of my blogger friends ZK told me about the bloggers meet happening in toronto. And gurus of the Blogworld John Chow alongwith Blog Mastermind Coach Yaro were attending.

Well this was a wonderful opportunity to meet John Chow and Yaro in person. I joined the facebook invitation within the next 15 minutes and we were good to go around 6PM that evening for DUPONT subway station.

Meet was held at Live organic food restaurant in Toronto. It was right in front on the west side of northern dupont subway exit. The restaurant was chosen by Yaro’s friend (she runs a skin care blog herself). We were a bit early and found Yaro and his friend already there enjoying the good food. If you are a big meat eater this restaurant is probably not for you.

We had some good conversation on blogging with Yaro and his friend. I had brief talk with Blog guru Yaro about his success from the latest Blog Mastermind Coaching program and his message for readers of coolwebdeveloper.com. Meanwhile other bloggers started arriving. I was impressed by a 14 year old blogger running picdit.wordpress.com. He is picking up the top stories from digg and reddit on his blog and his blog was among top ten a while ago, he was interviewed by wall street, toronto sun for his blogging accomplishments at an early image … impressive.

It was a very interesting and learning experience to meet and see other bloggers from Toronto. I am looking forward to my next opportunity to be at a bloggers meet.

Watch this post for an exclusive message and wonderful tips from the BLOG Mastermind Coach Yaro Starak

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