Where to start -- so many things going on

It was an interesting week for us old die-hard Apple guys, Apple was rated the No. 1 technology company in the world last year and then became the second largest company in the world by market value after Exxon Mobile. For the first time in 2011, Apple passed Microsoft in profit. Despite all the predictions to the contrary, iPad, iPod and iPhone sales continue to climb. How big does Apple have to get before PCs become the also rans?

I guess to strike back Microsoft announced the acquisition of Skype for $8.5 billion dollars. If you haven't heard of Skype, don't feel too bad, there are only millions of people around the world using this online telephone service. Here is a video about the acquisition:



Not to be left out, Google fought back with a new laptop powered by Google software that takes aim at Microsoft's dominant Windows and Apple's OSX operating systems. Here we go with a video about the new Google Chrome OS and CR-48 laptop: (skip the ad)




Not to be outdone, Apple became the most expensive brand in the world. 


Now with all this tech stuff going on, the genealogy community had to jump in. FamilySearch announced more millions of records online, including huge U.S. Civil War collections. Here is the news announcement:

As its contribution to the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the LDS Church-sponsored organization, FamilySearch.org, has released millions of online records from the Confederate and Union armies.

FamilySearch disclosed the move this week at the National Genealogical Society’s Family History Conference in Charleston, S.C.

“These records are significant because nearly every family in the United States at that time was impacted either directly or indirectly by the war,” FamilySearch project manager Ken Nelson said in a news release. “Each soldier has a story to tell based on what his unique experience was during the war. Each family has their own story to tell. This is the paper trail that tells the stories about that period in our nation’s history.”

The collection includes thousands of enlistment or pension records that can provide key family data, including age, birthplace or spouse’s name, the release said. Other collections, such as census records, are more focused on “ordinary civilians who lived during that turbulent time.”

 The news went on and on and I spent more time reading that I did writing.