Productopia

We know, the Halloween candy hasn't even cleared the shelves yet, but we're already getting holiday-shopping emails and Christmas catalogs. With holiday spending expected to be about the same as last year (1% less according to the National Retail Federation), retailers will be working all the angles to get you into the store (or onto the website) on Black Friday and beyond. But will you take the bait?

We surveyed 1,200 readers of ConsumerSearch and About.com to find out.

In this leaked Black Friday circular from OfficeMax, the store looks like it's going to offer a 7-inch Memorex portable DVD player as one of its 7:00 a.m. doorbuster deals. So is it worth the hassle of fighting the crowds and waiting in line?

The deal: 7-inch Memorex MVDP1078 portable DVD player for $30

Our verdict: A good deal for what's pretty much a disposable player

UPDATE, Oct. 23: Just as soon as this circular was leaked online, OfficeMax began legal action to get sites like BFads.net to pull it down. With all of these leaked, it's important to note that these circulars are not finalized, and stuff in the ads may or may not appear in the actual circular.

Today's the day Vista, Microsoft's much maligned operating system, officially sails off into the sunset to a chorus of goodbyes and good riddances. Microsoft is keeping its fingers crossed that Windows 7 will be everything that Vista was supposed to be, and not the slow, unstable and annoyingly obtrusive operating system that it foisted on an unsuspecting public at launch. To be fair, by the end Vista had been patched and trimmed to the point where it was actually a pretty decent OS, especially if installed fresh on a new machine. Of course, that doesn't help the millions of users struggling with a buggy Vista install.

She's come a long way from The Brady Bunch. Florence Henderson, a.k.a. Mrs. Brady, is taking on a new challenge -- tech support. Only recently did Henderson start using computers, cell phones and other gadgets. She recently told the New York Times' Jenna Wortham, "I didn't grow up with this technology. It's like learning a new language." With that in mind, Henderson has launched The FLoH Club, which offers specialized technical support for seniors.

In partnership with Support.com, The FLoH Club offers technical support by phone seven days a week, from 8 am to 2 am Eastern standard time. The call centers are based in the U.S. and Canada and staffed with employees who have advanced technical knowledge, but are specially-trained to work patiently with customers who have little or no tech savvy. "Our standards are higher than average," Leona Laurie of The FLoH Club told me. When you call, there's no voice menu to navigate through - you're connected directly to a live person.