The Facebook IPO frenzy is underway. But don’t call your stockbroker yet. Investors considering buying Facebook stock in light of the looming Facebook IPO might want to consult the history books first.

In 1998 TheGlobe.Com had the largest IPO in history at that time. With an opening share price of $9 per share, the stock skyrocketed to as high as $97 per share on opening day.

A year later the company was already in free fall. By 2001 the company was basically out of business.

Of course there are some big differences between Facebook and The Globe.

Facebook actually makes money. A lot of it. The Globe never made a dime.

Hundreds of millions of people use Facebook. The Globe didn’t have even a tenth as many users.

Facebook has a viable, understandable business plan. The Globe had no direction.

Facebook makes intelligent acquisitions based on strategic maneuvers. The Globe bought phone companies and game companies for no clear purpose.

Here are some modern-day facts:

• GM realizes 1000% better results running ads on Google than they do with Facebook.
• How Facebook can monetize it’s hundreds of millions of users in any meaningful way is unclear.
• Mobile use is exploding and Facebook admitted it makes very little money on mobile users.

Long story short: View the Facebook IPO with both eyes wide open. Don’t just buy the stock because you think you’ll make a killing overnight. Buy stock in Facebook because you’re sure it can make money in the long term.

If they can THEN you’ll be rich.

Last year Microsoft unveiled Microsoft Security Essentials to the horror of the Windows antivirus industry.

That’s because Microsoft Security Essentials provides seriously good spyware and virus protection — for free. This move rendered the entire antivirus market obsolete.

This year Microsoft is scaring antivirus and antispyware software companies to death. Literally.

That’s because Windows 8 comes with Microsoft Security Essentials built right in.

You got that right; when you fire up Windows 8 for the first time you’re not going to need to pay for, download and install AntiVirus software and then make sure it’s up to date. Windows 8 handles the entire Internet security process for you from updates to scans to virus removal automatically and in the background.

It’s human nature to be skeptical of free products; if it’s free how good could it be?

Where Microsoft Security Essentials is concerned it’s a fantastic product at any price. It runs quietly in the background, it updates itself and runs scans for you. It also stops Internet-based security threats in real time. I’ve seen it in action; both stopping malware infections before a PC could be infected and removing virus infections from a computer already suffering from malware infections. Spyware removal is equally painless. The best part? Your computer’s performance doesn’t suffer in the process.

Is Microsoft being unfair to the antivirus software industry? Not at all. Microsoft is being fair to its customers.

Evil-doers and criminals create malware to target Windows computer purely because 95% of earth’s population uses Windows computers. It’s simply a numbers game. The malware thugs are going where the numbers are and targeting the masses. It’s as simple that.

With Windows 8 antivirus built right in Microsoft is defending the Windows 8 brand, protecting Microsoft customers and fighting back against the low-grade dirtbags who spread misery the world over on a daily basis thanks to the spyware, the computer viruses and malware they create.

Want to take the plunge and say goodbye to annual antivirus subscriptions fees right now? Download Microsoft Security Essentials now.

Microsoft Security Essentials runs on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. Just make sure you uninstall your old antivirus software first before installing Microsoft Security Essentials.

In the 1980s we geeks were laughed at for our interest in computers. If we played computer games, that was cool. If we dabbled with the BASIC programming language, fiddled with floppy disk drives or meddled with modems to explore the online world of the 1980s we were razzed and hazed mercilessly and endlessly.

Yes indeed friends and neighbors; there WAS an online world years before the Internet.

We used modems. We dialed into computer-based bulletin board systems (BBSes for short) over telephone connections via modem that ran so slow, dialup Internet access seems as fast as a supersonic airline flight by comparison.

I was a member of a dozen or so BBSes in the 1980s and early 1990s. Those that know me a long time already know of that colorful history. But today’s post is not intended to be an autobiographical history lesson.

Just an ordinary history lesson.

Among the BBS memberships I maintained was a BBS called Dial Your Match (DYM for short). Why did teen Howard feel the need to join an online dating service? I didn’t feel the need. I felt the urge. That’s because, like any red-blooded American teenage male, I had enough sex drive to power an aircraft carrier.

Did teen Howard meet girls through the online dating services. Yes and with great success I might add. But that’s a story for another time.

There were several Dial Your Match BBSes all over the country allowing people to log in via local telephone call to find their next date online. Once again that’s pre-Internet online. Today with the Internet, that easy reach to the dating scene is easier and faster than teen Howard could ever have imagined.

Online dating websites today are nothing new; they’re simply leveraging modern technology to deliver services that were envisioned some twenty years ago.

Back in the 1980s, any mention I might have made to finding a girlfriend with my computer would have resulted in WEEKS of endless jokes and laughter at my expense.

Nobody’s laughing now. That’s because one out of five adults are using online dating services these days.

People who laugh at something new most often don’t understand the inspiration that drives the innovation that all of us get to enjoy. That’s why geeks now rule the world as we do all the laughing — all the way to the bank.