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2/3/12 8:50 AM Microsoft angers thousands of small businesses - ends program to host their webpages - replaces it with high priced labor intensive mess.
Here's one of the many angry comments Microsoft is getting today from small businesses:
"Years ago, Microsoft came out with a wonderful tool for those of us who wanted to create our own website, to become small business owners; Microsoft Office Live Small Business.
This service started out completely free. Imagine the promise of a free domain name and hosting for life. Then a couple of years go by and the free domain name goes by the wayside and a yearly charge was instituted, basically paying for a domain registration (which cost more than the norm). This fee was not so bad because there was the “still free web hosting.” But then, after a number of years, countless hours of web work and encouraging friends and small businesses to take advantage of Microsoft’s generosity, Microsoft takes it all away. Thanks Microsoft.
So now, if I “choose to transition my account to Office 365”, I will have endure an untold number of painful hours to move over to Office 365. According to the Self-transition Guide, I need “carefully “follow the steps in a guide in order to minimize the chance of losing data.” The guide ends by saying that “The process will involve manually re-building your public-facing website.” Does this sound like an easy transition?
More angry and deserved attacks on Microsoft, which has bungled things very badly as a webhost:
2/2/12 11:04 AM Every year millions of Americans make a big mistake. They go to H&R Block, Jackson Hewitt, Liberty and Tax King to do their taxes. Think about how ludicrous this is. Would you trust your taxes to a place that dresses up someone like the Statute of Liberty or a clown in a king suit and dances on the corner holding a poster? Or, would you trust your taxes to a part time worker for tax season who has taken just a brief training course?
H&R Block hires people who have a mere 81 hour training course. According to their website, a high school dropout can get a job with them ("No, you're not required to have a college degree. Graduation from high school or an equivalent degree is required in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio and Texas" http://www.hrblock.com/taxes/planning/tax_courses/faq_gen.html). Additionally, the big tax chains will try to rip you off with things like rapid refund loans where you will pay interest rates a Mafia loan shark would be embarassed to charge. A regular accountant can get you a pretty fast refund with a normal efile without one of the junk loan products. Look at this link on Clark Howard's site about HR Block's ripoff "deal": http://forums.clarkhoward.com/p/boards/ch/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=askclark&Number=1680019&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=9&part . When you read the numbers, you'll want to look elsewhere.
Most people have fairly simple tax returns and actually can do them without help. These days, the easiest route for them is to either spend a few dollars at the store and buy a tax program or simply go online and use the online version (Tax Act is fine and very inexpensive. Turbotax and HR Block at Home also work). There are free versions that many people can use, and generally the low-end paid versions work for most people too. The easy way to find a tax program is to go to the IRS website http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=118986,00.html?portlet=106 (or just go to www.irs.gov and look for the free file link) and you'll see a link where most people can do their federal return for free. There are links to free and paid tax programs, and even some links for state tax programs.
If you do need help, you do not want a dancer in a clown suit. Nor do you want a high school dropout. In those cases look for a real accountant, preferably a CPA or enrolled agent. Experience counts, and so does the licensing. The main people who need help are people with complex life situations: self-employment, high income, investment income, real estate matters, divorce, pensions, etc. Even there, some of the tax programs do well, but a person may save money by using a real accountant in terms of maximizing credits and deductions.
But stay away from HR Block and the clown people. That's like going to a high school dropout to treat a serious illness. They might figure it out, but they really lack the training and experience you need,
1/30/12 10:02 AM From the New Yorker Magazine, an interesting look at prisons in America and why we jail people:
" prison is a trap for catching time. Good reporting appears often about the inner life of the American prison, but the catch is that American prison life is mostly undramatic—the reported stories fail to grab us, because, for the most part, nothing happens. One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich is all you need to know about Ivan Denisovich, because the idea that anyone could live for a minute in such circumstances seems impossible; one day in the life of an American prison means much less, because the force of it is that one day typically stretches out for decades. It isn’t the horror of the time at hand but the unimaginable sameness of the time ahead that makes prisons unendurable for their inmates. The inmates on death row in Texas are called men in “timeless time,” because they alone aren’t serving time: they aren’t waiting out five years or a decade or a lifetime. The basic reality of American prisons is not that of the lock and key but that of the lock and clock. That’s why no one who has been inside a prison, if only for a day, can ever forget the feeling. Time stops. A note of attenuated panic, of watchful paranoia—anxiety and boredom and fear mixed into a kind of enveloping fog, covering the guards as much as the guarded. “Sometimes I think this whole world is one big prison yard, / Some of us are prisoners, some of us are guards,” Dylan sings, and while it isn’t strictly true—just ask the prisoners—it contains a truth: the guards are doing time, too."
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/01/30/120130crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz1kx8dzqNs
1/29/12 3:46 PM For those of you who aren't yet following me on Twitter, add me:
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1/24/12 9:28 AM Police GPS Tracking Violated 4th Amendment, Says U.S. Supreme Court The National Law Journal
Moving cautiously in an era of rapidly changing technology, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that law enforcement's warrantless installation and use of a GPS device to track a suspect's vehicle violated privacy rights protected by the Fourth Amendment. In his opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia explained that for most of U.S. history, the Fourth Amendment had been understood to have a special concern for government trespass upon the areas stated in its text: "persons, houses, papers and effects." The vehicle in this case was an "effect," he said.
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Read the unanimous decision from yesterday including Scalia's opinion and Alito's concurrence:
http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/10-1259.pdf
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Los Angeles Times
The Supreme Court confronted for the first time the government's growing use of digital technology to monitor Americans and ruled strongly in favor of privacy. The court said the Constitution generally barred the police from tracking an individual with a GPS device attached to a car unless they were issued a warrant from a judge in advance. But the ruling could limit a host of devices including surveillance cameras and cellphone tracking, legal experts said. "I would guess every U.S. attorney's office in the country will be having a meeting to sort out what this means for their ongoing investigations," said Lior Strahilevitz, a University of Chicago expert on privacy and technology. Even the justices who most often side with prosecutors rejected the government's view that Americans driving on public streets have waived their right to privacy and can be tracked and monitored at will. At least five justices appeared inclined, in the future, to go considerably beyond the physical intrusion involved in putting a GPS device on a car and rule that almost any long-term monitoring with a technological device could violate an individual's right to privacy. 1/18/12 12:53 AM
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A look at today's Google logo. Click it to access Google's petition to Congress and to sign the petition to save the internet from Congressional plans to censor your net:
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A look at today's Google logo. Click it to access Google's petition to Congress and to sign the petition to save the internet from Congressional plans to censor your net:
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A look at today's Google logo. Click it to access Google's petition to Congress and to sign the petition to save the internet from Congressional plans to censor your net:
1/14/12 12:28 PM Takinga break today from legal stuff -
I got this from an email from Groupon (www.groupon.com) :
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Movie theaters insist that you purchase their snacks because if the public doesn’t buy them, the employees are forced to eat the remaining candy at the end of their shift. Avoid buying overpriced movie snacks with these tips for sneaking your own treats:
• Bring a suitcase full of large pizzas to the movies and say that you have a plane to catch right after the film ends.
• Fill your pockets with unpopped popcorn kernels. Hold each one over a lighter to activate it.
• Form licorice into the shape of glasses and wear them into the movie. If you already have glasses, pop out the lenses and replace them with Nilla wafers.
• Steal other people’s candy by pretending to be their wife or husband. They won’t know because it’s dark in a movie theater and you smell just like their spouse.
• Fill your mouth, nose, and hair with Mike and Ikes. When you get inside the movie, spit them out to share with your friends.
• Bribe the movie-theater staff into looking the other way by inviting them to your lake house for one unforgettable summer they’ll never forget.
• Soak a rag in soup and suck on it. 1/9/12 10:16 PM SOPA is something you need to fear if you ever go online. Google, Amazon, Twitter, Wikipedia, Facebook, YouTube, DelphiForums,AOL and others have united to oppose the mis-named Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) that Congress is now considering. SOPA explicitly states that companies will be liable for everything their users post and would make violations felonies. Most other sites that allow user posts would likely simply cease to exist.
Those who oppose this law that could eliminate much of the internet can sign an official petition to the President on Whitehouse.gov at
http://tinyurl.com/8a8atrc . SOPA is pure poison to the internet and all Americans. Make sure you call or email your Congressman and Senator too. This bill must be killed.
SOPA for Dummies is an excellent short piece that will explain more about SOPA: http://www.scribd.com/doc/76244080/SOPA-for-Dummies
SOPA is disguised as an anti-piracy bill. The bill is, in actuality, designed too end free public speech on the internet and allow media publishing companies to commercialize everything and take over the internet. Individual posting would simply end.
1/9/12 8:49 PM Excedrin/Gas-X /No-Doz/ Bufferin recall
Novartis is recalling specific lots of Bufferin, Excedrin, Gas-X and No-Doz because of manufacturing concerns, including the possibility they've been contaminated with opiate painkillers.
From the Washington Post:
FDA officials warned Monday that some of Novartis’ over-the-counter pills may have accidentally been packaged with powerful prescription painkillers made at the same facility. The opioid drugs are sold by Endo Pharmaceuticals as Percocet, Endocet, Opana and Zydone. ...FDA inspectors are currently inspecting the plant and uncovered a manufacturing problem that could allow pills to become stuck in the machinery and carry over to the packaging of other products. FDA officials said the investigation is ongoing and would not comment on potential penalties against Endo or Novartis. The FDA and Endo Pharmaceuticals recommend patients examine their prescriptions to make sure all the tablets are similar in shape, color, size and marking. If one or more of the tablets look different, patients should return the medicine to their pharmacist. Patients can call Endo Pharmaceuticals’ call center at 1-800-462-3636.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fda-warns-of-pill-mix-up-with-powerful-painkiller-drugs-though-risks-are-low/2012/01/09/gIQAPXrZlP_story.html
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Complete list of recalled items: http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Safety/Recalls/UCM286242.pdf
Consumers that have the product(s) being recalled should stop using the product(s) and contact the Novartis Consumer Relationship Center at 1-888-477-2403 (available Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern Time) for information on how to return the affected products and receive a full refund.
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Patients, doctors and pharmacists who previously felt safe with Novartis as a drug supplier may want to look at the FDA's report on the horrible quality control at Novartis' plant:
http://tinyurl.com/87r97ph
For those who are concerned, here is a list of major products from the second largest pharmaceutical company in the world. It would not (in my opinion) be a bad idea to look to other companies for OTC drugs, and to ask your pharmacist and doctor about what equivilent drugs other companies make on a prescription basis:
PRESCRIPTION DRUGS
Afinitor- Organ transplants and cancers
Comtan- $420 M (2007)- Parkinson's disease
Diovan- $5.0 B sales[22] (2007)- Hypertension
Exjade- $357 M (2007) - Iron chelator
Femara- $937 M (2007)- Breast cancer
Focalin- - AD/HD
Gleevec- $3.1 B- for Chronic myeloid leukemia
Lescol- $665 M (2007)- hypercholesterolemia
Lotrel- $748 M (2007)- Hypertension
Lucentis- $393 M (2007)- Age-related macular degeneration
Ritalin- $375 M (2007) - AD/HD
Exelon- $632 M (2007)- Alzheimer's disease
Sandimmune and Neoral- $944 M (2007)- Organ transplantation
Sandostatin - $1.0 B (2007) - Acromegaly
Tasigna- Chronic myelogenous leukemia
Tegretol- $413 M (2007)- Epilepsy
Termalgin - (Paracetamol and compounds.) - Treatment of fever and light pain.
Tobramycin- $273 M (2007)- Cystic fibrosis
Trileptal- $692 M (2007)- Epilepsy
Voltaren- $747 M (2007)- anti-inflammatory
Zometa- $1.3 B (2007)- Cancer complications
Tofranil- - antidepressant
OVER THE COUNTER DRUGS
Benefiber
Buckley's cold and cough formula
Bufferin
Comtrex cold and cough
Denavir/Vectavir
Desenex
Doan's pain relief
Ex-Lax
Excedrin
Fenistil
Gas-X
Habitrol
Keri skin care
Lamisil foot care
Lipactin Herpes symptomatic treatment
Maalox
Nicotinell
No-doz
Otrivine
Prevacid 24HR
Tavist
Theraflu
Triaminic
Vagistat
Voltaren
THE COMPANY'S SANDOZ DIVISION MAKES THE FOLLOWING GENERICS:
alprazolam, amlodipine, atenolol, amoxicillin, azithromycin, citalopram, enalapril, fentanyl, fluoxetine, lisinopril, loratadine, metformin, metoprolol, midazolam, omeprazole, penicillin, ranitidine, simvastatin, terazosin
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Novartis press release on the recall:
http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm286240.htm 1/7/12 6:06 PM The Sideshow
Police in Oregon are searching for a suspect who allegedly stole a rare coin collection from his own father and traded it in for pennies on the dollar at a local coin-counting machine...So what explains the colossal miscue? Authorities say that the simplest explanation is the most persuasive one. "The obvious answer is that the crooks were idiots," Dan Johnson Sr. told local affiliate Fox 12. "To not know the value of what they had taken, just to get pocket change for it. Just really a stupid person. Makes me feel good he was a stupid person and didn't realize what he had." The thieves took the coin collection, worth several thousand dollars, and dropped it into a Coinstar machine, where they received $450. They were unsuccessful in their attempts to put the silver coins into the machine... |