OffAssist's Blog

Awesome Clients!

2008-07-01T15:39:00.004-05:00

Today was one of those weird days. I had phone calls set up and payrolls to try to rush out of the door and just all kinds of funkiness going on. And then my son comes in while I'm on the phone and stands there with his finger over his lips to tell me he knows I'm on the phone and to be quiet. He stood there and waited for me to get off the phone and then ultra politely asked me to help him put new batteries in his toy. He was just SO cute that I had to load up and go buy some batteries for the kid. I try to reward good behavior like that - especially phone manners. I work at home and the kids are here a good bit of the time when school is out.

Anyway, so I come back and find this on my porch. It was from a client and read, "Candy, For the days we drive you to drinking. ;) Thank you for all that you do!"

How nice is that! See, I LOVE frozen drinks, especially margaritas. Oh, I'm not some alcoholic or anything, but I love even just frozen lemonade.

Some days, I love what I do so much. This is one of those days.

And to my son who showed what a polite little child he is, we will use it the first time tonight to make frozen lemonades. (Pina Coladas later for Dad and I!)

'Tis the End

2008-06-30T07:28:00.000-05:00

If, like most of the people we know, you are a Windows XP fan, well, then, today is a day or mourning. Today is the last day that you will be able to order a new computer with Windows XP, and that is only through selected manufacturers (HP, Acer). Dude, if you wanted a Dell with XP you're out of luck, they stopped selling them back on the 18th of this month.

All the manufacturers are offering a downgrade options with higher end versions of Vista. This means you can still get XP, but you have to pay for uber Vista first. On the plus side of this deal, once they finally (we hope!) get all the hideousness out of Vista, or you upgrade your video and RAM to handle the system hogging OS, you can upgrade to it for free. Or at least for "already paid for it."

Intuit's New Look

2008-06-27T10:55:00.001-05:00

Intuit is quietly re-branding with a new logo design.

The Duct Tape Marketing guy likes it.

The guys at The Inquirer don't.

Under Consideration's "Brand New" column is still on the fence, but the column is old so maybe they've made up their mind? I mostly added this one because it was the first place the old and new logos side by side so people could compare for themselves.

I will say, it's a logo. The thinner lettering is a little less imposing to me, and while the case changes bug me a little, it's a logo and they don't have to follow the same grammar rules the rest of us do.

Fair Credit Protection... For Whom?

2008-06-25T10:37:00.000-05:00

My feelings on this are ALL over the map, so I'm just going to say my piece and refer people to the accountingweb article.

Basically, people are in a tizzy because some merchants incorrectly interpreted some of the 2006 FACTA changes to the Fair Credit Reporting Act and printed both truncated card numbers and expiration dates on receipts. Woah! Stop the Presses! Emergency!

Please. Have any of the 300 people suing merchants over this had their identity stolen? I have, and having this info on my receipt doesn't worry me.

What does worry me is that Congress passed the (I love the silly names of laws sometimes...lol) Credit and Debit Receipt Clarification Act. It's good in that it clarified the requirements for merchants. The worrisome part is the way they made it retroactive so all the people with frivolous lawsuits no longer have a case. One stupid law that scarcely made the news when it passed on May 20, 2008 has set a precedent by which Congress can pull the legs of a lawsuit out from under the plaintiffs. I personally think it was a frivolous lawsuit, but the precedent it sets is scary.

For a little legal clarification on the whole subject, read this.

IRS Announces New Mileage Rates Effective 7/1/08

2008-06-23T15:08:00.003-05:00

Read all the skinny in the IRS newsroom, here.

The short and sweet? Mileage rates for business or moving/medical are each going up $0.08/mile, effective July 1st.

Charities?

Well, I'm thinking it's obvious the government doesn't give a fig about how people are giving less money in lean times and more time. And gee, wouldn't it be nice to reward those people giving their time and using their own ~~liquid gold~~ gasoline to do it? Apparently not.

New business mileage rate is $0.585/mile; medical-moving will be $0.27/mile; charity, well, it's still a chinchy $0.14/mile.

It's Been a Week... Did you Download?

2008-06-23T10:16:00.002-05:00

If you don't know what I'm talking about, well, you either don't hang out with any open source fans, or have been stuck in an elevator for a while now.

What I'm talking about is Firefox 3! Yes, the best got better and the new version was available for download last week. In fact, Mozilla was encouraging people to download the new version in an effort to make the Guinness Book of World Records. People listened, and crashed Mozilla's servers for a while as a result! For current status on the world record chase, check out Mozilla's blog.

If you want to know a little more about the new version before making the switch, check out this First Look video from c|net TV.

Cool Gifts....

2008-06-18T08:52:00.001-05:00

Austrailian
Originally uploaded by CandyTX

One of my clients is a magazine publisher. One of the authors is from Australia and recently we worked out some payment issues he had. Imagine my surprise to find a neat little gift from him. A music CD and a "cheesy" boomerang. How cool was that? It's stuff like this that reminds me that people still do appreciate someone going the extra mile for them. It's less about the gift and more about the fact that he remembered that I was able to help him sort stuff out. That, I think, is what is missing in business, in general, these days.

Options for Going Green in Your Business

2008-06-16T07:40:00.000-05:00

AccoutingWeb recently had a great article about simple ways to go green by safely recycling electronics and reducing the waste paper in the office by eliminating unwanted junk mail. Check it out here.

OffAssist has been moving toward a paperless office since January of this year, and we encourage others to go green for everyone's future.

Taken for a Virtual Ride

2008-06-13T07:43:00.000-05:00

Well, the VA industry has made it.

How do I know? Because people finally know enough about VAs to create scams targeting them.

The Austin BBB had a good, if brief, article on the subject last week. Check it out here.

I get a couple of these a year, and I get calls and emails from newer VAs asking me about offers like this when they receive them and I always tell them to run screaming.

Tweet, Tweet

2008-06-11T19:18:00.003-05:00

In honor of Candy's new Twitter addiction (yes, I am kidding) :

Micro-blogging is all the rage. Ad Week has a nifty story on micro-blogging by businesses here.

I have no objection to general commercial use of a service like Twitter, but I am a bit creeped out by the people who "Follow" thousands of people. How can they keep up? It'd be like being a mind reader in a shopping mall, too much information and no way to filter it...

I admit it, I'm on Twitter, mostly to use it as a wide-open IM/whiteboard with friends, but I do occasionally, if obliquely, discuss my work, but it is far more social than networking to me. I also rigorously screen my followers. I'm boring like that.

For more variety, check out Candy (candieb) , Tom (tombeau) , Lanel (lanelt), or our friends at Linux Journal (linuxjournal) on Twitter.

Hands On!

2008-06-09T11:25:00.000-05:00

I am a notebook user. In fact, outside of my backup systems, I use a notebook computer exclusively. I haven't owned a desktop computer since sometime around 2000, 2001. (speaking for myself, Dy, not OffAssist as a whole on this one).

Keep that in mind when I tell you that even when traveling, I have almost NEVER used my notebook in the position required for IBM's new patent to have any relevance in my life.

See what I mean here.

YaHoopla!

2008-06-06T15:09:00.000-05:00

Yahoo and Microsoft are in the news again.

In May it came out that the two were discussing just selling SOME of Yahoo! to the Redmond-based software giant.

This week Yahoo announced a host of new ad deals in an effort to appease all the stockholders who wanted to them to give in and give it up to Megasoft (short-sighted anyone?), but admitted they are still negotiating with The Software Company Who Shall Not Be Named.

Yahoo! management and the disgruntled ~~moneygrubbers~~ stockholders will have their big showdown at the just announced August 1, 2008 annual shareholders meeting.

As someone who uses way more Yahoo than she wants to admit, and who does NOT want to use anymore of that other company's software than she has to, I'll be keeping an eye on this.

OffAssist June 2008 Newsletter is here!

2008-06-05T21:49:00.003-05:00

Click HERE to read the latest from OffAssist...

If you like it enough to want to sign up, visit our website at OffAssist.com and sign up on the left hand side.

Enjoy and Happy Summer!

..

Gas Prices Impacting the Way People Get to Work

2008-06-04T12:43:00.004-05:00

Yep, it's true.

More and more people are carpooling and taking advantage of public transportation. Some folks are buying more fuel-efficient or alternative fuel cars.

Some people are adding both health and environmental benefits to their gas-saving measures by walking or biking to work.

Others are taking the truly drastic measure of looking for a new job closer to their home! For more info and statistics, check out this article at accountingweb.com.

There's a reason the only fuel I need to get to work is coffee :-)

Summer is Officially Here!

2008-05-31T10:43:00.002-05:00

Even if it it's not June 21st yet, the official start of summer, it is definitely summer time here at OffAssist.

Yea! Barbecues, swimming, vacations...

Cries of, "I'm bored!" ringing in the ears of work-at-home parents all over the country!

We work at home to spend time with our kids, at least partly, but there is no denying that working from home gets a lot easier when they are school age.

With the work part of work-at-home in mind, here are a few sites we've rounded up that have either great ideas for entertaining the kids or look like good places to let the kids explore to give you a minute or two to meet those deadlines.

Work-At-Home Mom's list of 15 Quick Activities to Keep Kids Busy While You Work

Great kid, not-so-great handwriting? Give 'em some practice. This site lets you create your own handwriting worksheets, including cursive!

Funology - Science and fun with both online and offline activities for kids (of all ages!)

I'm sure we'll have more as summer progresses and the team gets more and more desperate to be both "working" and "parent".

Happy Summer! Now, go out and play!

Time to Buy?

2008-05-29T08:23:00.001-05:00

If you are reasonably sure of your job, iffy in this economy, it is looking more and more like a great time to buy a home.

There are fewer homes on the market now, and that number has declined every month for the past 12 months, BUT, that is due far more to a construction slow-down than to any significant market improvement.

If you are a first time buyer you should know that single-family home prices hit a new low in March. While things might perk up a bit for the summer, since that is traditional moving season for families, it doesn't look like the market is going to improve (for sellers) anytime soon.

Foreclosures are having a real negative impact on prices as well, and inflation is keeping many families who might like to move in their current homes.

For more, check out the Reuters' article from May 27th on this very topic.

Smart Tips for Spending Your Economic Stimulus Check

2008-05-27T07:41:00.001-05:00

Even people getting paper checks are starting to see stimulus funds by now, and those with direct deposit have had theirs for a while.

Now, what do you do with it? Me, well, I stimulated the local economy by installing a new water heater since I discovered mine leaking a few days before the check came in. I think the water heater guy enjoyed it more than I did, but at least having the stimulus check (which, yes, I know full well I'll be paying for next year!) made the unexpected home improvement sting a little less.

For those of you without a pressing need for home repairs, here's a round up of articles on smart ways to spend--or not spend--your 2008 income tax refund advance ;-)

CPAs offer advice on how to spend tax refund at accountingweb.

Freemoneyfinance.com has a top ten list of tips here.

MySuperChargedLife's awesome economic stimulus round-up can be found here.

Thinking about saving or investing your check instead? Check out the math in this post at My Two Dollars comparing your options.

Here are suggestions on HOW to invest it from Lazy Man & Money.

Then, of course, there are the inevitable scams related to the stimulus checks that you have to watch out for.

Singing CPAs

2008-05-23T10:36:00.002-05:00

It's May 23rd and the start of a long weekend. I imagine, CPAs, like the rest of us, could use the break.

For a look at how some CPAs relax post-tax day, check out this fun article at accountingweb.com.

OO 3.0

2008-05-20T10:19:00.004-05:00

Has anyone else noticed that when you try to abbreviate Open Office, especially when speaking, you end up saying, "Oooh?" Do you think they planned it that way, or was it just a happy accident?

Either way, no one here is disputing the fact that Open Office is cool and getting cooler. OO 3.0 will be available the day after Labor Day, or at least that's the plan as I last heard it.

In the meantime, for a sneak peek, check out this nifty entry over at Open Office Ninja's blog.

Yea, it's a couple months old, but that just means the release date is that much closer! And let's face it, it's easier to get excited about something coming at the end of the summer in May than it would have been in March.

Excel-lent!

2008-05-16T06:25:00.004-05:00

As part of blogging for OffAssist, I've had to learn lots of accounting and numbers-related stuff I would never pay attention to otherwise.

Which has actually proven handy with the tax stuff going all crazy the last couple years (phone rebates, stimulus checks). For once I actually know what's going on and get to explain it to my husband :-)

As part of learning more about things accounting, I signed up for the accountingweb newsletters. Earlier this week I got a link to this article in my inbox. Basically, people are using Excel, in some cases in what must be some incredibly complicated in-going formulas, to create charts representing song titles or lyrics.

Now, I don't do a lot of charting myself, but I do a fair amount of desktop publishing graphics, so I had to go check out the Flickr group, here. Be warned, they also have comments attached, and sometimes the language is a little, well... Don't let your kids see it without checking it out for yourself first. How work-safe it is depends on how tolerant your boss is, no adult images, just adult language upon occasion.

Have a giggle - some of them are brilliant, others merely okay and many I didn't get at all.

This one is my personal favorite, probably because it was the first one I got. Of course, you have to be a They Might Be Giants fan, or you'll probably be unfamiliar with the song...

Nvidia vs. The World

2008-05-14T09:02:00.002-05:00

I don't know how many of you follow computer hardware news, but recently there have been quite a few shake ups and changes in the computer hardware marketplace. A few years ago, video card manufacturer Nvidia decided to start making its own motherboard chipsets. This put them on the outs with the CPU manufacturer Intel, but made them a natural choice for an alliance with AMD.

However, earlier this year, AMD purchased ATI. ATI has long been the 2nd place player in the video card market. So now that AMD has ATI to support, it has dropped the Nvidia partnership. Add to this that Intel has announced plans to ramp up its own video card division and return video processing back to the CPU "Where it belongs". Where does all of this leave Nvidia?

So far, Nvidia has been coping fairly well. By turning to the motherboard manufacturers themselves, they have still retained support in the marketplace. However the days of get an AMD AND Nvidia SLI compatible motherboard seem over. This cuts the effective market for Nvidia video cards effectively in half.

Both Nvidia and ATI have "Top Secret" products in development planned for release at the end of the year. It will be interesting to see how this story evolves over time and what affect it will have on pricing and availability of products in the marketplace.

New York Wants More!

2008-05-14T06:36:00.002-05:00

I first read about New York's "Amazon Tax" in April, when it was still waiting to become law. Now that it has, the online retail giant is fighting back.

Check out the first article at Gizmodo. It's old enough now that it has TONS of interesting reader comments, too.

Then check out the update at Ars Technica.

This is a bad, bad thing. As a service professional providing intangible intellectual property (writing and editing) most of what I do is not subject to Texas sales tax. If I have to worry about New York (or any other state) wanting me to collect taxes on their behalf, well, it'd be bad. Numbers are already not my forte and you're going to make me keep track of MORE?!?

*sigh*

Just to satisfy my inner conspiracy theorist, does anyone know if there are any major small business accounting software firms based in New York? I am sure widespread adoption of this type of law would be a boon to them!

PS -

Did everyone else out there that you are supposed to report online purchases to the IRS on your taxes? Dude! Turbo Tax so does not have that in their taxes-for-the-befuddled questionnaire!

OffAssist's May Newsletter

2008-05-13T22:52:00.001-05:00

OffAssist's May 2008 newsletter is up and can be found HERE. You can always SIGN UP or view the ARCHIVES.

Since I don't usually post to the blog when it's published, I thought I would. I also want to take this opportunity to thank Dy Larson, who forgot to mention all the blogging she does for me as well. I will admit that computer geek, business and accounting news isn't exactly the most exciting thing in the world, but she makes it less painful for my little blog :)

So there. Thank YOU, Dy. You rock.

:)

Internet Ad Takeover!

2008-05-08T07:07:00.003-05:00

According to an article last month in Editor and Publisher, Internet advertising is set to out pace both newspaper and television advertising in the UK by 2009. All I have is the topix.net blurb to refer to, since, well, OA was a wee bit busy 'round April 13th... lol.

I have to say as a lover of the printed word, this news disconcerts me. I don't read the paper, I admit it, but I think it is important. The idea that we might be all electronic one day is disturbing -- I like the feel of paper in my hands and, let's face it, advertising is what supports papers...

We're Baaaack...

2008-05-05T09:10:00.003-05:00

The server upgrade went surprisingly well after a few initial hiccups on the first day and we are up and running! Woo hoo!

If you are one of the people who was having problems with the server, remember, Tom, our IT genius, really likes brownies :-)