'Tis the End

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

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?

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

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.

Taken for a Virtual Ride

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

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.

YaHoopla!

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.

Gas Prices Impacting the Way People Get to Work

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 :-)

Time to Buy?

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.

Internet Ad Takeover!

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...

Down, Doobie Doo, Down Down

Our servers, that is.

The OffAssist QuickBooks and file servers will be down this weekend, from Friday evening until Monday morning. We will be moving to a new server software during this time. We have done some initial testing and it appears that it will take care of the printing issues some of you are experiencing when using Vista - and in some instances, XP.

Within the next two months we will also be upgrading the QuickBooks version on the server. We're holding off until we can make sure the new server software is going to work well. We will, of course, let our clients know before we do this.

It should be pretty seamless for you guys, and the changes minimal.

If you have something you need to do, please get it done before Friday afternoon. We will be unable to easily access files during the upgrade.

As always, we appreciate your patience during this upgrade and rest assured that complete backups are kept and will be made once more before the upgrade happens.

If you have problems, please call the tech support line at 512-339-2255 or email tom@offassist.com.

The coffee area is stocked and we will all avoid looking the IT guy directly in the eyes for the next few days *laugh*

PS - I've heard he likes brownies, if you want to offer your support ;-)

They Can't All be Amazon...

High end online retailer redenvelope.com may well be going the way of high end brick and mortar retailer the Sharper Image. I'm always sad to see a business close up shop because, as a business owner, I know that someone is behind the scenes watching their dream die and wondering how it came to this.

Check out the story at TechCrunch.com for more info.

Photoshop for Free?!

Yes, free.

Of course, it's not the full version of Photoshop, or even the light version, Elements.

With online image editors becoming more popular, Adobe has decided to add the not inconsiderable weight of their brand name to the game with last week's beta release of Photoshop Express. Express is designed for use by the casual photo manipulator; people who just want to clean up a picture before posting it on the web or emailing to friends. There will, of course, be upsell opportunities, mostly to Adobe's Elements--lighter than Photoshop, more significant than Express.

Check out the full skinny at Wired.com, or head on over to the Adobe Express site and see for yourself.

Mobile Mozilla by Year's End

Last October we reported that Mozilla was working on a mobile version of the Firefox browser.

Mozilla has recently announced that they expect to release mobile Firefox versions for embedded Linux and Windows Mobile by the end of the year. We think that's great.


Now if only we can get Candy to stop pouting in the corner because they won't have a version for Morris (i.e. Palm OS) this year...

Online Advertising Grows Again

Okay, the continuous fast growth of online advertising is really not news since it would be more surprising if it were NOT growing, but the growth rate is pretty phenomenal. According to a recent PWC study, online advertising revenue jumped 25% in 2007.

Twenty-five percent! That's huge. of course, as someone who remembers the dotcom debacles of the late 90s, early 2000s, I have to wonder about the potential for crashing. What do YOU think?

Client in the News!

A few years ago we featured Robert Grunnah, one of OA's real estate clients, in the newsletter. Like us, his business has grown and changed.

Robert recently launched a new venture, Home Auction Live! and was featured on the local Austin news talking about it. Check out the story and video here.

3/2/08 Update: Looks like things went well at the first auction! Check out the follow-up story here.

More Moola for Mail-Outs

The USPS has finally jumped on the inflationary bandwagon. I didn't notice the fine print when postage went up last year, but apparently it is going to be an annual thing.

The post office, like most VAs I know, will be evaluating their rate plan yearly from here on out and will adjust accordingly. By law, the price increases, on average, cannot be more than the rate of inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index.

By average I am assuming they mean across all types of postage, since the rate change is not the same for all types, weights, and destinations.

On February 12, 2008 the Postal Service gave their legally required 90 day notice that postage will be going up again in May, just $.01 this time, to $0.42 for a standard first class letter.

Look Out Yahoo!

Microsoft has apparently decided NOT to up their offer for Yahoo! I rejoiced at first, until I read that the rumor on the Street (Wall St) is that they intend to play hardball.

Get the scoop here.

eBay on Strike!

That's right. Apparently a number of eBay sellers are planning to go on strike this week, February 18-25, in response to the auction site's recent policy changes.

eBay has decided to prevent sellers from leaving negative feedback for buyers and has (once again) raised seller fees. Several sellers indicate that if the change sticks they will find new auction sites to do business with.

eBay has pretty high fees for sellers, especially those who use the eBay-owned PayPal system, which results in them paying eBay 3 separate times for each sale, once to list an item, twice when it is sold, and the third time when PayPal takes their cut of the payment. This triple-ding is actually why I stopped using eBay--give me craigslist any day!

For more info on the seller strike check out these articles:
accoutningweb: eBay sellers attack negative feedback ban
Wired Blog: Exasperated eBay Sellers Threaten to Strike
Percworks blog: eBay sellers strike next week

Press Release: Home Auction Live!

Robert is one of our favorite clients. He asked if we'd help him spread the word about his new venture, Home Auction Live!. See the release below for more info:

~~~~~~~

Agents: Do you have listings with motivated sellers that aren’t moving? Do you have buyers sitting on the fence?

I’m working with a new startup called Home Auction Live!, started by Top Producer Robert Grunnah of Castle Hill Investments.

The first auction is March 1^st at 9am at the Hyatt Town Lake downtown, and I know they are looking for inventory to feature in the auction. So far, they have 10 properties and need 15 more by the end of this week.

They’re running a promotional special: no auction entry or marketing fees, Realtors can keep their listings, and sellers can accept or reject ANY offers.

It’s really a fantastic promotion because there is no risk for a seller or their agent; the worst case is that a desired price is not achieved at auction.

They’ve spent $100,000 on major media marketing (with big Statesman ads and radio airplay) and a great website – and many people will be bidding at the auction and online.

Please check the site out at www.homeauctionlive.com or call Robert Grunnah at 512-444-7799

Sally Thinks We're Cool!

That's right, the OffAssist blog is blog of the week this week over at Virtual Simplicity's blog.

If you've met Sally Kuhlman, the woman behind Virtual Simplicity, then you know that if she thinks you're cool, well, that's as cool as it gets.

How Much Internet Do YOU Use?

Time Warner wants to know. According to them, 5% of their users use 50% of their bandwidth. That means ~everyone~ with broadband access, whether it's cable or DSL, is paying for the success of bandwidth heavy applications and their users.

Like to watch TV on the web? Internet Hog! Play an MMORPG? You thief -- stealing bandwidth needed by high schoolers to lookup information for their homework!

Time Warner is testing a new usage-based billing system in Beaumont, Texas. For average users, they won't see a change. High bandwidth users will see an increase in their bills if they go over a set cap, though no word yet on what this cap will be.

I can tell you, as the wife of a gamer, this scares the heck out of me. Sure, gamers use a lot of bandwidth, but if their method for de-stressing after work starts to cost more than just the monthly WoW subscription fee -- which gets them unlimited gaming time for a set fee--well, there's gonna be a lot of unhappy people. Both gamers and the people who live with them and have to deal with their withdrawal symptoms.

And that's not even touching on folks who like to waste time on YouTube, download music and movies from iTunes, or catch up on their favorite TV shows online.

Or, well, folks like me and Candy and all the other VAs out there, people who conduct business full-time on the Internet. I know I already pay more each month for my bandwidth than your average high speed customer for exactly this reason. I work on the web and I'm willing to pay for it. I'm just having a hard time stomaching the bottomless well usage-based billing could become.

Honestly, I am surprised the corporate folks, people like Blizzard, Apple, YouTube, MySpace, the television networks and more, aren't raising heck over this. Usage-based bandwidth billing is going to negatively affect their bottom line, too. On the plus side -- the writer's strike is primarily about royalties for new media streams. If the ISPs dry up that revenue stream for the producers maybe the strike will end since there will be nothing left to strike about.

For an alternate perspective, check out this article: The Internet Isn't Free.

Alternative Minimum Fuss

Like many, I've heard of the AMT - the Alternative Minimum Tax - but since it did not affect me I haven't paid much attention to it. Apparently this particular tax was made into law in the late 60's as a way to target a particular group of ultra-wealthy people who were using deductions to avoid to pay any income tax at all. The tax has not been adjusted over time and has gone from affecting the intended target to an ever-growing percentage of the American public at large.

Congress intended to take action on this issue this year, but was apparently delayed. A short term fix was created, a one year freeze on the growth of the AMT, but the forms for people who pay this tax were printed in November. Orginal reports indicated that updated versions of the 5 affected forms would not be available to taxpayers until February 11, 2008, putting a damper on some people's desire to file early. As in January early.

The AMT affected about 13.5 million American taxpayers when filing their 2006 taxes. Of those, an estimated 3-4 million are traditional early filers, the people who will be affected by the delay.

For more details on the changes and a list of affected forms, check out the AP article here and the IRS's information page here.

The IRS did recommend electronic filing as a way to increase the speed of refund processing for those affected.

New Form 990 for 2008

Form 990 is the tax return that charities and tax-exempt organizations are required to file each year.

The IRS drafted a tentative new form in 2007 and accepted public input from the non-profit sector to make the form both more functional and easier to use.

For all the pertinent details, check out the information page about the new form on the IRS website, here.

When tax exempt organizations file their taxes in 2008, for the 2007 tax year, they will be using the old form. The new form will be used in 2009 when filing 2008 taxes.

Toot Toot!

Candy won't toot her own horn, so I guess I have to.

Anchor Advisors, a small business consulting firm, recently quoted Candy in their article Budget for Success in the New Year.