Blog Archives
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Will Kindle Fire beat the Ipad?
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Wednesday September 28, 2011Amazon entered the tablet market with a splash today, introducing three new versions of the Kindle book reader as well as their long-rumored tablet, which they have dubbed the Kindle Fire. Fire has a lot to recommend it -- fast processor, small form factor, and plans for a slew of media applications to be ready when the first units ship in six weeks. It also has a market-beating price, starting at $199. But is this the long-fabled iPad killer that will overwhelm the tablet market and take dominant market share. In the word of the immortal John Wayne, "Not hardly." The Kindle Fire will give the Nook Color a run for its money, and will likely capture the low end of the tablet market -- kids who want to browse Facebook, for example, or... -
Back to Search Basics
By Isaac M. O'Bannon, Editor - Friday September 16, 2011I was surprised recently by the findings of a study that looked at how today’s college students are using the internet for research (http://tinyurl.com/3hhvv2u). Perhaps “misusing,” would be a better term. It seems that this current generation, for whom the internet has existed for all of their lives, don’t really know much about it. Or at least how it works and how to use it for research. (The part of me that admits to being middle-aged, or something like that, says “Hah!”) The study, conducted over two years at five universities in Illinois, was primarily focused on how students use campus libraries, but also produced significant insight into how they use search engines, which have become a primary research tool for most... -
The 5 Stages of Social Media (Grief) Acceptance
By Isaac M. O'Bannon, Editor - Thursday August 11, 2011Social media websites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have been around for several years now, and we've covered the subject as it relates to professional tax and accounting firms several times. But a recent Forbes article (10 Myths about Social Neworking for Small Business) reminded me that even when faced with sound logic, adaptation can be a burden. I've put the challenges of accepting new technology and social media into a context similar to the 5 Stages of Grief (it seemed appropriate): (X = whatever your current marketing and client communications are; Y is social media) Denial: As in, "We just started doing X last week, now we've got to do Y, also?" Anger: As in, "Really!?! I don't have time for this stuff. It's just more... -
Sales Tax Holidays Bring Temporary Relief for Consumers, Headaches for Some Retailers
By Isaac M. O'Bannon, Editor - Thursday July 28, 2011Yes, yes… I’m writing about sales taxes again. This time, however, it’s not about the Amazon vs. California battle or the general difficulties facing online sales taxation. I know it’s still July, but kids and parents are already getting ready for the coming school year, which means a lot of shopping for clothing, books, computers and various other school supplies. Over the past decade or so, many states and cities have instituted “sales tax holidays” as a way to spur commerce and provide a little savings to their residents. And most of the states don’t require consumers to prove that non-clothing purchases are going to be used for school/students (how would you prove that, anyways?), which means it might be a great time... -
Why Tethering A Cell Phone Matters
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Thursday July 14, 2011You may think that the decision by Verizon to remove tethering capabilities from their most popular smartphones is no big deal, but it is.Tethering is the ability to use your smartphone -- and its data plan of $50 or so each month -- as a modem to connect your laptop to the Internet. It came enabled in most smartphones, and in fact was considered a major selling point for phones that cost hundreds of dollars. Even those that did not come with tethering applications offered third-party solutions.Tethering has proven useful in areas where there is no free and accessible wi-fi. At the beach. At hotels that still want to charge $12 per day to access the Internet. Driving in rental cars with no GPS system except the cell phone and a... -
Amazon Fights California Sales Tax Law
By Isaac M. O'Bannon, Editor - Friday July 1, 2011Not too long ago, I wrote about "the problem with online sales tax" here on this blog. There's a long-reaching history with states wanting to get reveunes from sales to their residents when the merchant isn't in that state. It started long before the internet (think mail order catalogues), but e-commerce has certainly aggravated the situation. It always comes down to nexus- whether a merchant has a physical presense in a jurisdiction. And so, over the past few years, the states have been trying various ways to redefine nexus, and the term "physical presense" as well. In its latest effort, California has taken an approach similar to one recently taken by New York: Redefining "physical presense" to include merchants who have affiliates... -
Corporate Hacking Is Getting Worse
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Friday June 24, 2011Some sobering news from the Ponemon Institute this month indicates that the perception of those who try to safegaurd corporate networks is that we are losing the war against hackers. In a surevy of 583 IT security practitioners in the US, more than half of them employed by organizations with more than 5,000 employees, finds that ninety percent of the organizations have had at least one breach of their networks, and 59 percent have had two or more in the past 12 months. The financial consequences are severe. When asked to consider cash outlays, internal labor, overhead, revenue losses and other expenses related to a breach, 41 percent said the cost was $500,000 or more. As a result of these breaches, more than one-third say they have low... -
Thomson Reuters’ Checkpoint Gets a Makeover - Plenty of Muscle to Go Along With Its Hot New Look!
By M. Darren Root, CPA.CITP; Executive Editor - Wednesday June 22, 2011As much as we try, we can’t be experts at everything. When we need to find the right answer and find it quick, the updated version of Thomson Reuters’ Checkpoint research system makes the task substantially easier. With its contemporary, fresh new design, piloting through Checkpoint is a breeze. You have access to all the vital data via the main menu bar and expanded drop down mega menus. You can quickly start your search with a key word, natural phrase or question. Not sure of what source you want to use? Checkpoint will help you search for your source, provide source descriptions, and link out to its table of contents. There are several great new time-saving features. Annotate your research by adding notes to a document that can be... -
Intuit Makes List of Best Places to Work
By Isaac M. O'Bannon, Editor - Wednesday May 25, 2011When it comes to work-life balance, family-friendly employers and general professional satisfaction, some companies are much better than others to work for. In a list of the top 25 corporations that have these attributes, Intuit ranked #24. Technology firms placed well on the list, including MITRE Consulting, SAS, Autodesk, Agilent and National Instruments. Other recognizable companies to make the list include social media giant Facebook, Southwest Airlines, Chevron, General Mills and, at number one, Nestle Purina Petcare Company, where employees can bring their pets to work. The full article and list is at: http://financiallyfit.yahoo.com/finance/article-112722-9629-4-top-25-companies-for-work-life-balance?ywaad=ad0035&nc -
Three things you need to know about your printers
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Monday May 23, 2011It is amazing how the technology of computing has evolved in the past decade. The microprocessors, following Moore's law, have doubled in capacity while halving in price with each generation. Screens have become flatter, larger and substantially better in presentation quality. Keyboards have become ergonomic, mice are wireless, cameras are sharper and more capable. And your printer is...Well, your printer is pretty much the same as it was in 2004, if not 1985. About the only things that have happened in the printer world are the rising use of full-color lasers, the increasing use of dot-matrix primters for photos and finished documents, and the merging of fax and copier capabilities into the printer.Given this stagnant...
