Thursday, June 30, 2011

Governor Moonbeams at it Again

You would think that Californians would have learned their lesson after having Jerry Brown as their governor in the 70’s and 80’s. Nope. They elected him again. And now, he is trying to do and end run around federal tax law by forcing sales tax on Amazon…even though Amazon has no physical presence in his state. All he has done is put several small California businesses on the verge of bankruptcy.

He claims that California businesses who advertise their wares on Amazon constitute a presence on the part of Amazon in his state…therefore taxable on everything sold in their state. As a result, Amazon was forced to terminate all their California affiliates. Real smart move, Jerry. You were an idiot in the 1970’s and you are still an idiot today. This was strictly a public relations move to make him look good…and many small business owners are made to suffer. It is not the first time Amazon has had to terminate affiliates because of state government squeeze plays…so Moonbeams knew this was going to happen.

But, I do have some good news and information to pass along, so read on…JRC

Amazon to shut down California affiliates over new sales tax law

California's new law, signed by Governor Jerry Brown on Wednesday, requires online retailers to collect sales tax even if they have no physical presence in the state. How does that work when federal law states they have to have a brick-and-mortar store to qualify? Like the many other states before it, California counts Amazon affiliates who reside in California as a "physical presence."

Google+ Project: It’s Social, It’s Bold, It’s Fun — Now For The Hard Part

What is Google+? It’s the super top-secret social project that Google has been working on for the past year. You know, the one being led by General Patton (Vic Gundotra) and General MacArthur (Bradley Horowitz). Yes, the one Google has tried to downplay as much as humanly possible — even as we got leak after leak after leak of what they were working on. Yes, the one they weren’t going to make a big deal about with pomp and circumstance. It’s real. And it’s here.

Google Calendar Gets Prettier

I woke up this morning to catch up on email and get started on the day, and discovered that Google Calendar had gotten a nice-looking facelift with a flatter UI, a cleaner layout, and some other niceties. Google reports that the changes are just cosmetic, so the underlying Calendar functionality hasn't changed.

Reviewed: Office 365

Office 365 gives professionals and small businesses a subscription service that lets them work from anywhere using familiar-feeling Web-enabled applications. Combined with hosted versions of Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync, Office 365 is designed to enable users to share, collaborate, and communicate in the cloud. In our testing during the beta, we found that the tools worked well across the board (with some hiccups), and expect that many people who use Office on desktop Macs and PCs will appreciate the familiar look and feel, which should help them get up and running quickly.

How to Destroy Your Data

We've shown you how to hide your data, as well as ways to encrypt it. But what about data that you're done with —those files and folders that you don't want anyone to ever, ever see? You have to destroy them. And if you think that's as simple as dragging items to the Recycle Bin icon on your desktop, think again.

Don't blame users for dumb passwords

The Sony breach, among others, revealed the unsurprising fact that users choose weak passwords. So why do providers allow them?

Best Free Android Apps

Do you have an Android-based phone? Then, this may be of interest to you. Android apps (short for applications) are mobile software designed for running on the Android operating system, which is one of the most popular platforms used in cellphones, tablets and other mobile devices.

Free Nitro PDF Reader Speeds Up, Works in Browsers

It's leaner, it's meaner, it's Nitro PDF Reader. Available in 32-bit and 64-bit editions, new version 2 of the PDF viewer/creator/editor whose interface mimics Microsoft Office's to a great extent (2007 and now 2010--a good thing in my book), is now noticeably faster both opening and saving PDFs. This is no mean feat, as it was very fast before. Its new browser integration is nice as well.

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