Way to Kill Traffic #1

The Realtor.com website allows frequent users to establish a login so that they can save searches and get e-mailed results from these searches. Generally, the website is pretty clean and user friendly. Searching for homes is right at eye level on the screen and is brightly colored. The other frequently used tools are below that [...]

Beware of Google Sponsored Links

Brian Krebs at the Washington Post’s Security Fix blog is reporting something that I’ve been suspecting for some time. Virus writers and other ne’er-do-wells are gaming the Google AdWords system to infect computer users searching for items on Google.
I am always a little leery of clicking on the paid links that pop up whenever you [...]

The Revolutionary HP Printer No One Can Buy

Engadget has a post today about a new HP Color Laserjet printer that is so revolutionary that no one can buy it. The printer is the first output (pun intended) of a $1.4 billion bet on next generation printer technology. The problem that HP has found is that the print technology is too good.
So how [...]

Shutting off the Student Loan Sharks

*Hallelujah chorus begins*
US News and World Report (via Yahoo!) reported on Friday that the Department of Education was shutting down its student loan database because of marketing abuses. Between my wife and I we get, on average, three solicitations for student loan consolidation every single day. Most of them could be graciously called confusing and are [...]

Conde Nast Launches New Business Magazine

In the midst of all of the “print is dead” stories that the media harps on about (”look at our jobs disappear!”), Conde Nast has bucked the trend and launched a high-end business magazine called Portfolio. Announced 18 months ago with a launch price tag nearing $100 million, the new magazine aims to be the [...]

Court Says Ban on Partial Birth Abortion OK

Warning: Political Post ahead.
I am totally against abortion. Call me what you like, but I have a moral belief that it’s not okay to kill anyone, period. Today’s Supreme Court decision upholds a Federal ban on a particularly gruesome procedure that opponents have named “partial birth abortion”. I don’t know that most people know exactly [...]

Netvibes “Universe” Launches

Netvibes, the French company that is trying to be your home page, launched a new service this week called “Universe“. Basically, the Universe pages currently consist of home pages branded by various companies including eMusic, TechCrunch, and Time Warner. You can add the Universe pages to your own home page, but I’m not sure what [...]

Slackers Overwhelm TurboTax Servers

Intuit’s TurboTax software experienced a major failure last night as slackers who waited until the last minute to complete and file their returns overwhelmed the service and took down the whole eFile process. The TurboTax message boards are lit up with irate customers demanding the heads of various Intuit executives (and the poor lacky that [...]

Carnivals Today

Today, my article Debunking the Blagojevich Tax Plan is up at the Carnival of Taxes over at Don’t Mess with Taxes.
Today is the last of the pre tax day Carnivals and like all good accountants the Carnival is taking a month off after mid-April. Go check out all of the posts including a tax limerick (who [...]

Quick Links

Today, I just have two quick, fun links.

An interview with Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes) where he answers 10 questions from fans about the strip.
Engadget’s (annual?) cake baking contest where geeks show off their mad baking skills for prizes.