I'm afraid she's going to have to update her spreadsheet. A police officer in Seguin, TX was shot and injured earlier this month. The report was submitted to the AG's office on the 26th.
It can take up to seven days to transfer a domain name from Registrar A to Registrar B, so we really won't know how successful...or not...yesterday's protest was until late next week. Another complicating factor, Go Daddy locks all domain names by default to prevent them from being transferred. It's a simple enough matter to unlock the domain name, but most customers aren't sophisticated enough to realize this the first time they try to transfer a domain name away.
Say what you will about being locked in, etc, but the TechSoup program is a wonder tool for non-profits. TechSoup acts as a clearing house matching qualified non-profits and schools with software publishers. If the organization meets the requirements put in place by the publisher they can purchase software at deep discounts, often free, while paying TechSoup an administrative processing fee.
Microsoft is obviously one of the larger publishers in the TechSoup system, and they have restrictions in place to make it harder for individuals to game the system. For example, you can only purchase 1 a year and, if I remember correctly, you can only purchase 5 SKUs at a time. Need one package 3 months later? You'll need to wait another 9 months.
The TechSoup system is a bit inconvenient, but the benefits to the non-profits make it worth the hassle. Several years ago the non-profit I volunteer with needed to purchase 15 copies of Office Professional Plus 2007. It cost us a total of $300, or $20 per computer. That's real savings, meaning lower IT costs and less money diverted away from service delivery. Those were the savings for a single office, but we have over 800 offices in the U.S. The savings start to add up to real money after a while.
The point of this article, however, is whether Microsoft is right to state that they donated $844M worth of software when it cost them far less to do so. Frankly, it doesn't matter. The IRS says that the difference between what they could have sold the software for and what they sold it for is the value of the donation, not the difference between their cost and the sale value. It might only cost (hypothetically) Microsoft $50 to produce a $400 software program, but if they sell (or donate) that program to 501(3)c for $0 the IRS allows them to count that as a $400 donation, not a $50 donation. If they sold it for $50 it would be a $350 donation.
I'm not certain why anyone would think that they could find great deals at a liquidation sale, at least not during its initial weeks. Liquidators have one goal: to realize a return on their investment, namely to ensure that they bring in more than they spent for the failed company's assets. Few retailers sell at MSRP, so step #1 is to raise prices back up to MRSP, then "slash" them by 10%, meaning the sale price is often higher than last week's shelf price.
I take it Sprint envisions this as a natural extension of the Government Emergency Telecommunications Services (GETS). Under GETS, card holders get priority access to land lines and cell towers, allowing them to bypass the so-called "Mother's Day" problem. The problem with GETS, of course, is that it relies on a functioning telecommunications system, take away that system and you'll have to resort to RACES/ARES getting the message through for you.
Dallas may love Red Light Cameras, but here in Lubbock (just a tad West of Dallas) we ripped them out after only six months. The reason? The accident rate at RLC-equipped intersections skyrocketed. Oh, and turns out the great State of Texas forgot to impose penalties for failing to pay RLC-based tickets so very little revenue was actually raised.
I let email pile up, just as I let phone messages stack up until I get back. I don't set a "Vacation" message nor do I update my voice mail message.
I do take my cellphone, but only so I can get in touch with my wife if we should head out of different directions during the day. I generally don't pass out that number, so any call to it will either be my wife, or an emergency.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by BillCurnow.
Injury or Death of PO
I'm afraid she's going to have to update her spreadsheet. A police officer in Seguin, TX was shot and injured earlier this month. The report was submitted to the AG's office on the 26th.
Transfers take time
It can take up to seven days to transfer a domain name from Registrar A to Registrar B, so we really won't know how successful...or not...yesterday's protest was until late next week. Another complicating factor, Go Daddy locks all domain names by default to prevent them from being transferred. It's a simple enough matter to unlock the domain name, but most customers aren't sophisticated enough to realize this the first time they try to transfer a domain name away.
Re: TechSoup
Say what you will about being locked in, etc, but the TechSoup program is a wonder tool for non-profits. TechSoup acts as a clearing house matching qualified non-profits and schools with software publishers. If the organization meets the requirements put in place by the publisher they can purchase software at deep discounts, often free, while paying TechSoup an administrative processing fee.
Microsoft is obviously one of the larger publishers in the TechSoup system, and they have restrictions in place to make it harder for individuals to game the system. For example, you can only purchase 1 a year and, if I remember correctly, you can only purchase 5 SKUs at a time. Need one package 3 months later? You'll need to wait another 9 months.
The TechSoup system is a bit inconvenient, but the benefits to the non-profits make it worth the hassle. Several years ago the non-profit I volunteer with needed to purchase 15 copies of Office Professional Plus 2007. It cost us a total of $300, or $20 per computer. That's real savings, meaning lower IT costs and less money diverted away from service delivery. Those were the savings for a single office, but we have over 800 offices in the U.S. The savings start to add up to real money after a while.
The point of this article, however, is whether Microsoft is right to state that they donated $844M worth of software when it cost them far less to do so. Frankly, it doesn't matter. The IRS says that the difference between what they could have sold the software for and what they sold it for is the value of the donation, not the difference between their cost and the sale value. It might only cost (hypothetically) Microsoft $50 to produce a $400 software program, but if they sell (or donate) that program to 501(3)c for $0 the IRS allows them to count that as a $400 donation, not a $50 donation. If they sold it for $50 it would be a $350 donation.
No question...
I'm not the least bit afraid of Al Qaeda when I fly.
I'm not certain why anyone would think that they could find great deals at a liquidation sale, at least not during its initial weeks. Liquidators have one goal: to realize a return on their investment, namely to ensure that they bring in more than they spent for the failed company's assets. Few retailers sell at MSRP, so step #1 is to raise prices back up to MRSP, then "slash" them by 10%, meaning the sale price is often higher than last week's shelf price.
I take it Sprint envisions this as a natural extension of the Government Emergency Telecommunications Services (GETS). Under GETS, card holders get priority access to land lines and cell towers, allowing them to bypass the so-called "Mother's Day" problem. The problem with GETS, of course, is that it relies on a functioning telecommunications system, take away that system and you'll have to resort to RACES/ARES getting the message through for you.
Dallas may love Red Light Cameras, but here in Lubbock (just a tad West of Dallas) we ripped them out after only six months. The reason? The accident rate at RLC-equipped intersections skyrocketed. Oh, and turns out the great State of Texas forgot to impose penalties for failing to pay RLC-based tickets so very little revenue was actually raised.
Email
I let email pile up, just as I let phone messages stack up until I get back. I don't set a "Vacation" message nor do I update my voice mail message.
I do take my cellphone, but only so I can get in touch with my wife if we should head out of different directions during the day. I generally don't pass out that number, so any call to it will either be my wife, or an emergency.