Williamo’s Blog.

This game is t3h awesome!!!11!!(eleven)

http://www.gamefudge.com/Bash-the-Computer

Good stuff. Here’s the original:

http://indexed.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-was-your-weekend.html

So Nice! (Vectorized, Cleaned), originally uploaded by William WM.

Yep. Just like the title says. Wow.

From Lifehacker: Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1 Released:

Mozilla pushed out the first release candidate of Firefox 3 early this evening, so if you’re already field testing Firefox 3, now’s the time to go to Help -> Check for Updates to download the latest and greatest build. If you’re wondering what to expect, check out the RC1 release notes. Looks like we’re getting close! Thanks

I really hope this one comes back soon…

http://trac.wordpress.org/changeset/6903

Changeset 6903

Timestamp:

02/18/08 20:36:49 (3 months ago)

Author:

ryan

Message:

Remove bookmarklet stuff from post-new.php. Moving it somewhere else.

Files:

• trunk/wp-admin/post-new.php (modified) (1 diff)

Great article from labnol.blogspot.com:

Tumblr is probably the easiest and fastest way to publish blog posts online - select anything on the current web page (be it text, video or pictures) and they will be on your Tumblelog almost instantly via the Tumblr Instant Post Bookmarklet.

Unfortunately, that quick posting bookmarklet can only be used for publishing on Tumblr.com - there’s no way to integrate Tumblr with your existing WordPress or Blogger Blog.

However, here’s some good news for WordPress bloggers - there’s a new Tumblr inspired bookmarklet for WordPress that allows you to quickly post photos, videos and blocks of text from web pages to your WordPress blog just like Tumblr. See Screenshot:

From Far East Gizmos:

This octopus look like AC adaptor cable can be used with four AC adaptors at a time. No need to have different socket for each adaptor. This AC adapter comes very handy especially in show rooms, demo center etc.

AC adapter cable T-AD4BK is available in two colors-black and white. With 12A, 125V 1200W rating, the cable costs approximately 1,380 yen ($14).

I’ve really enjoyed shopping at PC Club the last couple of years, and was fairly shocked to see the following page, especially because I had just received a mailing from them, celebrating their 16th Anniversary:

Here’s some info from the Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_Club#May_2008_-_Company_Shut_Down):

On May 13th 2008, PC Club closed without warning to employees or returning service customers their property. As of May 14th, there has been no verified source for customers to contact regarding their personal computers in for repair and still locked behind PC Club’s doors.

As of May 13th, all employee-related questions should be forwarded to: employeeinfo@pcclub.com

For related PC Club legal matters, please contact this law firm:

The Law Office of Robert C. Hsu 2555 E. Colorado Blvd Suite 306 Pasadena, CA 91107 Phone: 626.584.7055 Fax: 626.604.0345 robert@rhsulaw.com

The PC Club website has also been shut down in a similar quick fashion, a place-holder announcing the closure of PC Club with a “thank you” for years of service.

And seen today (May 16, 2008), here is their notice of acquisition and reopening:

NAOC Holdings Acquires PC Club

- S&S Public Relations Mindy Franklin (480)361-9575 mindy@sspr.com NAOC Holdings, a Los Angeles-based expansion stage venture capital firm, today announced it has acquired PC Club, a California-based personal computer retailing chain with 37 locations nationwide. The acquisition will allow all PC Club stores, as well as the chain’s two retail Web sites, PCClub.com and ClubIT.com, to remain open with business as usual.
“Brick-and-mortar accessory computer stores are still a valued commodity in the US,” said NAOC spokesperson Alan Hunter. “We know PC Club with its long history, quality technical service and computer accessory assortment will continue to have strong potential for continued business operations. A technology retail outlet is the next logical addition to our portfolio, and we expect this will be a mutually beneficial relationship.”
NAOC Holdings has put together a group of legal, financial, and industry experts to build one of the leading home computer appliance conglomerates. The technology investment experience the company will bring to the relationship is invaluable for PC Club’s retail offerings.
“Our new relationship with NAOC Holdings will give us an opportunity to grow our market share and expand beyond the western and central US,” remarked Kim Chu, Senior Sales Manager at PC Club. “In addition, we’ll now have the ability to reorganize and to work on expanding our compelling product line.”
NAOC’s acquisition of PC Club will leverage the venture capital firm’s already broad investment experience with consumer electronics. Today’s acquisition of PC Club’s assets will allow the retailer to honor all customer and vendor relationships and agreements.
PC Club has existed as a computer parts store and repair center for professionals all across the country, offering upgrade kits, LCD monitors and other computer parts and services since 1992. The company expects the added infusion of funds to provide the means for them to expand from their current 37 locations.
The acquisition was effective as of May 15, 2008. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Info from http://turbotax.intuit.com/support/kb/tax-content/tax-tips/6255.html:

Why did it take TurboTax take awhile to explain that payment methods would affect how and when rebates arrive?

The law creating the tax rebates, the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, was signed by President Bush on Feb. 13. As soon as details of the act emerged and could be verified, TurboTax updated customer articles about the rebates. The updates pointed out that customers using the payment method with Santa Barbara Bank & Trust could receive their rebates by mail rather than by direct deposit.

It was not until mid-March, however, that the IRS announced the rebate payment schedule. The schedule showed that rebates would be mailed in order of the last two digits of taxpayers’ Social Security numbers — BUT that direct-deposit recipients would get theirs first.

…So, if they knew about this in mid-March, why were the e-mail notices sent out MAY 16?

For those of you searching for just the timeline, here it is.

(Sorry for the picture instead of a text table, I  took a screenshot of this information from an e-mail.)

Please note, that if you chose to have your filing fees automatically deducted from your refund (ala TurboTax) instead of paying for them out of pocket, or filing in another manner, your check will be mailed to you on a date according to the schedule above, not direct-deposited into your bank account.

Edit: Bob Meighan, the VP of TurboTax left a comment on this post below, which has caused me to retract my rant about never using TurboTax again: (Link to comment.)

Bob addressed the issue of the late e-mail communication, as well as the fact that this delay affected “affected not only TurboTax customers, but all taxpayers who used a bank product to pay their fees … It would not have mattered if you used a competitor’s product, went to a franchise or a tax professional. This affected all players in this business.”

The comment above Bob’s, by “g” also listed a blog article which further clarifies this issue:

This blog, by a reputable tax lawyer, claims the IRS did not anticipate the number of people that were going to use electronic filing software, that they did not get enough notice about the package details to work it out, so the IRS became overwhelmed.
http://www.getirshelp.com/irsblog/?p=169

And, per Bob’s request, I’ve reviewed the articles he sent me in the broadcast e-mail, and I’ll post them here for you to review as well:

Other sources for current information on the rebate program are.

• http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=182734,00.html
• http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=182735,00.html

For more information on TurboTax and rebates, please visit http://turbotax.intuit.com/support/kb/tax-content/tax-tips/6255.html

I’m leaving the original rant below as a reference point, but please note that this issue has been addressed by TurboTax. Thanks for reading!

Read the rest of this entry »

“Unnecessary Quotation Mark Usage”, originally uploaded by William WM.

Will they really tow my car?

Great article on Google Code + SVN integration:

I’ve been using Google’s open source project hosting to distribute my Tag Cloud Generator, but I haven’t been using the source code repository feature. They have a hard-to-find guide on getting started with the Subversion source control system, but the world needs something better. With screenshots. Plus I haven’t fed the blog recently.

You can find more information about Subversion and source control by reading a chapter of this book.

(via Getting Started with Google Code Hosting, Subversion, and TortoiseSVN without feeling like an Idiot)