MacEdition ProNews December 29, 2000
by MacEdition Staff (feedback)
Really, we just want to be your friend ... whack!
There are laws in the US that state if you're going to be tax-exempt, there are certain rules you have to follow. Such as, "Don't engage in political activity." Sounds reasonable, right? Enter the Internet...
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS to those not in the US) would be the arm of the government that enforces such regulations, and guess what? There's this new-fangled publishing venture called the Internet that the IRS may need to investigate. Now, like any good conspiracy theory, there are different ways of looking at this. There's the normal way (the IRS is out to get us) and the paranoid way (the IRS is out to get me). Just kidding – we guess.
In reality, there are many reasons why the IRS (or some enforcement agency) actually ought to be looking into the dealings of these tax-exempt organizations, to make sure the rules are being followed. For the rest of us, just make sure you don't keep both copies of your books on the Web site.
A quarter here, a quarter there, pretty soon you've got a whole fiscal year!
In yet another sign that the soft landing so desperately desired for the US economy may not be so soft, there is now speculation that companies (you know, the entities that drive quite a bit of the tech spending) may just sit tight and make do with what they have, thanks to a newfound thriftiness. From the Reuters article on Yahoo!, "'Nothing focuses the attention of an organization like recession or slowdown,' added Hal Varian, Dean of the School of Information Management at the University of California, Berkeley." No kidding. Around the MacEdition offices, even the mole rats are complaining!
But hey! Recession or no, it's time to party at Macworld San Francisco!
It's that time of year when the only thing colder than a Midwest winter is the reception ATI reps get at Steve Jobs' New Year's party. But that's no excuse for everyone else to miss out. If you're going to San Francisco for the January Dance, be on the lookout for MacEdition ... we'll be there, somewhere. MacSlash folks apparently will be too. There are all sorts of rumors floating around about new hardware, but honestly, we'd like to see the old stuff gone first.
NaturallySpeaking of the Devil...
It's not enough that L&H, the company that bought Dragon Systems, filed for bankruptcy. No, not only are they back in the news by giving the courts another try, but BusinessWeek lets us in on something that really does deserve attention (and not just ridicule) from the situation. It seems that should NaturallySpeaking go the way of OpenDoc, there will be plenty of disabled folks who will be affected. From the article:
Hands down, Dragon NaturallySpeaking is the most popular speech-recognition program among the disabled. Sold at 3,500 outlets around the country, its low price and versatility have won it the undying loyalty of thousands of physically impaired people.
Hopefully L&H will get its reorganized act together, or someone will buy them and continue to provide competition in the speech market. Maybe this is the opportunity MacSpeech would be looking for?
Looking for old ProNews segments? Check out our index at http://old.macedition.com/news/. Do you have news releases or tidbits of interest to the Macintosh professional? Send them to pronewsnotes@macedition.com.