Fred Sandsmark's Blog

I came across a month-old press release from a company called Avalara today. They claim to be giving away sales tax rate information. Individuals can do up to 50 look-ups per month.

This seems like a solid service for small companies that sell mostly in their home geographies, but who occasionally sell to customers in other areas (and that want to stay on the right side of the law, tax-wise). Avalara's hope, obviously, is that sellers will use the service more frequently than 50 times per month and thus be forced upgrade to a paid service. Fair enough. The free service allows for two-plus sales a day, which could fit many companies' needs.

The company points out that sales tax rate information is widely and freely available from state and local governments, but isn't well organized. Organization and searchability (by maps and other criteria) is what Avalara adds. I like this quote in the press release (though I couldn't not fix its punctuation and capitalization): "When it comes to sales tax compliance, rates are a commodity. Cost-effective service, not the cost of rates, is the important issue."

I'd love to hear from people who are trying this service.

I meant to post this a few days ago, but it slipped away from me: earlier this week, I replaced my trusty mouse with a Logitech Corded Trackman Wheel track ball. I was prompted to do so after reading the blog of Jon Peddie -- he said his orthopedist recommended moving from a mouse to a track ball to deal with shoulder pain. (I feel some shoulder pain, too.) Receiving a $30 Office Depot gift card (through their Advantage Program) also helped to push me over the edge -- all I paid was the sales tax.

I'm getting used to it pretty quickly. I sometimes try to move my pointer with the wheel, rather than the ball. And I don't feel like my hand is resting heavily on the curved surface (and I'm not sure it's supposed to). But I'm already convinced it will help with hand/arm fatigue.

I'll post pics of my cable management system (such as it is) later.

Jane and I pretended to be joiners today and took in two group events:

Member Appreciation Day at SFMOMA. We had wanted to see the "Surreal Calder" exhibit anyway, so we attended today. The member events included a "Jewelry Trunk Show" in which Jane bought earrings by Mark Poulin (these) and Susan Fleming (similar to these). We also attended a half-hour docent talk and got a free beverage at the cafe. The crowd had a nice vibe to it.

The Maker Faire sponsored by O'Reilly (the publisher, not the pundit). With huge attendance, it felt like a hipster-geek county fair, right down to the corndogs. Among the many fun things, we met Bryan Kennedy who runs the Mobile Movie in Berkeley (sadly, he's moving to Boston) and Kim Pederson who runs the famous backyard monorail in Fremont, California. I got to say thanks to the people at ifixit, whose instructions I used when upgrading my iBook, and got to see (but not shake hands with) the guy who implanted RFID chips in his own hands. We also enjoyed seeing all the unusual bicycles ridden around the open spaces -- including one that looked like Harry Potter's broom. We arrived at the best thing last -- the room full of broken electronics, tools, parts, and junk, waiting to be taken apart and reassembled into new and exciting machines. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to create anything.

This is being linked everywhere, and for good reason: it's a fun read with some amazing photographs of Microsoft's Mac Lab. I find the rows and rows of Mac Minis to be particularly impressive.

The Castro Valley Community Band played its spring concert last night in the new Castro Valley Center for the Arts. The hall was wonderful, we put on a fine show, and well over 300 people attended. I attempted to record the concert on my Sony MiniDisc recorder and new Sony ECM-719 microphone, but I did a poor job of setting levels; much of the recording -- anything over about a mezzo-forte -- is distorted. Anyway, the good sounds are ringing in my ears, if not in my stereo.

Coincidentally, I'm working on a website for the band using the Google Page Creator tool. Check out the work-in-progress at CastroValleyBand.googlepages.com. (No "www" in front.) The tool, so far, is straightforward and pleasant to use. There are quirks, of course -- the heading and name for the page must match its first h1 headline, for instance -- but for the price (free) it's wonderful, and I'm sure that features and capabilities will grow over time. I'm going to add some photos to the site this weekend.

Thanks to Tom Starner for tipping me off about Google Pages.

I finally bit the bullet: I retired my Sony CRT monitor (a MultiScan 200SX) and replaced it with a ViewSonic VA712b -- an LCD with a digital input. A handful of things pushed me into the LCD camp:

Price. At $229 (after rebates, plus tax and California e-waste fee) the monitor was a great deal.

Convenience. I had gotten tired of waking up the computer and waiting for the screen to warm up.

Quality. I looked at a lot of LCDs and read a lot of reviews, and this one seems to have a large number of contented customers. Many LCDs don't -- customers seem to run hot or cold on them. The main thing folks aren't happy with on this monitor is its speaker system, but I'm not using the machine for movies or games -- and anything's an upgrade from the Mac Mini's internal speaker.

Complete package. The monitor came with a digital cable. A little thing, but a nice thing.

Flexibility. I wanted a monitor I could attach to a VESA arm, and this one will.

Energy savings. The monitor is EnergyStar qualified. Gotta get EnergyStar stuff before the federal government pulls the plug on the program. (Yes, my comment is hyperbole, but the program is under attack, the timing of which baffles me.)

Company. I have a tradition of buying stuff from companies I've written about. A few years ago I had a chance to interview some ViewSonic executives for Oracle's PROFIT magazine, and was impressed with their seriousness and sincerity.

So now the monitor's on my desk, and -- an hour into its life -- I'm very pleased. I find no dead pixels, and the image is very sharp and bright. I definitely have more screen real estate with a 17" LCD than I had with a 17" CRT.

My only gripe is with software. The monitor worked perfectly without any software added, but I decided to launch the ViewSonic CD because it said it had something for Macs. (Yes, I know better -- no need for drivers if something's working fine.) Double-clicking the installer launched the Classic environment, and things got a little weird. If you're considering this monitor for use with a Mac running OS X, don't bother with the installer -- just use the CD to get to the manual.