Archive for the ‘News About Us’ Category
Effective 10/31/08, we are terminating all support for PayPal.com. We will no longer recommend the use of PayPal to our clients.
Our experience has been that PayPal’s appallingly poor support, lack of reasonable processes for dispute resolution, and failure to follow banking and wire transfer laws make it an unacceptable choice for us and our clients.
We are currently suggesting AlertPay.com and MoneyBookers.com for money transfers without a merchant account. Clients with sufficient transaction volume may wish to consider Charge.com, which offers merchant accounts with NO setup or application charges.
In the interest of full disclosure, we still maintain a PayPal account because, in reality, one cannot do business on eBay without one. However we only use it when there is no alternative.
Clients are advised not to buy or install Microsoft Vista, nor buy a new PC with Vista pre-installed. Our personal experience is that Vista is buggy, difficult to work with, and incompatible with a wide assortment of existing hardware and software (including older versions of Microsoft’s own software, e.g., Outlook 2000 and Money).
The only way issues like this get fixed is when people vote with their feet and their wallets. So cast your vote by refusing to accept this train wreck of an operating system.
UPDATE:
Dell is now offering a choice between Vista and XP on customized PCs. They’ve gotten the message even if Microsoft hasn’t.
UPDATE 2:
Dell is now offering XP on a scant few machines, coexisting with Vista. Sadly, it appears that Vista is inevitable, barring a change to a completely different OS (e.g., to Linux or Mac). Clients are advised to consider upgrading their existing XP machines’ hardware to delay the necessity of purchasing a machine with Vista preinstalled. Perhaps with enough time and Service Packs, most of the kinks will be resolved.
UPDATE 3:
Microsoft is now selling Windows 7, the successor to Vista. Word is that it looks very much like Vista, but with many of the annoyances and performance issues corrected. One wonders why this isn’t a service pack instead of a whole new version. It takes a lot of brass to charge customers for fixing things that shouldn’t have been broken in the first place. Granted there are some new features, but many of them are so esoteric that the average user won’t care one whit about them. Clients are advised to wait several months after release before upgrading, to allow some of the kinks to be worked out.
UPDATE 4:
We have been using Windows 7 for about two weeks now (as of this writing on 3/5/10). There has not be a single glitch, crash, or hiccup. It’s astonishing. OK there were a few incompatibilities. For example our Brother AIO printer no longer scans across the network. JFax software no longer works; however there is a reader that can open JFax attachments. There’s some adjustment, due to lots of things being in different places. But, all in all, it’s been a good experience.
However, we are still reluctant to recommend Windows 7 to clients. If you can, it would be wise to wait until the first Service Pack is released. But if your computer dies and you need a new one, Windows 7 is a reasonable and acceptable option.
Effective immediately (March 2, 2007), we are curtailing support for Google AdWords. We have come to the realization that Google’s arrogance, poor service, opaque processes, and relatively high costs are not in the best interest of our clients.
Existing AdWords clients will be supported through June 1, although we will be encouraging them to migrate to other programs, such as Miva or 7Search.
We are pleased to announce the launch of HomoAds.com, a new site offering free, local classified ads to the GLBT community.
Initial launch is anticipated to be in California, Florida, Massachusetts, Seattle, and Houston; however ads can be placed and browsed for any of thousands of U.S. communities.
We are pleased to announce the release of a major upgrade and redesign of Palm Springs Frontrunners and Walkers’ web site.
In addition to a sleeker look, the new site features the ability for clients to post and edit their own articles. End users can also subscribe to the site and be notified immediately of new postings via RSS.
Please stop by for a visit at http://www.PSFR.org.
Today, R.J. Howard Computing is releasing its first major web site redesign in nearly eight years. Using rapid deployment technology made possible with the web-based WordPress software, this redesign was accomplished in less than a day.
In addition to a fresher, sleeker look, users now have the ability, via RSS, to subscribe to the site and be notified immediately of new developments.
We are pleased to announce support for WordPress, an open source, server-based package for blogging and web site design.
WordPress is great for simple sites because it:
- is entirely web-based
- is intuitive
- makes rapid deployment possible
- allows end users to make their own minor changes
- has RSS built in (so your readers can be notified of new content)
- has hundreds of layouts available
Interested? Contact us for more info.
We are pleased to announce that our GroupOS.com Adult Group Finder site has been upgraded to BosDirectory 3.0. This will allow for the following immediate improvements:
- Faster searches
- Integrated Sponsored Link accounting
- User accounts for submitted link management
- Better security
Try it now at http://www.GroupOS.com.
