California Court Rules That Borders must charge Internet Sales Tax

The California 1st Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Borders web operations, run by Amazon.com, must remit state sales taxes for purchases made by customers based in California.

Borders Online is a distinct corporate entity from Borders Inc., which owns Borders retail stores, but both companies are owned by a common parent, Borders Group Inc. Borders was running the web sales operation as a distinct company with no physical presence in California, and the web store was managed by Amazon.com, but the 3-judge bench ruled that the online and store operations were too interlinked to consider separate. They cited in-store advertising for the Web site, receipts that said "Visit us online at www.borders.com"; and the ability of customers to return online merchandise at retail stores - all common-place features of most online stores. The appeals court also said the businesses were linked by Borders' cross-selling efforts to promote the Borders brand as a whole, with retail employees encouraging customers to visit the Web site, and the Web site providing information about the retail stores.

"This evidence demonstrates that the retail stores' activities were "significantly associated with [Borders] Online's ability to establish and maintain a market" in California, the court wrote, and thus the imposition of the use tax is constitutional."(Borders Online LLC v. State Board of Equalization, No. A105488, 2005 WL 1274623 (Cal. Ct. App., 1st Dist., Div. 4 May 31, 2005)

Following an audit, the State Board of Equalization demanded that Borders Online pay $167,668 in use taxes for Internet sales to California customers between April 1, 1998, and Sept. 30, 1999, pursuant to Section 6203 of the California tax code. Borders initially paid up, but then sued the State Board. The lower court, too, ruled for the Board. Borders has not indicated as yet whether they will appeal this ruling.

This raises the distinct possibility of other retailers and web-site only stores being levied with an Internet Sales Tax, despite a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that businesses can avoid paying sales taxes to states where they have no physical presence.

Independent booksellers have hailed the decision, calling it an example of the playing-field being levelled. Of course, in a Flat World, businesses may choose other means of protecting their customers' interests and protectionist measures oftentimes have a counter-productive effect on sales and revenues.

One solution might be a form of VAT, or Value Added Tax. Most countries around the world have adopted VAT-based sales taxation as a uniform means of levying taxes on transactions. In one form, like in the EU, each state charges its own rate of VAT. If a company sells out-of-state to a registered business it sells ex-VAT. If it sells to an individual, it sells inc-VAT. Taxation in the US can be quite complex. In Texas, for example, taxes can vary for the same zip-code, based on whether the residence is within one city's limits or another. If the state taxed all the sales made to people outside the state as well as ones made to people inside the state, which they're perfectly free to do, businesses would move out of that state and into one without sales tax. It might also contribute to smuggling operations and other forms of tax evasion like false inventory accounting.

Have you filed your use taxes fairly for online purchases? The taxman cometh.

Earth-Like Planets and the power of blogcritics

The recent news on the discovery of an earth-like planet was reported on by Eric Olsen at Blogcritics - "Earth-Like Planet Found Outside the Solar System" - leading to rapid syndication on the current holy grail of netNews - Google News - in prime position.

Thus do memes spread, and media crumble.






Gliese 876

Michael Jackson trial wraps up

A great round-up of the Michael Jackson trial up here.

Now that the trial is finally over, perhaps we can get back to finding other reasons for the decline of record sales.

Classic Albums: Dear 23 - The Posies

Dear 23 was a seminal power-pop-rock album of the 1990s by The Posies. It drew it's name from the sly Illuminatus trilogy of Robert Anton Wilson, wherein, 23 takes the role, in effect, of Douglas Adams "42", a mystic pattern that appears everywhere, if you look hard enough.

The album blends influences from The Beatles, The Hollies, and 60s-Summer-of-Love Pop. It was not a commercial success, but gave the band a certain reputation which was not belied by their next album "Frosting On The Beater". A couple of the songs are still regulars on good radio playlists.

"My Big Mouth" is a fast-rhyming tale of a relationship gone wrong. It flings together some interesting musical tones, varying the tempo to create a disjointed effect that is quite effective in creating a mood of disaffection, and the reluctance of the lover, perhaps ex-, to reveal the causes of the break-up. "The words come quickly I feel sick/I use that for an excuse to exit/Looks like you don't buy it/And I'm trying your patience/But what I leave unsaid sticks in my head/The guilt puts me in a spotlight/Looks like I might reveal/You're not my sole engagement"

"Golden Blunders" takes the theme of relationships gone wrong, or perhaps wrong relationships even further. A marriage gone bad, or perhaps the law of unintended consequences and pregnancies, all too soon, leaves a taste more bitter than one which never got off the ground. An abrupt pause in the song, at about 2:42, creates an unusual effect, one of a very real break. "Honeymoons will never start, bonds will blow apart/Just as fast as they were made/Men and women please beware : don't pretend you care/Nothing lasts when nothing's there"

Unusual lyrics mark "Apology" as a class apart. The song carries many reminiscent tones, a bouquet of wistful memories. It seems to continue the sequence of heartbreak that is chronicled in this album. Gentle notes wrap up the piece. If we fall to touch there will be no backlogged time/You can make believe it (like a bunch of postcards)/And the stones will read in a modest fashion :/"Don't expect too much - you might be disappointed..."

She leaves him, but really, he wouldn't have it "Any Other Way", perhaps because "It gives him something to write about". Stringfellow embraces his rancid depression in this song, mixes in some wry humor and renders a jangly tune of break-up. "She left me alone, claiming we'd run out of things to fight about/I was crushed of course, but at least I've something I can write about/I guess I'm just some kind of malcontent/Who gets paid for having nothing good to say/And even though it doesn't pay the rent/You know I wouldn't have it any other way"

The dark, insightful "You Avoid Parties" is perhaps set mid-stream in a relationship, when one has understood the other, confidences have been shared, and the veil of deception has fallen away, yet it is just before the starkness reveals the personal ugliness, the small warts become sore spots, and the break-up begins. "And now you're finally on your own/You draw your choices from the voices you despise"

"Suddenly Mary" is a mysterious blend of Aesop's fables, nursery rhymes, and saving a love. I love the mid-section, a fable become real.'Suddently Mary fell in the water/I found myself married to somebody's daughter
"Loving,"she told me,/"is a question of bravery"/But when she started to hold me/it was closer to slavery
I got up for a bite to eat and found my clothes inside the icebox/I used to stand on my two feet but now I sit when my new wife talks"'

"Help Yourself" restores the power-pop tempo, but the song becomes a far more hurtful, acid-tinged look at break, after all the years of 'broken plates and glasses and shouting hurt my ears'. From the beginning, when 'Without trying hard I made it final/And we conceived our children on backseat vinyl', to the confession 'I can't tell you why it all breaks down/And please don't ask me why I'm no longer around', this is a sad tale indeed.

"Mrs Green" is about a lonely, bitter old lady, 'turning green with envy over me'. No points for guessing who's the subject of the piece.

"Everyone Moves Away" is a nostalgic look at "the big nameless house/From which everyone moves away", and about growing up, moving on.

The anthemic, memorable "Flood Of Sunshine" wraps up the album with some Ozymandias-like thoughts, expressing perhaps the intent of this dark collection, that the true love is the one we leave behind. "We could drown ouselves in a flood of sunshine/We could walk all night still I'd see sunshine/It the calling of your name/All sounds combine into the same and I hear you"

mommy love

Microsoft brings tabbed browsing to IE 6

Microsoft has released the new MSN Toolbar for Internet Explorer. This offers a few excellent features like a powerful desktop search tool and even tabbed browsing for Internet Explorer 6 - so this means users do not have to wait for IE 7.

The Tabbed Browsing feature is quite convenient to use - It can be turned on and off, new tabs can be opened either individually or as a set of new background tabs using QuickTabs. Search results can open in their own tabs. A set of keyboard shortcuts enable easy tab usage - Ctrl+T opens a tab, Ctrl+Tab switches between open tabs. The context menu has options to open a link as a new tab, either in the background or foreground.

The Desktop Search is quite powerful and fast. It indexes files, emails, attachments and enables you to query them on the fly. The complete list of file-types supported is quite extensive. Add-ins exist to provide in-depth searches in PDFs, zip files, etc. There is an API to write new add-ins, if you're so inclined. The iFilter developer forum is active and easy to browse.

Tabbed browsing at work

A Deskbar gives you the search functionality outside the browser. The results open a new browser window. Additional options on the toolbar include links to MSN Spaces, Hotmail, News and Messenger.

That being said, I am still a huge fan of the A9 toolbar - the neat Diary feature lets me annotate websites for later reference. The form fills, history and lists options provide convenient ways to not have to remember my browsing trail. The A9 search engine, with it's verticalization of search options is the future of searching, I hope. It has enabled my 12-step Google de-addiction program, of which more later.

Online Investing Hacks: A Handy Primer

The always interesting and constantly expanding Hacks library of books from O'Reilly now features a nifty primer to online investing, and financial planning in general, with the book "Online Investing Hacks".

As is par for the series, the book is designed to be dipped into at random. The topics covered include screening investments, collecting financial data, hacking excel for financial analysis (I'm really excited about the web query features), fundamental and technical analysis, and then goes into executing trades, mutual funds and portfolio management, before wrapping up with the basics of financial planning.

A variety of convenient and easy-to-follow examples illustrate the scenarios described. The book covers ways to get the best data for free, and for a fee. It covers most common terms, ratios and formulae, and even stretches the envelope in a few cases by "hacking the hack". for example, illustrating how to consider price/tangible book value instead of price/boook value when analyzing stocks. Real-world examples like a close look at Enron's financial statements help in creating a sense of caution, while still providing the tools to mitigate risk.

The Mutual Funds section is also quite detailed, although I did not focus much on this since I manage my own portfolio somewhat actively. One hack from this section states "Beware the closet index fund" and warns against investing in funds, big or small, that merely mirror standard index funds, adding on their own expense costs and taxation hassles. The author notes wryly "Some investors collect funds like other people collect antiques. When you collect four or more funds in the same investment style, you're setting yourself up for index-like returns. In fact you're turning your own portfolio into a closet index fund and paying additional fund expenses to do so. Only buy a new fund if it is substantially different from the funds you already own."

I particularly liked the section on portfolio management, which used sports metaphors to illustrate the dynamics of effective portfolio management through proactively playing defense to protect your portfolio from harm, as well as playing offense to enhance your portfolio's performance.

The financial planning section addresses some common-sense elements of good financial management, from paying down debt to planning for retirement, college and more.

A big lacuna in the book is the absence of any discussion on ETFs or exchange-traded funds. These enable the small investor to buy and sell units of stock that represent the underlying sector or index at minimal costs. iShares.com offers a sizeable array, and the world of ETF investing is a low-risk way to manage your funds, especially if you are not comfortable with active money management, or do not want to shoulder the higher costs of money managers/funds.


To sum up, the book is a good guide to many of the intricacies of investing and money management, and can replace many other similar books put together.

Build A Complete Library

Amazon.com is offering a pretty good bundle for any person or institution looking to create a sizeable corpus of fine writing in English. The Penguin Classics Library Complete Collection, exclusive at Amazon.com includes 1082 titles ranging from Homer's Odyssey to Bellow's Herzog, and much, much more. (Complete list by title)

This is a huge stack - laid end to end they would top 52 miles in length, and weigh 700 pounds, so look for a hefty shipping charge (not covered by Amazon Prime, malheuresement). At the same time, they are discounting the list price by about 40%, and you get a great collection of books for about $7 per book.

Much of my childhood reading, and introduction to fine English writing was via Penguin books - they are major publishers in India, and I can remember many fond visits to their central bookstore in Bangalore on M.G. Road.

The children's imprints like Puffin provided introductions to great books like the Narnia series, Watership Down, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and more.

Even today the Penguin and Puffin colophons are enough to bring a smile to my lips and a wistful look to my eyes.

If only this gargantuan collection were covered by Amazon Prime!

Kaiju Big Battel: The truth about monsters

Kaiju Big Battel is a global conflict, waged across the galaxy, destroying planets. In this context, the minor losses suffered by our cities on earth from depredations of the Kaiju monsters seems trivial. We are indeed fortunate that we have the Kaiju Heroes to protect us, and the Kaiju Regulatory Commission (KRC) to maintain an order of sorts. If only that dastardly Dr Cube could be foiled!

Some brief history may be in order:

Kaiju, the Japanese word for monster, refers to giant monsters like Sky Deviler, Kung Fu Chicken Noodle, and Uchu Chu the Space Bug. They are opposed by Kaiju Heroes like Silver Potato, Dusto Bunny and the boxing hero American Beetle, who combines jingoism with aggressive boxing, and believes himself to be the US President. The Kaiju Regulatory Commission oversess these battles, and deals with the plots of Dr Cube, a renegade Kaiju Hero, who now manufactures Kaiju like Dino Kang Jr, Polo Cato and TurnOnLight. The KRC is led by the mysterious commissioner, whose identity is now the #1 secret in the world, after the unmasking of Deep Throat. Theories range from Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jimmy Carter to Dr Cube himself.

The Shocking Truth DVD provides a primer on Kaiju, What is Kaiju, exposes the secrets of Dino Kang Jr's (a clone of Hell Monkey's dead mother) cave, and tracks the meteoric rise and fall of the break-dancing aluminium clad tuber Silver Potato. It details a cataclysmic showdown between Team Space Bug and Dr Cube's Posse, and the tragic death of one important Kaiju. Bonus features abound.

In recent battels, post the ones chronicled for eternity on the DVD, Neo Teppen defeated Call-Me-Kevin again. The battel report reads,

On Sunday, Call-Me-Kevin was traveling up the River Seine in search of his favorite delicacy, frog legs, when he detected the scent of this delicious dish just below Le pont Neuf. Bursting out of the water, Kevin was shocked to find his nemesis Neo Teppen chomping on a crepe, while on break from his latest assignment providing security for the E.U. Constitutional referendum. Kevin's shock soon turned to rage as he heard the track-suited super-Hero calling him "le plus grand perdant."

The ensuing Battel lasted all of two minutes as Teppen utilized 3 1/2 of his secret powers to kick Call-Me-Kevin up and down the Champs Elysees, before delivering a nasty powerbomb onto the pointy part of the Louvre. Call-Me-Kevin's sole offensive success came when he managed to wedge Neo Teppen's enormous helmet in between one of the arches at a local McDonald's, but the locals were all too happy to help the Hero free by tearing the arches down. In the end Referee Jingi's French cousin Pierre d'Arbitre made the trios count and Call-Me-Kevin further extended his record of ineptitude.

Kaiju Big Battel is a masterpiece of zany myth-making, performance entertainment, and innovative blending of pop culture, political satire,Jap monster flicks, pro-wrestling, and more than a touch of crazy humor.

Kaiju Battel(kaiju.com)

Here's a trailer for the Shocking Truth