Some groups called this Amex move “ridiculous” according to Daily Mail News article published today.

Other card issuers include Virgin Money American Express at 37 per cent and Citi MasterCard at 41 per cent.

Microsoft on10.net us reporting on a new promising devices from a company iGo, which promise to cut the consumed energy by the ”vampire” devices (all the buttery chargers, that nowadays are so present in every house).  According to the company, the new products will cut the energy by 80% for all of our “stand-by” devices. Laptops, cell phone chargers  and others are to be perfect targets for the new products. Stay tuned.

Apparently this gene exists in every cell of our bodies.  Any human cells  attacked by a cancerous tumors use this gene to multiply (“over-express”).

Dr. Michael Reiss who was interviewed for the story indicated that the discovery of this gene will allow a development of new drug(s) inhibiting metastasis.  

According to Yibin Kang, an assistant professor of molecular biology at Princeton , some pharmaceutical companies already expressed an interest in developing such a drug.

Stopping the spread of cancer cells throughout the patient body is a significant step into curring the illness.

Ramalinga Raju of Satyam

Indian’s market was sent to a tail spin closing over 7% lower, after Satyam’s stock went down in value almost 80%.   Apparently, the founder and the top “dog” of Satyam, Ramalinga Raju, admitted to a massive accounting fraud, which was surprisingly possible with an oversight of an accounting auditor -  PricewaterhouseCoopers for last few years. As to be expected, the  same people who were supposed to oversee that the books of the “pristine” outsourcing giant were cosier, have not commented as of now.

 The stock trading of Satya on NYSE in US  was also suspended till further notice.  We’ve heard a number of worrisome stories about outsourcing outfits in India and China and their questionable business practices. This one  however may force  US and EU companies to take a second look on the  very popular trend in business practices.

Universal plug with a hole by Kim Seung Woo

Some things are way too cool to ignore.  LikeCool.com online magazine is showing off a very simple, yet practical home invention- plug with a hole by Kim Seung Woo.   It’s easy on the fingers as you pull it  from the wall, and some claim – it may even help save the earth. If you have an elderly family member living in your house, this is the way to go.

Big plasma TV is to be extinct in California in 2011

I am getting my plasma TV now.  According to an article published on BusinessGreen.com, if the government of California has its way, one will not be able to purchase big plasma and LCD TVs, which currently are alleged to be the least energy efficient devices in our homes. 

Yes, it is true that big 60 inch plasma units get burn a lot of watts, but is this ban going to work?  A similar article published in LaTimes notices, the ban may not be enforceable for private citizens of California thanks to Internet shopping on Amazon or similar places. As in any prohibition, prices in California for these devices are expected to go up in not so distant future.

The first regulation is to take place in 2011. The second wave of the same regulatory limits are to be imposed on LCD units in 2013.

$9.95 per printed tax return rejected again.

Bob Meighan, Intuit VP responsible for Turbo Tax products issued the following statement on Amazon forums on December 12, 2008:

Turbo Tax has over 17 million loyal, passionate customers who genuinely care about what we do and who take the time to tell us. That’s evidenced by your opinions posted in these discussions. You’ve spoken. We’ve listened. And now we’ve responded to address your concerns.

A number of factors, including this feedback, have prompted us to now enable Turbo Tax customers to prepare and print multiple returns at no additional cost. Plus, as we’ve previously communicated, free e-filing is included with every federal return (up to the IRS limit of 5).

We believe these changes make Turbo Tax the best value for consumers. Including free e-filing with every federal return means a savings of nearly $75 for some of our customers versus last year and a savings of up to $40 compared to our original pricing this year. I believe this now truly reflects our commitment to helping our customers keep more money in their pockets.

I’m no stranger to engaging with the online community, so if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to share them here.

Bob Meighan
VP, TurboTax

One can understand financial pressures that any company is being subjected to by recent troubles in world’s economy . However, it is very disturbing that a company that had already experienced massive customer backlash in early 2003 by a similar attempt, has not learned its lesson. 

To remind all of us, in  Turbo Tax 2002 Intuit also tried to use a copy protection schema, which was inteded to prevent any user from installation of their tax product on more then one machine (same lame exuses where given to justify that move, too).  As a result, instead of predicted increases in sales, Intuit suffered amazing sales declines, massive costs related to product returns. All of that was  followed by a logical 35% decline in stock price in June 2003.  The shareholders of INTC have not been able to recover experienced losses until late 2006. That’s what we call a “badaboom” disaster.

In 2003 yours trully, with considerable pain, moved to TaxCut to join the “get Intuit” croud. This year H&R Block took notice (one would expect that) about the newest “oops” of their biggest competitor. On the same Amazon forum one lady wrote:

Thank you A. Sewell, W. Hall and Matt Johnson

I am so happy that you are trusting your taxes to H&R Block’s TaxCut this year. As you know, we did not raise our prices to cover the cost of e-file in our software products. They are the same great value as last year. Therefore, if you don’t use e-file, you are not paying for a feature that you do not need.

I will be here to answer any questions about TaxCut.

All the best
Paula from H&R Block

So,  it is good that corporate big wigs of Intuit decided to do the right thing, but what in the name of … made them go with the original decision. Will the latest move be enough for this company to minimize the backlash created by their original decision? Time will tell.

Hopefully, someone will leave me a message with a good “scoop” in a comment section.