Earlier rumors that Microsoft might extend the sales date have proven untrue, as Microsoft has reiterated that, indeed, June 30 will be the final sales date cut-off for the product. That's it. It's a Vista world now.

Loopholes will remain for some PC makers for some months to come, namely those who are building ultra-low-cost computers that aren't powerful enough for Vista. (Though some machines in this class, like HP's Mini-Note, actually come with Vista anyway.) For at least the rest of the year, downgrades remain an option for many PC purchasers too, though you'll have to jump through some hoops, and possibly pay extra, in order to get XP.

As I've written several times (and reassured many of you in email responses), XP fans needn't panic about the loss of XP. Even if you don't have a copy on hand, the product will be available through many channels for years to come (and likely forever), through both retail outlets and the aftermarket. As I type this, nearly 1,000 copies of XP are on sale on eBay, where they usually sell for less than $100.

In other news, Microsoft has recently  pledged to keep supporting XP, including the release of security updates, all the way through 2014. So XP users needn't fret that you'll suddenly be victimized by hackers due to unpatched security flaws. Updates should work exactly as you're used to them currently through the Windows Update system.

You don't have to spend hundreds of dollars on programs like Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop. You can find free feature-rich alternatives online. Don't let the fact that they're free dissuade you from trying them. These programs are terrific.

Why do people create free programs? Many programmers believe software should be free. For instance, thousands of people work on Mozilla's free Firefox Web browser. Only a handful are paid. And the rest? Some want to take on Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Some just like to write code. And many are nice people who want to help others.

TIPS:

The following are some of my favorite freebies. There isn't enough room in this column to cover each program's features. But you can download them and explore the features yourself. You'll find download links at www.komando.com/news.

Create documents, spreadsheets and more

Microsoft Office is the de facto standard office suite. You probably use it at work, but that doesn't mean you need it at home.

The free OpenOffice includes a word processor, spreadsheet, database, presentation program and more. OpenOffice is compatible with Microsoft Office files. So, you can use it to open and save files in the Office formats.

Download e-mail

OpenOffice doesn't contain a Microsoft Outlook equivalent. You'll need to look elsewhere for a program to manage e-mail. Mozilla's free Thunderbird offers many of the same e-mail features as Outlook.

Manage appointments with a calendar

If you're doing away with Outlook, you'll need a calendar management program.

Lightning is a free calendar add-on for Thunderbird. Or download Sunbird. It provides the same features as Lightning in a free standalone program.

Lay out professional documents

A word processor is great for creating general documents. But if your documents are professionally printed, you need a desktop-publishing program.

Scribus is much like Microsoft Publisher or Adobe InDesign. You'll get professional-quality page layouts in a free easy-to-use program.

Edit photos

Photoshop is the Holy Grail for many photographers. However, the $600 price tag puts it out of reach of many.

You don't need to settle for a lesser photo editor. The free GIMP rivals Photoshop in terms of features — and complexity! It puts advanced photo-editing tasks at your fingertips. GIMP will even appeal to professional photographers. Add-ons expand GIMP's features.

There is much more free photo software available on my site. Even if you have never edited a picture, you'll find usable programs.

Refine your drawing skills

Like Photoshop, illustration programs can be quite costly. You can spend hundreds of dollars on Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw.

Inkscape lacks some advanced features, but is a worthy free contender. Inkscape is compatible with many different file types.

Be creative with graphics

Microsoft Paint is included with Windows. It isn't a serious graphics program, but many casual users rely on it.

Unfortunately, Microsoft Paint is difficult for children to use. In contrast, the free Tux Paint is specifically designed for children. Large buttons make it easy to create drawings and graphics.

Edit digital videos

The professional-grade Adobe Premiere video-editing program is more powerful than most people need.

Avidemux is free and ideal for home users. It simplifies the video-editing process and works with a variety of file formats.

Avidemux lacks many of Premiere's features. But it is more advanced than other video editors. You can correct colors and apply special effects and filters.

Design Web pages

Do you want to create your own website? I recommend a WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) HTML editor. You can design Web pages without learning any coding.

Dreamweaver is a popular WYSIWYG editor, but you'll get the same features with the free Nvu.

Create PDF files

PDF files are incredibly popular. They can be read on virtually any computer without formatting inconsistencies.

Most people won't use Adobe Acrobat enough to justify its price. Enter the free PDFCreator. PDFCreator resides in your printer list. Install it and select it as a printer to convert a file to PDF.

PDFCreator does not let you edit PDF files. For that, you need a full-fledged PDF program.

Manage your money

Every household and business needs an accounting program to manage finances.

TurboCASH is much like QuickBooks. However, it was designed for both home and small business use.

TurboCASH tracks your bills, account balances and even your stocks. It also handles invoicing and provides reports and analysis.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/kimkomando/2008-06-26-free-software_N.htm

Real-estate agents have been pushing the virtues of homeownership since homes were invented. Or since real-estate agents were invented, anyway. Paying a mortgage, they insist, is a can't-miss investment (the tax breaks, the appreciation, the thrill of fixing your own roof!). Renting is for simpletons who don't like keeping their own money.

But does owning a home really trump renting? With the economy stumbling, house prices falling, and credit tightening, many housing experts are questioning the conventional wisdom. "Over the last decade, it may have been true," says W. Van Harlow, an economist at the Fidelity Research Institute. "Clearly, there are periods where [the housing market] will dominate. But give this market correction another 18 months, and it may not be true anymore."

Not so hot. The housing boom produced endless stories of homeowners getting twice what they paid for their homes. But "prices don't always go up," says Jay Butler, director of realty studies at Arizona State University. Even a boomtown like Phoenix has seen median rates of appreciation climb only 4.6 percent a year since 1981. According to a Fidelity study published this year, the return on a dollar invested in real estate in 1963 barely beat that of a low-risk treasury bill.

When the housing market slumps—as it has every 10 or 15 years for the past several decades—homeownership becomes little more than renting, from a bank. Without appreciation, buying a $400,000 house—instead of renting the same property for, say, $2,000 a month—can turn into an expensive, potentially money-losing proposition. Assuming home prices come out of their death spiral (prices fell 4.5 percent in the third quarter compared with last year), they would still have to appreciate at 4 percent every year for a decade—even if rents climbed well above the rate of inflation—before a family would save more owning than renting. An $80,000 down payment could be invested instead in a mutual fund earning 8 percent, and housing comes with myriad other expenses, from maintenance to insurance to taxes, none of which build equity. Tax breaks do ease the pain. But with the average family staying in a house only six years, homeownership during a slump (especially in foreclosure pits like Las Vegas and Tampa, where prices have dropped more than 9 percent since last year) can look less and less like the American dream. Renting, meanwhile, has its virtues. It's cheaper in the short term, it offers maximum flexibility, and it pushes the headaches of maintenance and taxes onto landlords. It can also be a sound long-term investment. According to Fidelity, if renters save even $300 a month—the difference, say, between their rent and a monthly mortgage payment—that money, invested in stocks growing at only 4 percent, could add up to $114,000 in 20 years. (And that's on top of earnings on a down payment that never had to be made.) "Over long horizons, if you reinvest the savings," Harlow says, "you're probably not going to find that much difference between renting and buying." Saving hasn't proved to be the national forte, of course. But with the bloom off the homeownership rose, it may have to be soon.

Not too long ago, the only people who had to worry about legal limitations on old debt collections were folks who didn't pay their bills.

Today, however, increasingly aggressive collectors are going after people for debts they've already paid or that aren't even theirs. Knowing something about so-called "statutes of limitations" on debts can help you deal with misdirected or belligerent collection attempts.

Here are just a few examples from my mailbag:

Suzy from New York City was fielding calls from a so-called "debt repurchaser," a company that buys old debts from other collection agencies. The repurchaser demanded payment for a credit card bill that Suzy paid through a credit counselor, but she'd long since lost all her records regarding the account.

Jerri's credit card number was stolen and used to call a 900 number, a premium call that cost more than $200. Her credit card issuer removed the charge and reissued new cards. Apparently the 900-number service provider turned the debt over to a collection agency, because three years later she started getting calls demanding payment.

Brian in West Hollywood messed up his credit big-time in his early 20s, but his father stepped in, paid off his bills and closed all his accounts. Nearly 15 years later, Brian had rebuilt his credit and was looking forward to buying his first home when he got a disturbing call from a collection agency. "They claim I have an outstanding debt of $387.30 from the early 1990s," Brian wrote. The debt was supposedly from a credit card that Brian doesn't remember ever having. "They have threatened that if I do not pay this, it will damage my credit report. . . . I feel like this is a scam, but I don't know. . . . I am nervous about any negative marks on my credit report."

The Federal Trade Commission and state regulators around the country have taken action against collectors that have tried to resuscitate old, paid-off debts or that hounded people about debts that weren't theirs. But you can't always count on regulators intervening in your case, so knowing something about debt limitations can help you defend yourself against the worst practices.

How old is too old to collect?

There are two major types of limitations on debt that you need to know -- and that many people confuse.

The first has to do with how long debt problems can show up on your credit reports. Federal law typically requires credit bureaus to drop negative information after seven years. The clock usually starts ticking 180 days after the account first goes delinquent (in other words, when you miss your first payment on the account). There are exceptions: Bankruptcies can remain on your credit reports for up to 10 years, and some debts, such as unpaid tax liens, can stay on your reports indefinitely.

Collectors can't legally restart the seven-year clock by "re-aging" the debt (giving it a new delinquency date) or by selling it to another agency. (The FTC shut down one large collection agency, CAMCO, after charging the company repeatedly re-aged debts in its attempts to collect.)

The other curb on debt collection is the statute of limitations, which gives creditors a certain time period -- in most states, three to six years -- in which to sue you over a debt.

Statutes of limitations vary widely by state, and by the type of debt, according to attorney John Lamb, co-author of "Solve Your Money Troubles: Get Debt Collectors off Your Back & Regain Financial Freedom." States often have different rules for oral and written contracts, as well as for "closed-end" contracts such as installment loans and "open-ended" contracts, which typically (but not always) include credit card accounts.

Video on MSN Money

Where to get free reports -- and how to interpret them.

California, for example, has fairly short statutes of limitations on most debts: two years for oral contracts and four years for written contracts, promissory notes and credit card debts. Kentucky, by contrast, says creditors can sue over written contracts for 15 years after the last payment was made, and for five years on most other debts, including credit cards.

Some other key points about statutes of limitations:

The devil's in the details. Not only do states have different statutes of limitations for different debts, but two states may treat the same debt differently. A credit card debt might be considered an open-ended account in one state and a written contract in another. The only way to know for sure is to check your state laws or consult an attorney.

You can inadvertently restart the clock. Generally, the statute of limitations starts ticking from "date of last activity" on the accounts, said Los Angeles bankruptcy attorney Scott Bovitz. (If the account is still listed on your credit reports, the date of last activity should be noted there.) On a credit card debt, that could be the last payment you made or the last purchase you charged. But in some states, Lamb said, making a payment on an old debt, agreeing to an extended repayment plan or even acknowledging that the debt is yours can extend the statute of limitations or restart the clock altogether.

A creditor may still sue you after the SOL has run out. Suing or threatening to sue you after a statute of limitations has run out violates the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Lamb said, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. To prevent the creditor from winning a judgment against you, you'll need to show up in court and point out that the statute of limitations has expired.

The creditor may try to pick a better venue. If you sign a credit contract and move to another state with different limits, the creditor may try to sue you in the state that has the longer statute. If that's not the state in which you currently live, Lamb said, you should protest: "The general rule is that the state you live in" is the one whose statutes should apply.

Debts can still exist even if the creditor can't sue. Some people erroneously believe that debts are erased after the statute of limitations has run out. Although the creditor's ability to sue you has been curtailed, it can still try other methods to persuade you to pay, including calls and letters. The debt can also be sold to another collector that can renew efforts to get you to pay. A legitimate debt is truly erased only when it's paid or erased in bankruptcy court.

First, make sure you're covered

So how should you handle attempts to collect an out-of-statute debt? Sometimes the best recourse is to simply "hang up the phone and walk away," Lamb said.

"You want to be very careful," Lamb said, "not to say anything that could be used to restart the statute of limitations."

If you want to fight back, you should first make "absolutely sure" the statute of limitations has indeed expired, Lamb said. Otherwise, contacting the collector may goad it into more action.

In Jerri's case, for example, the statute of limitations in her home state of Wisconsin had three more years to run. Since the bogus debt didn't turn up on her credit reports and the collection agency didn't threaten to sue, she opted to just ignore the calls, which eventually stopped.

You can start your research at one of a number of Web sites that post information on statutes of limitations, such as CreditInfoCenter.com, whose chart includes links to relevant state laws.

If you're sure the debt is too old for a lawsuit, you could send the collector a letter via certified mail, return receipt requested. The letter should include the fact that the debt isn't yours (if that's true), that the statute of limitations has expired and that you want all collection efforts stopped.

Video on MSN Money

Where to get free reports -- and how to interpret them.

You may be able to handle this yourself, or you may want a lawyer's help. The National Association of Consumer Advocates can provide referrals to attorneys familiar with fair credit laws. http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/YourCreditRating/IsThereAStatuteOfLimitationsOnDebt.aspx?page=all

A decade ago, the world lost 16 percent of its coral reefs in one year. Had it been trees instead, all the forests of North America would have been wiped out … in a single year. In the Caribbean, where Ocean Conservancy is actively saving reefs, live coral cover has declined 80 percent, but we are turning that around and it is not too late to succeed, if we act now.

The rapid decline of these ancient, complex, and biologically-diverse ecosystems will have significant social, economic, and environmental impacts. Coral reefs are likened to rainforests in the sea, and it is an apt comparison. Corals anchor a strong web of life in the ocean—a web that protects us, our communities, and our economies from harm. The truth is, however, that our reefs cannot protect us unless they and the ocean that supports them are healthy and resilient. The most dire threat, of course, is climate change, which creates warmer, more acidic seawater, both of which devastate coral. To reverse course, we have two options. The first is mitigation. We must reduce greenhouse gas emissions immediately. The second is adaptation. We must find ways to cope with the impacts of climate change so that the ocean can adapt to impending threats, many as yet unknown.

It is as if we have a patient suffering from the flu and arthritis who is diagnosed with a serious but treatable cancer. First, cure the flu. Next, begin physical therapy to lessen the arthritis. Then, with a healthy and strong patient, take on the bigger challenge ahead. Mitigation will cure the disease, but we will need to adapt to lessen the damage and the pain.

2008 is the "International Year of the Reef." Our cover story, "Fabric of Life", is a look below the surface at how conservationists are reweaving hope on our reefs and how building resiliency may just save these important ecosystems. Ocean Conservancy is protecting reefs and other ocean ecosystems by fostering sustainable fishing, protecting marine wildlife, putting in place management plans for state and federal waters, and preserving magnificent ocean places that we like to call "Yosemites Undersea." Your support is critical to our efforts. For that, we cannot thank you enough. It is not too late for the reefs, but sea change must start now.

Sincerely,

Vikki N. Spruill
President and CEO
Ocean Conservancy

 5 Ways to Save Reefs!

Join Ocean Conservancy: Your donation to Ocean Conservancy gets multiplied when supporting the work of our scientists and policy experts working to save reefs and for adaptation strategies in the face of climate change.

Be a reef-friendly tourist: When visiting a reef, respect local guidelines. And support reef-friendly businesses—ask your dive shop, tour operator, and hotel what they are doing to help save coral reefs.

Recycle: Wherever you live, help keep trash out of the ocean where it can impair water quality and endanger marine life.

Learn about reef ecology: Once you learn the basics at you can help inform and inspire others to preserve these delicate ecosystems. Use chemical pesticides and fertilizers carefully: Believe it or not, even if you live thousands of miles from a coral reef, these products can travel into your local waterways, and from there to the ocean.
http://www.oceanconservancy.org/site/PageServer?pagename=home

Should you write 'ask for ID' instead of signing your credit card? Do you really need to 'activate' your card? What you don't know could hurt you.

There's no excuse when you fall for certain myths. The one proclaiming Barack Obama is a Muslim? You could have quashed that one by checking Snopes.com. Bill Gates sharing his fortune with those who forward an e-mail? That's been debunked on About.com's Urban Legends since 1999.

But the legends that grow up around credit cards aren't quite as easy for the average person to research and refute. Credit card issuers can be pretty closelipped about their practices, and even those who proclaim themselves experts in the field can get it wrong.

So I talked to spokespeople from Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover to get the scoop on their policies, and with Fair Isaac, creators of the FICO credit score, for details on how cards really affect your score.

The myths and the reality

Myth No. 1: Your credit card account isn't opened until you activate it using the issuer's toll-free number.

Several readers have changed their minds about opening new credit cards after they've applied, then asked if they could undo the damage to their credit scores by not calling to activate the card.

Sorry, but the ding to your credit scores -- typically 5 points or less -- happens as soon as the issuer pulls your credit reports, which is usually within seconds of receiving your application. The account shows up as active on your credit reports shortly after the card is approved.

You do need to call the activation number, though, if you ever want to use the card. That number is typically listed on the removable sticker on the front of your card when it arrives in the mail.

Myth No. 2: You can stop unsolicited credit card offers by sending them back in the postage-paid envelopes.

Judging by my e-mail, some of you have developed a hobby trying to irritate credit card companies. You write "take me off your mailing list" repeatedly over the unsolicited applications they send you, then stuff the paperwork into the postage-paid envelope -- sometimes adding other junk mail to increase the volume and cost the issuer more in postage.

Sorry, but all your efforts are for naught. Yes, you might cost the credit card company a few pennies, but it would cost them far more to track down your name on their mailing lists and remove it, so your envelope just winds up in the garbage.

If you want to cut the number of unsolicited credit card offers you receive, you need to get off the mailing lists before they're compiled. Here's how:

Sign up with the credit card bureaus' opt-out service. This service removes you from the marketing lists they sell to credit card issuers and can be reached at 1-888-5-OPT-OUT or OptOutPrescreen.com. You'll need to provide your Social Security number and a few other pieces of identifying information.

Opt out of "information sharing" every chance you get. Anytime you use your credit card, make a donation or sign up for a new service, your information could be sold to a credit card marketer. Ethical companies give you a chance to opt out. Take it.

Follow up with those who sell your data. Sometimes you won't be able to tell who sold you out; other times, it's obvious. I raised hell with the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association after I bought a family membership and promptly received an application for a GLAZA-themed card.

Myth No. 3: Merchants may require identification, such as a driver's license, when you pay with a credit card.

Merchants' agreements with Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover specifically forbid them from requiring identification. Your signature is supposed to be enough.

Furthermore, merchants' contracts with Visa and MasterCard are supposed to prevent them from even asking for ID. American Express and Discover don't prohibit asking but strongly discourage it.

Card companies regularly look for ways to get more of your money. Here's how to tell whether your issuer wears a black hat or white one.

Merchants typically ask for ID because they're trying to reduce their own fraud costs. But if a clerk memorizes or writes down vital information from your driver's license -- your address or date of birth, for example -- you're the one who could be at greater risk of identity theft.

Myth No. 4: You can deter identity theft by writing "Ask for ID" instead of your signature on the back.

See above. You'll certain deter use of your card, because merchants aren't supposed to accept one that's not signed on the back, and that could affect you as much as any thief.

Myth No. 5: No-limit credit cards allow you to buy whatever you want.

Most credit cards come with credit limits, but some cards advertise having "no preset spending limits." With high-end Visa cards, for example, customers are allowed to exceed their credit limits; with traditional American Express charge cards (the green, gold, platinum and black versions), there is supposedly no preset limit at all.

Except that all cards have limits, said Curtis Arnold, the founder of CardRatings.com and author of "How You Can Profit From Credit Cards."

"No-preset-spending-limit cards are more marketing hype than anything," Arnold said. "These cards do have a credit limit that is typically based on your income and spending patterns."

At American Express, the actual limit on your charge card -- the kind that's supposed to be paid in full every month -- can vary based on your financial circumstances, your credit history and your record as a customer, explained Desiree Fish, an American Express spokeswoman.

If, for example, you're a good customer who typically spends $3,000 to $5,000 and you want to charge a $50,000 luxury car to your card, you'd be smart to call Amex first to make sure the transaction would be approved.

If, on the other hand, you're in possession of an American Express Centurion Card, a black version that usually isn't even offered to folks who charge less than $250,000 a year, you probably needn't worry about getting approval for the same transaction -- unless "your people" forgot to pay last month's bill.

Myth No. 6: If you pay your credit cards in full and on time, you don't need to worry about your cards' effect on your scores.

Paying your balances in full is good for your wallet, and paying on time is good for your credit scores. But you can still mess up your credit even if you're diligent in doing both.

How? By using up too much of your credit limit. Your credit scores are incredibly sensitive to how much of your available credit you use, especially on your credit cards.

And the balance used for these calculations is typically the balance that shows on your most recent credit statement. So if you've charged $9,000 on a card with a $10,000 limit, your scores will reflect the fact that you're using 90% of your available credit, even if you pay off the balance the day you get the bill. Such a misstep can knock dozens of points off your scores.

How to fix this? Ask for higher limits, spread your purchases among several cards or make two payments each month -- one just before the account's statement closing date and another just before the due date. The first payment will reduce the balance that is reported to the credit bureaus and is used to calculate your credit scores. The second payment ensures your account won't be marked late, since many issuers require some kind of payment between the statement closing date and the due date, even if a payment was made earlier in the billing cycle.

Myth No. 7: High credit card limits are bad for your credit scores.

I've heard this one repeated by folks who should know better, including mortgage brokers and other lending professionals.

Here's a tip: If you're told the reason your credit scores aren't higher is because you have "too much available credit," that pretty much means you have great scores. Typically the only reason you'd hear this "negative" is because there's nothing else wrong with your credit.

You certainly shouldn't ask a credit card company to lower your credit limits or shut down cards, since either action could hurt your credit scores, unless a lender specifically requires you to do so as a condition of getting a loan. Even then, you should try to keep your oldest and highest-limit cards open.

Video on MSN Money

Card companies regularly look for ways to get more of your money. Here's how to tell whether your issuer wears a black hat or white one.

But you also shouldn't run out and open a bunch of new credit card accounts without considering the consequences. Each new account application can ding your scores and represents another set of rates, due dates and terms you'll have to track. Apply for credit sparingly, and don't worry if your issuer rewards your good credit habits with a higher limit. It knows you can probably handle it.

Myth No. 8: A credit card company can't change my rate unless I mess up.

Credit card issuers lately have been vigorously disabusing customers of this notion, as I wrote in "The credit card party is officially over." Many borrowers have seen their rates double or triple even though they haven't been late with a payment or suffered any other credit setbacks.

Credit card companies can alter virtually any rate or term with just 15 days' notice. Their freedom to do so may be ending, though. Federal regulators have proposed banning rate increases on existing balances, except in limited circumstances, such as when a borrower skips a payment. Meanwhile, some in Congress have proposed more restrictions and want issuers to give more notice of any changes. Stay tuned.

Myth No. 9: Rewards cards are pretty much the same.

This myth takes different forms, including "the best rebate you can get is about 1%" or "you have to pay an annual fee to get a rewards card" or "the rewards aren't worth the effort to redeem."

It's all bunk, said Arnold, of CardRatings.com. Consumers who shop around will find big differences among rewards cards. Today, the best cash-back rewards cards have no annual fee, and you should expect a rebate in excess of 1%. Check out "The 15 most rewarding credit cards" for some insight on what you may be missing.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/CreditCardSmarts/9BigCreditCardMyths.aspx?page=all

When it comes to staying in good graces with your credit-card company, having an unsullied credit record might not be enough.

Lenders have long relied on consumers' credit scores to decide whether to approve card applications and how much credit to extend and at what interest rate. Now, as financial firms face rising losses because of the weakening economy, some big card issuers are digging deeper into their customers' personal lives. They are scrutinizing where cardholders live, for example, and what line of work they are in.

Card-industry executives say the heightened focus is directed especially at residents of states hit hardest by the housing slump, such as California, Florida and Nevada. Cardholders who work in struggling industries like construction and finance also are feeling a tighter squeeze, with their credit lines suddenly reduced sharply even if they always paid their bills on time and in full. Other consumers are bumping up against myriad other restrictions.

Michael Shortt, who owns a television-production company in Savannah, Ga., says American Express Co. slashed the credit lines on three of the six AmEx cards that he uses for his business, even though he routinely pays them off every month. Two of the credit lines shrank to $1,000 from $6,000, and the third was reduced to $36,000 from $42,000.

When he called the New York company's customer-service department, Mr. Shortt says he was told that his available credit declined because he hadn't supplied information about his company to Dun & Bradstreet Corp., which provides credit data on small businesses. On Saturday, Mr. Shortt got a letter from AmEx notifying him that his $36,000 credit line was being cut to $4,300. He cut that card up Wednesday, he says.

"Of all the people that [AmEx] would want to mess with, why would it be a customer who pays their bills on time and spends a great deal of money?" says Mr. Shortt, who says he has accumulated 780,000 rewards points through his American Express cards. He says he gets calls from Dun & Bradstreet, but he doesn't feel comfortable providing information about his business, especially over the telephone. A Dun & Bradstreet spokesman couldn't be reached to comment.

A spokeswoman for American Express declined to comment on Mr. Shortt's situation but says the card issuer does rely on information provided by Dun & Bradstreet and other sources to help determine credit-worthiness. "We are being more targeted in managing risk prudently within appropriate customer segments," the spokeswoman says.

The greater scrutiny reflects lenders' attempts to slow a rising tide of delinquencies and losses from their consumer businesses. Washington Mutual Inc., a big provider of credit cards for subprime borrowers, or those with relatively weak credit ratings, expects credit losses will rise to 9.5% to 10.5% of its total credit-card loans this year, up from 6.9% at the end of 2007. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. expects its credit-card charge-offs to rise to 6% next year, up from 4.37% in the first quarter of 2008.

According to the Federal Reserve's latest survey of senior loan officers, 30% of banks said they tightened lending standards, including requiring higher FICO credit scores, on credit-card loans between January and April. That is up from about 10% in the Fed's survey in January.

Few lending officials will openly discuss their company's latest techniques for assessing consumer risk, claiming rivals could steal their secrets. But executives acknowledge that the result is increased stinginess, even with applicants and existing customers who raise no red flags based on their credit scores.

Asked recently how Bank of America Corp. is getting pickier about extending consumer credit, Chairman and Chief Executive Kenneth D. Lewis Jr. responded: "That would be higher FICO scores and then an overlay of a human being looking at the credit." A Bank of America spokesman declined to comment further.

Discover Financial Services says it has cut back its marketing programs in geographical locations it considers to be of "rising risk" and is reining in automatic credit-line increases in those areas. A Discover spokeswoman declined to identify the specific states where the company is taking those steps.

A spokesman for J.P. Morgan declined to provide details of the bank's underwriting practices but noted that the credit-card division has been reaching out to customers who are showing "some signs of stress," such as making late payments or regularly going over their credit limits. Previously, the bank would only reach out to customers after their accounts were delinquent.

The J.P. Morgan spokesman said that if the bank detects increased evidence of risk, it may lower a consumer's credit lines. At the same time, if the customer is in financial trouble, the bank might arrange for a special payment program, or reduce or waive fees, in hopes of getting the customer to pay off the outstanding balance.

Cardholders who find themselves cut off from credit likely won't have much luck pleading their case with a customer-service representative. That is because the card issuers are trying to stick to their guns in an attempt to limit future losses. Instead, consumers may have more luck shopping around for higher credit lines, since the card companies each have their own criteria for determining credit-worthiness.

Card issuers are "caught between a rock and a hard place" as they make these types of credit decisions, says Tony Hayes, a partner at consulting firm Oliver Wyman. "On the one hand, they've got to limit their exposure. But, on the other hand, if they are too aggressive, they will sully their reputations and risk tarnishing their brand."

Raising the bar on consumers also could backfire for card issuers if a reduction in credit lines winds up creating financial problems for the customer, Mr. Hayes says. Then, "what you may have done is accelerate the rate at which the account goes bad."

Peter Schiff, president of securities-brokerage firm Euro Pacific Capital in Darien, Conn., has been downbeat on the economy for months but never thought he was the kind of customer that AmEx would worry about. That changed a few months ago when one of his employees tried to book a block of hotel rooms for a seminar on the firm's corporate AmEx card. The card was declined, and Mr. Schiff subsequently discovered that AmEx had cut his $40,000 credit line to $4,500.

Mr. Schiff says an AmEx customer-service representative told him that his business had been identified as "high risk" and that American Express was trying to reduce its exposure to the financial-services industry. An AmEx spokesman declined to comment.

After trying unsuccessfully to reinstate his credit limit, Mr. Schiff recently switched to a Visa card from Bank of America that has a credit limit of $88,000. "I had been saying all along this would happen. Little did I know it would happen to me," Mr. Schiff says.

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/105283/Card-Issuers-Get-Personal-to-Check-Credit

If soaring gasoline prices have prompted you to look for a more fuel-efficient ride, using miles per gallon as a guide could lead you astray, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

Instead, they propose a new standard based on gallons per mile, which gives people a far better idea of how much gasoline they might save by switching trading in that gas-guzzling minivan.

"There is a math illusion here," said Richard Larrick, a management professor at Duke University, whose research appears in the journal Science.

Larrick said most people think improvements in miles per gallon are all the same, where a 5 gallon per mile improvement would yield the same gas savings in a car that gets 10 miles per gallon or 20 miles per gallon. (One mile equals 1.61 kilometers, and one U.S. gallon equals 3.79 liters.)

"The reality that few people appreciate is that improving fuel efficiency from 10 to 20 miles per gallon is actually a more significant savings than improving from 25 to 50 miles per gallon for the same distance of driving," Larrick said.

He tested this out in a number of different experiments on U.S. college students.

When presented with a series of car choices in which fuel efficiency was defined in miles per gallon, the students could not easily identify the choice that would result in the greatest gains in fuel efficiency, he said.

People had a much easier time when fuel efficiency was expressed in gallons per 100 miles. In that case, a car that gets 18 miles per gallon uses 5.5 gallons of gas per 100 miles, and a car that gets 28 miles per gallon uses just 3.6 gallons per 100 miles. With gasoline prices over $4 a gallon, that's a difference of about $8 per 100 miles.

"If we just turn everything around, you can see where are the large savings in gallons of gas," Larrick said in a telephone interview. The idea is not new. Many other countries, especially in Europe, already use a standard that compares gas used per trip.

To translate miles per gallon into gallons per 10,000, Larrick said people can simply divide 10,000 by miles per gallon. Cars with the highest miles per gallon are always the most fuel efficient, he said. It is when people are trying to replace a car that they may be misled.

That's how he became interested in this problem.

"We were trying to decide whether to get rid of a minivan and go for a station wagon versus getting rid of a sedan and going for a really high-mileage hybrid car," Larrick said.

"We realized in the end we were better off trading in the minivan and only gaining 10 miles per gallon then we would be trying to swap out the sedan for a highly efficient car."

To help make these choices easier, Larrick and colleagues recommend consumer publications and car makers start listing fuel efficiency in terms of gallons per 10,000 miles driven, which he said is roughly the distance people in the United States drive in a year.

Larrick's team has developed a conversion table that can be found at http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/news/mpg/table.pdfgallon.

The awaited list is out again, and there is no surprise there again.  I have been in sales, marketing, customer service, management for many years and I am appalled at the general level and the growing lack of customer service. 

You would think that as the economy deteriorates they would improve their service….  NO… That’s where they cut first, that says a lot about their commitment to the customer. 

One thing I can’t believe is that airlines fared relatively well compared to the worst companies rated, but again that could be explained that more people use these service companies than actually use the airlines.

As far as the best faring companies, there is no surprise there either.  It seem that when you are bad you stay bad, or get worse, probably because of a culture of bad service all across the company and management.  Bad service is rarely just a reflection of the frontline, but rather a reflection of the management and their lack of commitment to service and quality, at least from my experience.  If the management is committed to quality and customer service, it reflects at all level of the company and in the ratings

Four 'winners' from MSN Money's inaugural list are back -- 3 with scores even worse than last year's. See the 10 companies Americans love to hate.

So you'd think that businesses would be treating their patrons like royalty, right? That this would be exactly the right time for businesses to coddle their customers?

Wrong. When the economic going gets tough, some companies apparently get tough-minded about customer service, squeezing out the last dime of profit by cutting back on critical customer-facing positions such as phone personnel.

"We've seen a fall in customer service as we've gone into a recession," said Richard D. Hanks, the president of Mindshare Technologies, a customer-service consulting company. "As the cost cutting occurs . . . they start to cut the wrong things."

That reality is borne out in the results of MSN Money's second annual Customer Service Hall of Shame, a ranking of companies with the worst customer service, based on a nationwide survey commissioned by MSN Money and conducted by Zogby International. The scores for our Hall of Shame companies are, on average, down from a year ago.

And the 'winner' is . . .

The company at the bottom of the customer-service heap is Time Warner's AOL. A remarkable 47% of people who had an opinion of AOL's customer service said it was "poor." Analysts said that rating may have something to do with its effort to transition from an Internet service provider -- where it still has more than 9.3 million paying subscribers -- to an ad-supported Web portal.

"I don't know what to attribute that to," AOL spokeswoman Dori Salcido said. "I just do know that we continue to improve customer service."
AOL fits squarely in the category of company that dominates our list: communications companies and banks that provide complex and at times highly technical products. Tens of millions of customers rely on those products almost hourly. And, should something go wrong, those customers get anxious and demand a fix -- now.

That's still no excuse, analysts say. In their zest for quarterly profits, these companies tend to favor acquisitions over beefed-up service staffs. They also lean toward confusing fees over straightforward price increases -- strategies that don't play well for the long haul.

"Most of these companies actually aren't thriving," said Michael Shames, the executive director of the Utility Consumers' Action Network, a California nonprofit that monitors business practices. People don't look at companies with poor customer-service scores and say, "Here's where I should invest," he said.

For the survey, conducted online in March, Zogby asked more than 7,000 people across the country to rate their customer experiences with 140 leading companies in 14 industries, including airlines, hotels, insurance companies and big-box stores such as Wal-Mart. Respondents could answer "excellent," "good," "fair," "poor," "not familiar" or "not sure."

The companies in the Hall of Shame were ranked by the percentage of people familiar with a company who answered "poor."

Although AOL didn't get ranked last year, corporate sibling Time Warner Cable did, and it made the top 10 then and now, receiving a 29% and 31% "poor" response, respectively. Time Warner Cable was one of four companies -- along with Comcast, Sprint Nextel and Bank of America -- to make a repeat showing.

The Hall of Shame

1. AOL's response. Post your experiences here.

2. Comcast's response. Post your experiences here.

3. Sprint Nextel's response. Post your experiences here.

4. Abercrombie & Fitch's response. Post your experiences here.

5. Qwest's response. Post your experiences here.

6. Capital One's response. Post your experiences here.

7. Bank of America's response. Post your experiences here.

8. Time Warner Cable's response. Post your experiences here.

9. HSBC Finance's response. Post your experiences here.

10. Cox Communications' response. Post your experiences here.

Click here to see the full list of companies.

The companies' explanations

Most of the companies chalked up the continued "poor" ratings, in part, to their sheer size. Not only are their products hugely popular, they said, but every year they field millions of calls from customers, many of whom walk away perfectly satisfied.

"I think we're the victim of our own success, in the sense that we're growing so rapidly," Rick Germano, the senior vice president of national customer operations for Comcast, said of the telecommunications giant, which ranked second in the MSN Money-Zogby survey. "People are choosing to get Internet and cable and telephone with us, and that's where we're playing catch-up on the customer-service front."

The exception was Sprint Nextel, which took full responsibility for its well-publicized poor record of customer service in recent years.

The cellular phone company led poor-customer-service surveys, including the 2007 MSN Money-Zogby survey, and late last year hired a CEO who vowed to make customer service a priority in an effort to stop customer drain. The company posted a $29.6 billion loss over the past 12 months.

"We've had higher-than-desired churn," spokeswoman Roni Singleton said. "We've had to overcome the hurdles, and that's been a challenge for us."

Sprint Nextel was also the only returning company to improve its score, albeit slightly. The other repeaters received greater percentages of "poor" responses than in 2007. The overall average "poor" rating for the top 10 increased from 27% in 2007 to 35% in 2008.
Hanks, the consultant, said that before the current economic woes took their toll on customer-service opinions, those opinions had been getting better in recent years.

When talk turns to recession, companies tend to cut where they think it will hurt the least: in customer service. "Fears of a downturn start to get into the psyches of senior managers in this country," Hanks said.

High-ranking companies

Companies at the other end of the survey, with few marks for poor service, also came as little surprise to experts. In particular, Nordstrom, American Express and Marriott were cited as three that routinely earn high marks.

Companies such as these try to weather the tough times by continuing to invest in customer service, Hanks said. In the end, they earn lifelong, loyal customers who tend to cost less and pay more.

By contrast, companies that turn off the charm in search of immediate profits risk long-term success, Hanks said.

It's common for companies criticized for bad customer service to defend themselves by pointing to their legions of satisfied customers or by citing averages, Hanks said. But ignoring the unsatisfied customers catches up with them eventually.

And as research has shown, satisfied customers equate to happy shareholders. Conversely, unhappy customers may lead to unhappy shareholders. Just ask Time Warner (the parent company), Comcast and Sprint: Their stocks are down 26%, 18% and 55%, respectively, over the past year, compared with an 8% drop for the S&P 500 Index.

1. AOL's response. Post your experiences here.

2. Comcast's response. Post your experiences here.

3. Sprint Nextel's response. Post your experiences here.

4. Abercrombie & Fitch's response. Post your experiences here.

5. Qwest's response. Post your experiences here.

6. Capital One's response. Post your experiences here.

7. Bank of America's response. Post your experiences here.

8. Time Warner Cable's response. Post your experiences here.

9. HSBC Finance's response. Post your experiences here.

10. Cox Communications' response. Post your experiences here.

Click here to see the full list of companies

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SmartSpending/ConsumerActionGuide/TheCustomerServiceHallOfShame.aspx?page=all

Each year, on the third Saturday of September, Ocean Conservancy and 350,000 ocean advocates like you meet on beaches and waterways the world over to gather, tally and report on the trash in our waters.

This year’s event is on Saturday, September 20th in your community and promises to be even bigger than last year. Online registration is now open so come sign up now to be a part of the sea change!

Can't join us for this year's cleanup on September 20th but know someone who might be available? Start spreading the word to your family and friends and help us organize this international effort to clean our coastlines!

(CBS) As gas prices skyrocket, attention has turned to public "pits," where brokers trade "oil futures" - the right to buy or sell crude oil at a specific price, on a future date.

But far away from the hue and cry, hundreds of millions of barrels of oil futures contracts are traded electronically every day, CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports.

More than 30 percent, experts say, exchanged in so-called "dark markets," the exact size and scope unknown to U.S. regulators.

"If you can trade out of the sight of U.S. regulators, you can manipulate these markets," said Michael Greenberger, a former top staffer at the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, which regulates the trading of commodities like oil in this country.

He recently told Congress that speculation is placing a huge premium on the price of oil.

"How much per barrel?" Keteyian asked.

"Well, there have been various estimates - anywhere from 25 percent to 50 percent," Greenberger said.

"People can actually corner the market and drive up the price," said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. "When there is no policeman on the beat, you know that crime can go up."

More and more fingers are pointing at one of the least-known but most powerful foreign exchanges - the InterContinental Exchange, or ICE.

By the end of 2007, the all-electronic exchange accounted for nearly a 50 percent market share of all global oil futures contracts, a total of 138.5 million contracts - up 49 percent from 2006.

Today it boasts more than 2,100 individual traders representing virtually all of the major players in oil - banks, hedge funds, energy companies, investment giants.

And according to a securities filing, two of those giants, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, were founding partners of ICE.

"The fact that they started this shows the intent of where they wanted to go," Greenberger said. "Which was to trade crude oil and energy products without any police in the United States supervising it."

That's because it's considered a foreign exchange. Taking advantage of a loophole created by the CFTC, the company says its "energy futures business" is conducted in London, it is not subject to U.S. laws. Over strong criticism, the CFTC agreed.

All this despite the fact ICE headquarters are on the fifth floor of a building in Atlanta, it's primary data center in Chicago, and nearly all its trades settled in U.S. dollars.

"It is a charade, and ... it defies explanation," Greenberger said.

In a statement, ICE CEO Jeffrey Sprecher told CBS News that ICE is committed to providing "the same visibility in our oil markets that exists for U.S. Exchanges," and that ICE Futures Europe is "fully regulated" by the British government.

But British financial authorities are notoriously lax.

Now Congress and others are asking just how much of the crude oil futures market is being manipulated by either excessive buying designed to drive up the price, or phony transactions that imply a supply problem that does not exist.

Today, under pressure, ICE finally agreed to impose stricter limits on certain trading, shedding some much needed light on the dark side of oil.

  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/17/broadcasts/main4188620.shtml

Bush’s proposal to open our coastline to offshore drilling would result in additional risks to ocean health without viable solution to oil crisis

Washington, DC - Today, Warner Chabot, vice president for strategic campaigns with Ocean Conservancy, made the following statement about President Bush’s support to open more of our country's coastline to oil drilling by lifting a 27 year ban that is currently in place:

"Our ocean drives the planet's climate and is the first victim of global climate change -- more drilling only guarantees its further destruction while doing nothing to solve our energy crisis.  The President says America is addicted to oil, but the primary solution offered by the Administration is a larger needle to fuel the country's addiction.

"Risking our coastal waters and beaches to the threat of oil spills for a few months supply of oil, is neither a short or long term solution. In fact, any oil discovered by drilling off our coastline will take seven to 10 years to get the pump and it will not relieve the pain we are feeling.

"Advocates for new offshore drilling falsely claim that new leases will 'immediately' lower oil costs due to speculative pressure, when in fact eight million acres open by President Bush last year did nothing to lower prices - instead we have seen prices skyrocket. Even the U.S. Energy Information Administration agrees that opening up vast new areas to drilling will likely reduce prices a few pennies per gallon, over a decade from now.

"The United States consumes 25% of the world's oil but only has 3% of the world's reserves - it is clear that we cannot drill our way out of this problem. Additionally, the oil industry already has 6,000 undeveloped leases covering 68 million acres, an area the size of Nevada - there is no reason to open up even more ecologically sensitive areas when the industry has not yet tapped into the massive area already dedicated to exploration.

"This proposal to open our coasts to oil drilling will put our country at greater risk by continuing our addiction to oil, increase global warming and threaten the future of our oceans and our environment which our grandchildren will inherit from us," concluded Mr. Chabot.

Call the White House now to tell him NO:  202-456-1414

www.oceanconservancy.org

Have you ever asked yourself the question?  I have.  Usually Data CD-Rs are much cheaper than so called Music CD-Rs and I had been wondering if it was purely a marketing gimmick or if there is a real difference.  Personally I leaned towards the marketing gimmick.

  I did some research and came across this article that confirmed my gut feeling.

You wouldn’t believe how many times I run across this question. Is there a difference between music CD-Rs and traditional data CD-Rs? I think what people really want to know is if I buy a data CDR can I still put audio on it and vice versa. Well, hopefully this article will shed some light on the confusion and give you some insight into which type of blank media best suits your needs.

The simple answer to this question is yes. There are differences between music and data CD-Rs. However there is a big neon green flashing asterisk next to the yes that indicates to the informed consumer, that no there is not a difference. Let me explain.

Depending on where you gather your information, there are some articles that indicate minor differences between data and music CD-Rs. For starters, there is the name difference, but that’s obvious. There have also been rumors that the recording industry receives a very small percentage of each sale of blank music CD-Rs. However, that rumor has yet to be verified to my knowledge.

What is known is that there are technical differences in what is embedded in blank music CDs in comparison to blank data CDs. These embedded differences center upon bytes within the sub channels of the actual blank music disc. But does that really make a difference in quality or what types of information can be stored on the disk?

Not really. Both audio and data can be duplicated onto both music and data CD-Rs. I’ll say it again. Audio and data can be burned onto music and data CD-Rs. However, whether or not you can get data onto a music CD-R depends on what type of hardware is used to burn the blank CD.

If you are using a PC to do all of your burning, then it doesn’t matter. PCs do not differentiate between music CD-Rs and data CD-Rs. They simply see a blank media and duplicate information on to it pertaining to the settings you have outlined in the software you are using to burn the CD.

However, if you are using a separate home CD burner, it may or may not allow you to burn data/music onto a generic blank data/music CDR. Proprietors are funny like that. They really only want you to use blank media with brand names that they have approved of.

So my advice is if you are doing most of your CD duplication on the computer, it doesn’t matter which type of blank CDR you use. They both will work fine in most cases for storing audio and data. However, if you are using a CD writer outside of your computer for you burning needs, check the manual and see what they recommend.

Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com

MARGARITAVILLE — Four-year-old Reilly Templeton of Katy, Texas, slaps her hands together atop her head and, holding them flat to make what looks like a tiny shark fin, she tilts her head to the left and to the right and unleashes a toothy smile.

"Fins!" she shouts when asked why she is here at the first Jimmy Buffett concert of the summer.

All around her, grown men wearing not much more than grass skirts and grown women giving away flower leis populate the grassy hill of The Woodlands pavilion in Spring, just north of Houston.

But these Parrotheads are deep in Margaritaville — a state of mind they enter when Buffett sings a favorite song.

With soaring fuel prices and a shaky economy, the consensus among Parrotheads appears to be that it is indeed "five o'clock somewhere," as Buffett sings with Alan Jackson.

Time to relax and reflect.

Even 4-year-olds can stress out enough to need a trip to Margaritaville. "Driving down the road, we do fins at least once a day," says Reilly's father, Mac, 42, a restaurant manager. "She knows all the words," her mother Donna, 34, an insurance agent, adds proudly.

With luck, the tiny Templeton does not fully understand what it means for a girl to watch out for the "sharks" who hang out in the local bar when she's the "only bait in town." But by the time she gets it, she may not want to "do fins" or much else with Mom and Dad. So this is bonding — Buffett style.

Perhaps there's a law that protects kids from being exposed to music that sounds even better with a shot of tequila. But not according to Billy Joe Harrington, a prosecutor from Natchitoches, La.

Shirtless and wearing a grass skirt, he drove up for the annual refueling of his Caribbean soul. "The music transports you," says Harrington, 47. He's also guilty of turning his own kids into Parrotheads when they were 10 and 12.

Son Drake, now 20, finds Margaritaville back home on the Cane River. "We crank it up and sit in the sun," Drake says. "It feels like a permanent vacation."

The prosecutor brought his bailiff, Phillip Wilkerson, 56, but he's in no condition to maintain order in this increasingly jubilant and rowdy crowd. Wearing a shark hat and a mischievous grin, he explains the biggest Buffett benefit is not the buzz from the whiskey and Sprite he's sipping in the parking lot before the show but the renewed spirit he'll take back to the courtroom where he sees cases that range from sad to ugly. "It's a different perspective on life," he says.

Though he has had just one top 10 pop hit in his career (Margaritaville in 1977), Buffett is a sizable concert draw. He has filled 90% of seats at his shows since 2004, according to data published by Billboard.

Buffett, 61, says he likes "the dichotomy of the crowd, the astronauts, district attorneys. And the 20-year-old college students are just as big fans as their parents are."

Laughter is the connection, he says. "We didn't descend from theologians, we descended from court jesters. Bad times have always been made better if you can laugh at yourself or laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation."

At a time when many musicians are trying to create such loyal followings, Buffett is just reporting back to the job that grew from his efforts to flee the music industry.

"I was in control of that part of my life," he says. "I was not in control of records. That gave me the freedom that I always wanted — to not be subservient to a corporate record company."

Fans connected with the free spirit, sometimes to a fault.

"Jimmy Buffett cursed my life," says Diana Griffin, 44, a barefoot blonde. Inspired by Buffett's music, husband Kenny quit his job as a cop to become a boat captain, and the couple moved from San Clemente, Calif., to Gulf Shores, Ala., in 1992. Living by the sea with two children, they struggled to pay their bills.

He scrubbed boats to make extra money. She worked as a bartender, boiling shrimp and pouring beer.

"It was nothing like we thought it would be, and it was all Jimmy Buffett's fault," she says, laughing, paraphrasing the pivotal line from Margaritaville.

But she wouldn't change a thing. "Everything we did led us right to this point. This place, these friends. I could not be in a better place."

Kenny, now a water project manager in Woodlands, the Texas town on the other side of the fence of this concert venue, says the hard times were worthwhile.

"Being by the water is a higher consciousness," he says. "Every day that you (piddle) away, you never get back."

During the concert, Buffett shows videos of his winter trip around the world. He plays his guitar for strangers from Dubai to Singapore. "You can connect," he says. "The world has always been a dangerous place, and it always will be, but we make it more dangerous if we don't go out there."

Most people go to concerts for the music. But Parrotheads go to party and soak up such simple, salty philosophies.

Tom and Suzanne Machala, both 61, of Baytown, Texas, were the first to arrive at the gates when Buffett kicked off his Year of Still Here tour, which runs into October.

They waited for hours as a line formed behind them, eager to listen to the man they have seen regularly since 1976.

"I like to jump around and dance on the lawn," says Suzanne, a college bookstore manager. "I just don't think you can have a bad day if you listen to Jimmy Buffett," says Tom, a chemical plant operator.

With a bond like that, Buffett says he's happy take the stage, kick off his flip-flops in front of the drums and perform his "foolishness" to help transport his fans to this place again.

"It's like having a great old car that you keep running and painting and fixing up," he says. "We never really fit any kind of mold, and we're not out there trying to push ourselves in any capacity.

"It's just time for us to go back out."
http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2008-06-17-parrotheads_N.htm

Jimmy Buffett shares his view of the world through music, books and casual conversations with strangers. USA TODAY bounced some questions off the troubadour on behalf of his fans.

Q: What are you going to do when you retire? What could possibly be as much fun as performing?

A: As long as I can remember the words and not go flat, I will still sing. I look at Harry Belafonte and (Frank) Sinatra in the late ages, and there is a magic on that stage that very few people get to experience. I'm going to enjoy every day.

Q: What do you want the world to remember about you?

A: I made people smile, and I was lucky enough to live the American dream.

Q: Where have you seen the most beautiful sunset?

A: That is a great question. There are sunsets in the Caribbean that are just about as pretty as anywhere else. Any place the sun melts into the water is OK with me, but probably the Caribbean and Hawaii.

Q: What size boat do you have?

A: I have a small sailboat that I can singlehand. I like to sail by myself. I had envisioned that my children would love to go sail with me, but as teenagers, that ain't happening. So I have a little 9½-meter sailboat. And the big boat (125 feet) just keeps getting bigger. If you're into boats, you're always looking for something bigger and better. I am a victim of that, and I'm still looking.

Q: What have you learned about marriage?

A: Have low expectations and you will be OK.

Q: What is it like having teenagers at 61?

A: I don't feel like I'm 61, the way I perceived 61 when my parents were 61. I think I'm in better shape and I'm not as grown up as they were, so that helps. The kids are like people now. They're pretty much well on their way. You have to let them be who they are going to be. You can encourage them and be there for advice and things of that nature, but when you get into adolescence, they make their own decisions.

Q: What have you learned about loss? A: I've had a lot of it. I lost my parents and my best friend in the same year, and I lost a couple of good friends recently. The older you get, it seems to be in your life more. I try not to default to talking about who died and what ailment I have from getting old, because that seems to be where everybody goes. Call it escapism or whatever. I try not to dwell on it.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2008-06-17-buffett-side_N.htm

1. "Welcome to the crowded skies."

If you've flown lately you've probably noticed that air travel feels like rush hour on the subway. Indeed, as airlines get more efficient, they're squeezing more people onto fewer planes. But that's had an unintended consequence: More fliers get left behind. Airlines have always overbooked flights to compensate for last-minute cancellations. But they don't always get the numbers right. And with so few seats open on later flights, fewer folks are volunteering to get bumped. As a result, the number of involuntarily bumped passengers is up, having grown 44 percent between the first nine months of 2005 and the same period in 2007, according to the Department of Transportation.

The silver lining for travelers is that airlines must get involuntarily bumped fliers to their destination within four hours of the expected arrival time or refund them up to $400. The bad news is, the problem isn't going away — airlines are busy developing computer systems to help them rebook bumped passengers. "Instead of fixing the problem," says Tony Polito, an associate professor at East Carolina University who has published several studies on the airline industry, "they are institutionalizing it."

2. "Your hard-won air miles are worth less all the time."

Air miles are easy to accrue. You can earn them using your credit card, getting a mortgage, "for anything short of breathing," says Tim Winship, editor at large of SmarterTravel.com. American Airlines, for example, has thousands of "mileage partners" to whom it sells air miles, making its frequent-flier program an important revenue center. And United Airlines' Mileage Plus plan brought in $600 million for the company in 2006.

But as miles flood the market, they're getting harder to use. Joe Lopez, a publications manager in Phoenix, wanted to redeem the 70,000 miles he earned on Northwest — but couldn't find a flight he liked. "It was ridiculous," he says. (A Northwest spokesperson says 50,000 miles will get you a seat on almost any domestic flight the airline offers.) What's worse, some airlines have reduced the shelf life of air miles, while others increased the amount required for an upgrade. Winship says customers can keep their account current by using a credit card affiliated with the program, which will build miles as they make purchases. You can also redeem a small amount of miles, to keep your account active, on things like magazine subscriptions.

3. "We'll give you a good deal — if we can get something out of it."

Once in a while airlines do offer serious bargains. Currently, they're doing so in an effort to steer you away from the Expedias and Travelocitys of the world. Why? Airlines pay these online booking sites a fee for every ticket they sell — something they'd rather not do. The upshot: If you're looking for the best deals — anywhere from a few dollars off to savings of 25 percent or more — your first stop should be the airlines' own Web sites.

The industry is following the lead of Southwest, which long ago pulled its tickets from travel sites. In 2005 it introduced Ding, a computer application that scans for the best fares and regularly updates you on deals. What does Southwest get in return? Loyalty and repeat fliers. "Subscribers to Ding are highly engaged customers," says Anne Murray, senior director of marketing communication with Southwest. "They fly a lot." American recently launched a similar application called DealFinder, which offers big discounts on flights, and other airlines may follow. But there's a limit, says George Hobica, creator of Airfarewatchdog.com. "If every airline does this, how many of these things can you run on your computer?"

4. "We love hidden fees."

The inflation-adjusted price of an airline ticket has actually fallen since the airlines were deregulated in 1978. But at the same time, fuel costs have skyrocketed. How do airlines make up the difference? In part through special fees. These fees keep the listed ticket price competitive but boost the total cost to travelers, often at the end of the booking process, when buyers are less likely to change their mind.

The most common is the fuel surcharge, which ranges from $5 to $25 or more. (Southwest hedged against rising oil prices before they spiked; it doesn't have a fuel surcharge.) Other examples of fees: Northwest charges $15 for an exit-row seat. United now charges $25 each way for checking a second bag. And Allegiant, a small airline that provides services from cities like Missoula, Mont., to the Sunbelt, charges $9.50 just to book a ticket online — a process that costs the company virtually nothing. Even frequent-flier programs, which are supposed to let you book "free flights,"have added fees for things like booking too close to your travel date. "I keep seeing more and more of these hidden fees," says Hobica. "I get complaints from people all the time."

5. "Customer service isn't always our top priority..."

Twice last year, when Larry Meyer tried to fly from the U.S. Virgin Islands to Florida, he arrived at the airport only to find his flight had been canceled and nothing was available until the next day. "It really rubbed me the wrong way," he says. "They have my number in the computer; you'd think they could call me." And some customers, after enough bad experiences, have started fighting back. Kate Hanni, who was delayed on the tarmac for nine hours in 2006, formed a group that pushed New York State to enact a passengers' rights law.

According to Claes Fornell, a professor at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, the major U.S. airlines currently have their lowest customer-satisfaction ratings in seven years. "There is collusion in dissatisfaction," he says. "They all offer about the same lousy service." But David Castelveter, spokesperson for the Air Transport Association, which represents the airlines, sees it differently. He says fliers, upset by delays that are often out of the airlines' control, assume customer service is the problem when other factors are to blame. "This is a customer-service-driven business," Castelveter says.

6. "...unless you have a lot of miles."

They may be making a lot of customers miserable these days, but if airlines could be said to cater to anyone's needs, it's those of the folks in the top tier of their frequent-flier programs — heavy travelers, many of whom fly for business and therefore buy the most expensive tickets. "These people get white-glove service," says Henry Harteveldt, a travel analyst with Forrester Research. "[Airlines] really want to cultivate that relationship." These favored fliers get the first crack at upgrades. The reservation center answers their call on the first ring. They often get special bonus-mile offers and free upgrades. And they can use first-class check-in, meaning shorter lines through security and early boarding.

Chuck Guedelhoefer, president of Raths, Raths and Johnson, a structural-engineering firm in Willowbrook, Ill., cherishes the benefits he gets from United's top-tier membership program. For one, it makes it easier for him to redeem frequent-flier miles. And because he has so many with United, he always gets seated in the exit row, so he doesn't have to pay for upgrades to business class. "I even get treated better at the ticket counter," he says.

7. "Our planes are ancient."

Airline passengers in Europe are accustomed to seat-back entertainment systems with movies on demand and videogames — innovations that seem like space-age fantasies compared with the pull-down screens still so common here. That's because after the industry's near collapse in 2001, most major U.S. airlines decided they couldn't afford new jets and stopped buying them. Now our commercial fleet averages 12 years old. And with so many older jets in the air, airlines feel little pressure to upgrade, says Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst with the Teal Group.

"An inordinate number of our planes [in the U.S.] are old and inefficient," says Harteveldt. Among U.S. carriers, Northwest has the oldest planes, with an average age of 17 years. (JetBlue and AirTran, by contrast, have the newest fleets, averaging three years old.) It's not that old aircraft are dangerous; they're maintained to high safety standards. But in addition to being dingy and less comfortable for passengers, old planes cause more delays due to last-minute mechanical problems, and they guzzle fuel, a cost that filters down to customers. The situation is only going to get worse, says CreditSights analyst Roger King, since most U.S. airlines have placed few or no orders for new planes.

8. "Even we don't understand our pricing."

Most flights are divided into first class, business and economy. But when it comes to pricing, there are often up to 200 different price points for seats on each plane. "Ticket pricing is a mix of science, game theory and art — a three-dimensional matrix," Harteveldt says. The biggest factor, beyond basic costs like fuel and labor, is the competition. Airlines track each other's fares, then try to determine how many business travelers, who generally pay a premium for flexible tickets, are likely to book a flight. On routes with lots of business travelers, seat prices can stay high because airlines know they'll book seats at the last minute. As each seat sells, the prices of others fluctuate. "Domestic fares can change up to three times a day," says Hobica.

But prices don't only go up. If demand from business travelers is lagging, prices may fall as the flight time gets closer. If that happens and the fare drops by the time your flight leaves, you can get a voucher from a number of airlines for the difference — United, Southwest and Alaska do this without deducting a fee.

9. "We're at the mercy of "Leave It to Beaver"-era technology."

Air traffic in the U.S. has been increasing, but our air-traffic control hasn't changed much since the 1950s. This radar-based system tracks planes as they take off, travel and land. And while it's reliable, it's not efficient. Planes are routed across the country on a series of highways in the sky, spacing them at least five miles apart for safety. And that's the problem: Because radar pinpoints planes only every 12 seconds, their exact location is never known. "It's like driving a car when you only look out the window every 12 seconds. You can't get close to anything," says R. John Hansman, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology International Center for Air Transportation.

The airlines would like to see this system replaced by one based on GPS technology, Castelveter says. That would allow planes to fly much closer together safely, which would help congestion. The main sticking point is how to pay for it — Congress has yet to decide how to fund the change.

10. "You'll wait because the system's broken."

Last year was one of the worst years on record for airline delays: Only 77 percent of flights arrived on time, while 76 percent departed on time. And the antiquated air-traffic-control system isn't the only reason. Airlines routinely stuff more flights into a given time slot than ever have a hope of taking off. For example, there's room for 32 to 52 flights to leave New York's JFK airport between 8 and 9 a.m., but 57 are normally scheduled, automatically leading to delays, according to congressional testimony by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. Newark, LaGuardia and O'Hare all have similar chronic overscheduling problems. And when bad weather rolls in, delays increase and spread across the country. Fed up, the Federal Aviation Administration stepped in last year, capping flights going in and out of JFK at 83 for peak hours, down from the usual 100. Caps will be imposed at Newark as well.

Even the airlines say it's a necessary temporary step. But the carriers would like more action from the government, including pushing through upgrades of the air-traffic-control system, which would increase capacity at airports. Castelveter blames part of the problem on corporate jets — which take off and land at smaller airports in the region whenever they choose, exacerbating delays. "It's an incredibly complex problem," says Shannon Anderson, associate professor of management at Rice University, one involving aging technology, competing airlines and private and commercial carriers. "Just capping the number of flights is not going to solve it."

Even as millions of people are anxiously checking their mailboxes and bank accounts for their stim As millions of taxpayers await checks, others find themselves with two

ulus payments, others have received more than their fair share.

One taxpayer, a technical writer in Chicago who preferred not to give her name, said she'd already deposited her $600 stimulus payment when a second check arrived in the mail, also marked "stimulus payment" and also for $600.

The IRS said in May that about 1,500 payments were sent to the wrong accounts. In an unscientific survey of a handful of tax preparers nationwide, MarketWatch found just one who said a client had received two payments by mistake.

Through June 6, the U.S. Treasury had sent 66.6 million payments totaling about $56.8 billion. Altogether, an estimated 130 million payments will be made this year.

Barbara Steinmetz, a certified financial planner and enrolled agent with Steinmetz Financial Planning in San Mateo, Calif., told her client not to cash the second check. (Enrolled agents are tax preparers who are licensed to represent taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service.)

"Don't cash it and hope [the IRS] won't catch it. They have some very sophisticated matching programs," Steinmetz said. "They are capable of tracking it if you got more than one. Don't think it's a windfall."

The IRS agreed. "If a taxpayer receives more than one stimulus payment the erroneous additional payment should be returned to the IRS," the tax agency said in an emailed statement.

If the erroneous payment was a paper check, write "void" in the endorsement section on the back of the check, and attach a note that says you are returning an "erroneous stimulus payment check," the IRS said.

Mail the check and the note to the IRS center where you filed your tax return. If you filed electronically or had a tax professional prepare your return, then go to the IRS Web site and look up the address where individuals in your state normally should mail returns.

As long as you mark the check void, you should avoid any problems, said Bob Scharin, a New York-based senior tax analyst with RIA, a tax-publication unit of Thomson Reuters. "If you mail the check back and you marked it void, and it gets lost in the mail -- then the check would not get cashed," he said, and the taxpayer would be in the clear.

If the IRS directly deposited an erroneous payment into your bank account, then tell your bank. "The bank or financial institution will know the proper procedures for returning the money," the IRS said in the statement.

Some to Get Extra Payments

For some taxpayers, a second stimulus payment will not be a mistake: The IRS will be mailing out about 350,000 additional checks starting in July to taxpayers whose original stimulus payment did not include a payment for their eligible child.

"In some instances, taxpayers did not check the proper box to trigger the $300 child payment. In other instances, a few tax software products primarily used by tax professionals did not capture the proper information needed for issuing the child stimulus payment," the tax agency said.

"To fix the problem, the IRS is taking extra steps to identify the affected taxpayers and send them separate checks to cover their qualifying children. The IRS emphasized that the corrected checks will be mailed automatically, and taxpayers don't need to call or take any additional steps," the statement said.

Still Waiting for a Check?

Meanwhile, if you're still waiting for your payment, your best bet is to be patient. Given the millions of payments being sent, and the small percentage sent to the wrong accounts, it's unlikely your check went to the wrong address.

Much likelier is that you expected a quick direct-deposit of your payment, when in fact it's being mailed as a paper check.

That's the case for any taxpayer who opted for a split refund. That is, if you chose to have your regular tax refund deposited directly into two or more accounts, the IRS will not directly deposit your stimulus payment but will mail it instead.

For instance, if you opted to have your tax-preparation fee paid out of your refund, that's counted as a split refund -- and that means the IRS will mail your stimulus payment as a paper check, even if your regular refund was deposited directly into your account.

Still, people are impatient, and retailers' advertisements aren't helping, said Cynthia Jeanguenat, an enrolled agent in Virginia Beach, Va.

"The public perception is that 'my check should be here,'" she said. "Bring your check to Wal-Mart, bring your check to the grocery store, we're all going to give you this money. However, the paper checks weren't going to go out until after May 16, after the direct deposits" and the mailing is still happening, she said.

The IRS will continue mailing checks through mid-July.

And there are other reasons why a payment might be delayed. "I have a client who wasn't thinking, I guess, and who closed the bank account for her direct deposit," Steinmetz said, adding that the IRS will likely mail her payment in late July.

Also, keep in mind that if your payment is less than you're entitled to, you can collect on your 2008 return.

"The 2008 return may offer a chance to correct a deficiency in any rebate checks received," said Mark Luscombe, a principal analyst with CCH Inc., a Riverwoods, Ill., tax publisher, in an email.

"If, on their 2008 return, the new credit to which they are entitled is larger than the economic stimulus payment that they have already received, they will be entitled to the difference as an additional credit on their 2008 tax return," he said.

However, the stimulus payments will not increase taxpayers' tax bill next year, the IRS said. See the IRS' frequently asked questions page.

http://finance.yahoo.com/taxes/article/105233/Stimulating-Confusion

If you think Web users have given up on privacy, take a look at Michael Fertik's e-mail inbox. "I have a restraining order on my brother and he is tracking me down. I keep getting death threats. I believe he is finding my information online. Can I hide my phone number and addresses?"

"I am a corrections officer and I want all my information off the Internet ... especially my address. Can you help me?"

These messages came from customers of MyPrivacy, a subscription service Fertik launched last fall to help people pull their details out of the hands of companies that package personal data and sell it on the Web. For $5 a month he offers his subscribers a list of sites where their identifying details are hung out for all to see, and when possible, gives them the option to have them erased.

The problem: MyPrivacy still doesn't work. Fertik's ambitious program has been stonewalled by many of the data businesses it's sought to deal with and has hardly put a dent in the piles of personal information about his customers that are available on the Web. As of now the project has only shown how hard it is to keep from strangers data as basic as a phone number or an address.

The Web is populated by people-focused search engines like Intelius, Peoplefinders or US Search that peddle personal data: the value of your house, criminal records, salary information and employment history.

An Internet entrepreneur finding out just how difficult it is to protect privacy

Fertik, a 29-year-old graduate of Harvard Law, has built his career challenging the notion that online privacy is a lost cause. In October 2006 he founded ReputationDefender, a company that charges $10 a month to monitor references to its subscribers found on blogs and other sites. ReputationDefender also offers to remove or hide negative content about customers. The service sends friendly requests to offending sites, refers customers to lawyers and creates innocuous blogs and social networking pages to pad Google search results.

In its first year and a half ReputationDefender has seen modest success: The company has grown to 55 employees and took in $2 million of revenue last year. "For every business action there's an equal and opposite reaction," he says. "The business action going on now is the eviscerating exposure of all your stuff, both public and private. People want to regain control of their online identities."

The idea for MyPrivacy came to Fertik two years ago. He began poking around the online data-aggregation companies that collect personal information from public documents such as tax forms, housing documents and criminal records. He says he also traced some data to more private sources like warranty cards and magazine subscriptions.

Fertik counts 230 sites that offer personal information to Web users. Half of them, he says, take requests to opt-out. He saw an opportunity to create a one-stop opt-out shop. As proof of concept, Fertik points to the national do-not-call list, which includes 73% of U.S. households. "You can't get 73% of Americans to do anything except pay taxes and drink Coke," he says. "This is not a niche."

Taking advantage of companies' opt-out offers, however, has been complicated. In December MyPrivacy began attempting to opt its 800 initial customers out of the database of Intelius, one of the Web's largest collections of background-check data. The Bellevue, Wash. site says in its privacy policy that it will, "as a courtesy," remove any user who sends a faxed request with his or her name and address.

Fertik took the company up on its offer. He started sending hundreds of opt-out requests a month to Intelius' fax number. Intelius e-mailed asking him to stop "spamming" its fax machine. (Intelius denies this.) Fertik requested a meeting to find an easier solution. The company's representatives initially seemed responsive and later asked Fertik to send his opt-outs in a single daily e-mail. Intelius says it is unaware of this request.

Then, about a week after Intelius filed for its initial offering in early January, Fertik received an e-mail referring all further communication to William Beaver, the company's general counsel. Since then Fertik's e-mails and faxes have received no response. As far as he is able to determine, not one of his customers has been removed from Intelius' database.

Some sites have been more responsive: Fertik says Yahoo has removed his customers from its basic people search, as has Switchboard.com, which powers the people search function for sites that include Excite.com. But, Fertik says, other sites with opt-out policies, like InfoSpace, WhoWhere.com, MetaCrawler, usa People Search and Fonecart, have ignored his requests.

Edward Petersen, an Intelius founder, says that his company doesn't accept opt-out requests from a third party.

Unlist Assist, a two-person company in Cheyenne, Wyo., offers a modest workaround. It mails its customers forms they send to data aggregators that don't accept third-party opt-outs. Using that approach, Unlist Assist has successfully opted its 2,000 or so customers out of many databases, including Intelius'.

But even then, Unlist Assist founder Eric Busby admits that the business model has limits. "Data aggregators are in the business of selling information, and they have to keep that information alive," he says. "If 100,000 people started opting out, they might change their tune."

Fertik isn't giving up. His new solution is to pay the aggregators to give up his customers' data. How much? A rough calculation shows that an information-broker giant like ChoicePoint makes at most 40 cents a month from each of its dossiers connected with an American adult. A background-check search engine likely makes far less. MyPrivacy could still make money passing along some of its $5-a-month fee as an incentive to delete its customers' data. "This is the way to avoid regulation and make more money," argues Fertik. "Because the privacy clamor is not going to stop."

There's not much in the statute books to protect people who value their privacy. A lot of states have moved their motor vehicle records out of sight, but home ownership and voter registration are wide open.

So far, no one has taken Fertik up on his payout offer. Intelius' Petersen says it sounds a bit like blackmail. "So I've got your data and I'm going to hold it hostage till you pay me five bucks?" he asks.

What Fertik wants may be impossible. Many data brokers lack any opt-out policy. There are plenty of other sites, says Petersen, that lack the ethics or resources to honor them. Fertik's cloak of invisibility? "It's not a realistic goal," says Petersen.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24715735/page/2/