Hey Computer Geeks

Help me out here. My computer is working fine when I use the Firefox browser but hiccups and crashes when I use Internet Explorer 8.Is there a fix?

PA to collect sales tax for online purchases

First they went after the smokers
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Online cigarette buyers hit with taxes

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As if your tax returns weren't complicated enough. Now the PA Dept of Revenue added a line on the PA40 so you can declare what you bought online last year and pay the 6% sales tax.
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State to put hammer down on online sales taxes
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There's a new line on that form for the 2011 tax year, for consumers to self-report -- and pay -- the state's sales tax on online purchases...It's called the use tax, and although it's been on the books since 1953, the state is making a new push to collect it, starting with purchases made in 2011. The reason? As the popularity of online and mail-order retail services grow, the state wants to protect its brick-and-mortar retailers. It also wants to make sure it gets its share of the pie..."It's a matter of fairness," state Department of Revenue Secretary Dan Meuser said in a statement.


Call me cynic but I think this has less to do with protecting local retailers than pulling in more tax revenue for the state. If I have to pay the sales tax on things I buy online that's life but don't expect me and you to retroactively produce receipts and figure out how much we owe.

In instances when they find consumers haven't paid the tax, revenue officials will pursue the tax owed, plus penalties and interest. And they'll identify those not reporting the tax through audits, complaints, investigations and checks of purchase lists made with out-of-state companies.

The onus should be on the companies that sold us the products to do the accounting. If I owe the the tax I'll pay it but not penalties and interest. Although the law has been on the books for a long time the enforcement smells of ex post facto.

Readers of this blog will remember Dan Mueser from his 2008 run for the Republican nomination in the PA 10th Congressional District that he lost to Chris Hackett who then was bested by Democrat Chris Carney in the General Election. Too bad they didn't hold their powder until the 2010 wave election so the people of the 10th CD would have a House member that really represents them instead of Louis DeNaples.

Congress bails on SOPA, protests work

Google, Wikipedia, Reddit and many other sites going dark yesterday got the attention of our alien robot overlords also known as the United States Congress. A bunch of Senators and House Members who sponsored the legislation have had second thoughts and withdrew their support for the bills.

On the local level 17th District Congressman Tim Holden (soon to be a candidate in parts of the traditionally 11th CD ) was an original cosponsor of the bill had a change of heart. Good for him.

From his Facebook page: "Based on my background as a sheriff, the Stop Online Piracy Act, commonly referred to as SOPA, was brought to me as a law enforcement bill. At its core, the bill's intent to eliminate theft by foreign websites protects the intellectual property of American manufacturers of all spheres. However, the possible unintended consequences, such as stifling innovation and limiting free speech on the Internet, have come to the forefront of debate. An open Internet requires that we find a better approach that is acceptable to all sides. Therefore, I am today withdrawing as a cosponsor of this bill and will work to find a solution that protects both the openness and innovation of the Internet as well as intellectual property."

There is nothing on his official House or campaign sites.

His primary opponent Matt Cartwright also sounded off on Facebook:

This is an atrocious bill in Congress that would criminalize all kinds of online conduct if it has anything to do with someone else's content. It would shut down Facebook. YouTube would be no more. People out there exercising free speech would go to jail. In my opinion, this legislation is so full of unconstitutional infringements on free speech and unconstitutionally vague criminalization of conduct that it is hard to believe its authors even read that document they swore to uphold and defend. In protest, major websites are going dark today, including Wikipedia, and, as you can see, our own Gort42.

Overall this a fight between some big corporations with the old ones going up against the new ones. The new ones won the argument for now.

SOPA

Technical difficulties

Yesterday I received a message from my friend Wil Toole

Not sure if it is me, my puter or your site ....... there is brown background which prevents me from reading your postings.

The blog looked normal on my computer so I told him to check back later. I didn't make any changes to the template and haven't had to mess with the html code since the last blogger update so I thought it was a problem with his computer. I checked the blog on 2 other computers and it appeared fine. Then I got a few other messages saying the thing and I finally figured it out. It's a browser problem.

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Gort42 looks fine on Internet Explorer 7 but is all messed up on Firefox. The last few months I've had the opposite problem with a few sites. Whenever I load NEPartisan and Oliver Willis with IE7 I get a pop up box that says the site is running a script and freezes my computer requiring me to do a restart but they both work fine when I open them with Firefox.

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I'm not sure what the problem is but I will try deleting some recent links and pictures to see if it will solve the problem. So bear with me folks while I try to solve this problem instead of posting about a few of these stories.

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Feds set to probe Sterling project

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Payroll tax break: Extension proposals from both parties fail in Senate

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No challengers yet for Luzerne County state legislators

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Lou Barletta compra programa de la piedra de Rosetta para aprender español

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Update: The culprit was Michelle's picture of President Obama I snagged from her flickr account.
I deleted it and everything is back to normal.

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My Yahoo email was hacked

Sorry about that folks. Yesterday I took a quick glance at the spam filter and saw that there were bunch of Mail Daemon messages which I thought was odd because I hadn't sent any emails over the weekend.

As far as I can tell the worm didn't get a hold of my entire address book but enough of it to annoy many of my friends. Again my apologies. So if you see a subject line from gort42@yahoo.com titled Re:, Re:7, Re:8, etc or Re:Hi! It’s only for you! The most interesting site, Re:I suppose you’ll be delighted after you try it! You know it wasn't sent by me.

I'm sure most of you figured that out and deleted it immediately but if you didn't and clicked on the link there is a possibility that your computer has been infected by a virus. I'm running all the protection software to combat this but it may not be enough so I think I will take the computer to the shop to get a thorough cleaning. Although what I have been reading they may have got a hold of my address book on other computers.

I don't favor the the death penalty for the most part but the bastards who did this deserve a slow, painful death.

11th CD endorsements

Congressman Paul Kanjorski was endorsed by the National Rifle Association

Fairfax, Va. -- The National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF) is endorsing Paul Kanjorski for re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives in Pennsylvania's 11th Congressional District.

"The NRA-PVF is endorsing Paul Kanjorski because he has defended the Second Amendment freedoms of law-abiding gun owners, hunters and sportsmen in Pennsylvania and across America," said Chris W. Cox, chairman of the NRA-PVF.


Lou Barletta got an also ran

HAZLETON – Congressional candidate Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta received the highest rating possible from the National Rifle Association and the endorsements of two other leading national pro-Second Amendment groups.

Vet group likes Kanjo


WILKES-BARRE, PA - Congressman Paul Kanjorski today received the endorsement of the VFW Political Action Committee (VFW-PAC).

In a letter to Congressman Kanjorski, VFW-PAC Director Salvatore J. Capirchio wrote, "This endorsement is based on your strong support for veterans, national security & defense, and military personnel issues."

The letter states that the VFW-PAC is the nation's only major Veterans Service Organization PAC.

Abortion hotheads like Barletta

Hazleton, PA – Lou Barletta, candidate for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 11th District, accepted the endorsement of the National Right to Life Committee, one of the nation’s leading pro-life groups.

“Recently your opponent, Congressman Paul Kanjorski, voted to enact President Obama’s health care legislation, which will provide government funding for health plans that pay for abortion on demand, and promote the rationing of lifesaving medical treatments."

The health care reform law does no such thing. I think this group has an agenda that goes beyond abortion.

I usually provide links but tonight I'm having intertubes problems, sorry.

AV Security Suite scam

This thing took over my computer tonight.

It didn't matter what application I tried to open this kept popping up.

From 2spyware.com

AV Security Suite is a rogue anti-spyware program from the same family as Antispyware Soft and Antivirus Soft. Once installed, this fake program will display fake security alerts and state that your computer is infected with spyware, adware and other types of malware. Then it will prompt you to pay for a full version of the program to remove the infections and to make your computer more secure. Of course, that's not true, because AV Security Suite is an infection itself and obviously won't protect your computer from malware. Most importantly, don't purchase this bogus program. If you have already purchased it, then you should contact your credit card company and dispute the charges. Finally, please follow the removal instructions below to remove AV Security Suite from your computer as soon as possible either manually or with an automatic removal guide.

The link has instructions to get rid of it.

I wanted to post about local political happenings tonight but instead spent the wee hours fighting off this thing.

I oppose the death penalty in most cases but I will add these people to the list along with corrupt politicians

Dr. Joe and Michelle keep telling me to get a MAC.

Browser

I usually use Internet Explorer 7 for most of my surfing but some sites work better using Firefox. Some of us have been getting this new error message,
Internet Explorer script error: Line 53, Character 3 when trying to close some blogs.

Now Microsoft is offering an upgrade to Internet Explorer. I'm always leery to install an upgrade to anything because I've had some bad experiences in the past.

So has anyone installed IE8 and how is it working?