September, 2009

As the return to a VAT rate of 17.5% looms (planned for 31st December) we would like some feedback from you.

When the 15% rate was announced, many software suppliers were taken by surprise and had to react quickly.  Information had to be passed to the user base rapidly about how to accommodate it within the system, maybe initially as a workaround until an update to the software was released.  And with an accounting system the implications of changing VAT can be far reaching.

Therefore we would appreciate any feedback as to whether your suppliers coped well or poorly.  If they did well we would be keen to know why they were so good.  And we expect you to include our performance in your feedback.  It's all part of our continous improvement strategy.

Please send any feedback to adam.mackay@tracegroup.com

Many thanks.

Forty years ago, the Internet was born.  On 2^nd September 1969 (OK, forty years ago yesterday) in a UCLA laboratory a group of computer scientists first passed data from one computer to another over cable. In doing this, they created the first of what we now call the Internet.

The project was actually Government backed and was part of U.S. funded research projects of its military agencies to build robust, fault-tolerant and distributed computer networks.  This research and a period of civilian funding of a new U.S. backbone spawned worldwide participation in the development of new networking technologies and led to the commercialisation of an international network.  As of 2009, an estimated quarter of Earth's population uses the services of the Internet

There is an argument that says that the real birth was October 29, 1969 - when Leonard Kleinrock (the owner of the laboratory) sent the first message between two nodes, UCLA to Stanford. The message was “LO”.  It was actually supposed to be "LOGIN" but the system crashed after Kleinrock typed "L" and "O."

Useless fact:

Al Gore claimed he invented the Internet.

According to a CNN transcript of an interview with Wolf Blitzer, Al Gore said, "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." Actually Al Gore was not yet in Congress in 1969 when ARPANET (what the Internet was originally called) started or in 1974 when the term Internet first came into use. Gore was elected to Congress in 1976.

The Trace Solutions User Conference this year takes place on 3rd November near Covent Garden, London..  As usual the conference will cover a wide range of subjects and as a large proportion of our users always attend, this is a good chance to meet like-minded users.  If you are a user and have not received an invitation, please contact your Account Manager as you should have received invitations by now.

The Property Forum draws near, starting on 17th September.  This event, which was originally held on a cruise ship but now takes place in a hotel, is an excellent event for meeting large numbers of interested parties.  This is because both the suppliers and the delegates pre-book meetings on the Richmond Events web site and each have the opportunity to accept or decline the meetings.  This means that that the meetings are always with interested parties.  Sadly the very opulent surroundings of the cruise ship are no more, though so is the risk of a rough sea in the English Channel.