I've got some ambivalence posting this - I don't want it to seem like I'm choosing sides or promoting one service over another – but it does look interesting.

Comes a press release from Qwest – which says the company is reducing the price of its Qwest Connect Quantum Internet service by 40 percent, from $99.99 to $59.99.

Current customers will see an automatic reduction, while new customers will also be given the lower price.

The fast connection speeds – over 1.5 Mbps – are available to customers in several Western Washington communities, including Tacoma and Puyallup.

The Tacoma Club has found a place where it may settle.

In a memo to members dated Dec. 16, the club board says the club is negotiating with the Hotel Murano for the top-floor space once occupied by Altezzo Restaurant. The club has sent a letter of intent to the hotel.

The club had announced some time back that there were problems with the current space, on the 16th Floor of the downtown Tacoma Wells Fargo Plaza. The club will vacate that space on Jan. 4, the memo said.

A lease has not yet been signed with the Murano, and the directors asked members for their support of the move. “We need your final input and vote to move,” it said. A ballot was included with the memo.

The directors outlined the club’s current major financial obligations: $100,000 due to Unico, the Wells Fargo landlord, being paid down “significantly by year end,” and $150,000 to Rainier Pacific Bank, which is being repaid monthly at $4,700.

The directors announced in the memo that the club will hold its annual membership meeting Jan. 6 at the Murano.

“Please join us for our Annual Meeting to discuss the Club’s future, to ratify our new lease ... (and) to elect a new Board and set a course for a bright future,” the memo said.

One of the things I learned while covering the video filming at Angel del Solar's salon was that his business is now in a partnership with the Jacquelyn David Salon & Day Spa in Olympia.

The business has been a downtown Olympia institution for two decades. David Wright named it after himself and his daughter, with the idea that she would take it over one day. That happened almost three years ago, when David Wright died, Jacquelyn Wright said Wednesday.

Wright said she met del Solar and his management team at an event in Florida, and in mid-June of this year they started discussing the changing economy and ways to strengthen their businesses.

They agreed that creating a unified team would allow them to, among other things, negotiate better with suppliers. So on Aug. 1 the name on the door in Olympia changed to the Angelo Mendi Salon & Day Spa. Wright and del Solar said Wednesday that they're working to unify their Web sites so the brand is recognizable.

And del Solar said this brand expansion may not be the last: He and Phillip Wilson of FHI Heat are looking at opportunities in Dubai.

What began in a Tacoma basement 10 years ago became the rule nationwide today as the Securities and Exchange Commission voted to mandate a new system of financial reporting for all publicly traded U.S. companies.

Called XBRL, the system regulates the manner by which companies report their numbers. Within the next three years, all companies will be required to use the system, thus giving investors, regulators and others interested in numbers a clear picture of results. From now on, it’s going to be apples and apples, oranges and oranges. No longer will one company’s “net profits” be called by what another company calls “net gross returns.”

It’s truly a revolution, and it was invented by Charlie Hoffman, who was, a decade ago, working for a small Tacoma accounting firm.

I spoke with Hoffman this morning after the SEC decision.

“We started this 10 years ago,” he said. “It was January 15, 1999 when we made our first presentation. There is no way anybody would have convinced me that the SEC would have been doing a mandate in 10 years. It was inconceivable. We thought 25 years. It’s been almost like the stars are just lining up perfectly at every step along the way. You get the right people to join the process. You get a guy like (SEC) Chairman Cox getting behind it, and the vision he has. You get these financial crises - they didn’t hurt the ability of this to be noticed.”

Hoffman said he recently heard XBRL compared to the invention of man-powered flight. The first flight lasted 12 seconds, and now a person can fly from any point on earth to any other point on earth without landing. Hoffman said XBRL is now “at about 45 seconds. That’s how much farther it will go. It’s still in its infancy. Companies are going to start reporting, and that’s going to drive fundamental changes to financial reporting.”

The SEC has yet to release full details of today’s meeting, but Hoffman, who listened to the meeting on a conference call, said all public companies will be required, within three years, to report using XBRL. Five hundred large companies will be required to use the system by next year, then the next 1,500 smaller companies, and then the final list of all publicly traded companies.

As I’ve reported before, the system is already in wide use across the world, with several countries mandating XBRL for private as well as public entities.

And how did Hoffman fell about today’s announcement?

“It was good,” he said.

Several South Sound tow companies say it's business as usual this morning as the snow falls on the region.

Workers at Fife Towing on 34th Avenue East and Burns Towing on McKinley Avenue both reported business as usual. The manager at Burns Towing, who didn't want to give his name, said that was to be expected.

"Everyone stays home today," he said. "It's tonight that'll change – if it freezes over."

Robin Hunt, a dispatcher at Lakewood Towing, agreed.

"It's been pretty slow this morning, but that could change at any time."

Anyone out there need a jump or a tow this morning? Who do you call when you do?