Archive for the ‘News’ Category

If you have hired someone recently, you could be eligible for a tax credit as well as not having to pay the employer’s portion of the social security tax… first, this is just my own understanding, you should check with your tax adviser of course.

If you hired them after Feb 3, 2010 and before January 1, 2011 and they had not worked for more than 40 hours the previous 60 days, you may qualify for a tax break (this includes laid off employees) through the newly passed HIRE Act. Basically, you do not have to pay the 6.2% social security tax for the first 52 weeks they are employed by you and you could be eligible for a $1000 tax break on your federal tax return.

For more information about the HIRE Act, please follow the links below:
IRS Site – http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=220326,00.html
Intuit Site – http://payroll.intuit.com/federal_hire_act/index.jsp?cid=social_payroll_prpay_landing_hire

If you have an employee that qualifies for this, they will need to complete a W11. A copy of the W-11 form can be obtained at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw11.pdf

It’s important to note that you cannot hire a relative and take the credit. I found a great write up from Taxgirl’s blog (always full of good info if you’re a business/accounting geek).

I’m a huge fan of our local newspaper here in Austin, The Austin American Statesman. However, I couldn’t tell you the last time I actually touched a newspaper. I’m skeeved out by newsprint. It comes off on your fingers and smudges and well, I’m a diva deep down, I suppose. Aside from that, I prefer to grab my news online, in smaller bites or through my Kindle (yes, I subscribe).

Oh, I could get it from any number of news outlets here in Central Texas, but I’ve stayed pretty true to the Statesman. Why? Simply because they care. It shows in their reporting, and it has for many years. BUT, there’s also a secret reason I adore my local paper. Twitter. No, I’m not kidding. Take a look at their Twitter stream and you’ll see why. There’s no RSS flood of news stories every hour (like some of the news stations – oy!), there’s no starched little headlines. There’s some guy there with his computer or phone or whatever and he’s talking WITH us. He’s telling us what’s going on – and this, my friends, is the part that most other news outlets don’t get – they are replying. If you type in @statesman blah blah blah into Twitter, you can bet they will reply to you. Even if it’s “Oh great, glad you liked that photo” or “yeah, yeah, we’ve had the weather wrong for 3 days now”. I like that they are human on there. The guy running it has a sense of humor. Shocking, I know.

I attended the Statesman’s social media awards over the weekend while I was out at SXSWi where they did tell us that they aren’t struggling like most of the other newspapers out there (and if you read anything about publishing, you know it’s pretty scary out there). I was a little surprised, but in some ways I wasn’t really all that surprised. They get it. They do it right. Not just online, but in the paper itself. I always feel the human element, the fact that they’re listening to their readers.

Anyway… I took away that we all need to do that. To listen to our customers, our readers, our clients, our partners, whomever it is out there that we are trying to reach. I will admit that I’m guilty of getting bogged down in numbers and reports that I sometimes forget that there’s a real human being behind all that mess. Not a bad take away for a simple little ceremony.

Okay, first, the random – I heard this morning from Twitter that Corey Haim died this morning, looks like it’s true, being reported by CBS as well as TMZ as of the time I’m writing this. So sad. The Coreys were my teenage crush. One of them was going go swoop down in my small town in South Carolina and take me to Hollywood to live with them where we’d live happily ever after. What? It could have happened! My thoughts are with his family, it appears to be an overdose. Sigh, they always are, aren’t they? So very sad.

Oh yeah, business blog… need to stop reliving my youth… heh.

I saw a post on Brad Farris’ blog this morning about the various budget crisis that are popping up again. I commented on my thoughts, but I really am sick of the waste that goes on. You’d think with that many supposed smart people running something, they could put together and stick to a workable budget. It’s ridiculous that they simply don’t.

Last night, a friend of mine (Hi, Dy!) and I were laughing because we got a letter in the mail this week. Do you want to know what that letter was for? That letter was from the Census Bureau to tell us that we were going to get another letter from them and to be on the look out for it. Yes, my friends, we got a letter telling us they were sending us a letter. I really wonder how many of those taxpayer dollars went to that. Could we, like, feed a starving kid or two instead? Really?

And then, there’s just the ridiculous. I saw an article this morning from The Austin American Statesman. Apparently some nosy neighbor down in South Austin decided to be a pain in the butt and reported a good number of their neighbors (like 50 of them) for random code violations. What are these heinous acts? Oh, they converted their garages to living spaces – TWENTY or more years ago. Oh, they added a professionally installed carport – TWENTY years ago. Seriously? And the people who issue the permits so the neighbors can try to stop being fined? Yeah, those people only work half days, apparently. Really, Austin, is this type of red tape necessary? There really should be some sort of statute of limitations or something. Completely ridiculous. Hopefully some local attorney with a big heart (yes, they do exist) or something will step in and help these people. It’s one thing if it’s a matter of filing for $123 permit that should’ve been done TWENTY years ago, but it’s another if you’re talking about widening a driveway or tearing down a usable carport!

My point? I don’t really have one. It was just one of those mornings that seemed to remind me that people really are crazy.

Don’t get me wrong, I love all of my clients, but this is my 12th year living here in Austin (yes, I realize I never get to be “from” here, always a transplant) and I’ve come to absolutely love this town, the people, the businesses… just everything.

Oh, I never would have believed I’d become one of those people until I actually lived here. There’s something about walking into a local business in Austin. It’s like nothing you can explain. San Francisco has it’s own vibe (I’ve been there and I think I’d totally live there if not here) – BUT – Austin definitely has it’s own drummer, folks This was driven home for me lately when I went to find a used clarinet for my son to start to learn to play on. We were referred to a little local shop, Play It Again Music, and the lady in there spent over an hour with us, showing my son what he needed to know. All for a little $200 used clarinet. If you’ve never been to a funky little Austin shop before, you must find one immediately *laughing*

So, when I see things like this video over at CNN, it makes me smile and it makes me pretty darn proud to be from this crazy little big city.  Many thanks to my long-time local client, Robert Grunnah over at Castle Hill Investments, for sending this link to me – check out their blog too.

For those of that live here, the fact that Austin is leading in this economic recovery is no big surprise. Oh, we felt it here, don’t get me wrong, but I think we didn’t feel it quite as bad as some other parts of the country.

Go, Austin, Go! And keep being weird… that’s why I stick around (even if I do tend to stick to my far far Northwest suburban area)

PS – I just saw an article from The Austin-American Statesman that Facebook is opening an Austin office. WooHoo!

It got a bit lost in all the election hubbub, so I thought I’d mention it now. JP Morgan Chase, the bank who bailed out/bought Washington Mutual, has changed how they are handling mortgages, particularly those inherited from the banks that failed. In the meantime, they have issued a 90-day moratorium on foreclosure while they implement the new plan.

The cynic in me can’t help but notice the great PR for JP Morgan Chase:

We may have to foreclose down the line, but it’ll be after the holiday season so we’re not kicking anyone to curb at Christmas/Hanukkah/the Winter Solstice/Kwanzaa, et al. Go us!

More details from JPMC (can these merged banks please pick just ONE name! lol) at CNNMoney.com, here.

For a real-world explanation that boils it down for homeowners, check out this recent NPR interview.

Do you remember the first time you encountered Windows, specifically a 3.x version?

When all of a sudden you could navigate your computer visually instead using a bunch of commands–although those still worked for those who needed time to adjust.

For better or for worse, no matter what you think of Windows, it was a HUGE moment in user-driven computing. And now the early versions are finally gone for good. As of November 1, 2008 Microsoft stopped issuing licenses for all Windows 3.x products. For more details, check out BBC News’ article on the subject.

Am I the only one surprised that this just happened? I haven’t actually SEEN a computer with Win 3.x since, uh…. 1999.

Time magazine has released their 50 Best Inventions of the Year list for 2008. Want the video version instead? Find it here.

Among my personal favorites are

#3 – the LRO. What can I say, I’m the child of an astronomy buff who has followed the space program practically forever…

#5 – the LHC. The astronomy buff mentioned above also taught HS physics for 20years, so I’m a natural fan of this one.

#10 – Roadrunner. Not the cable service. I think I liked this one because (a) fast is good and (b)”petaflop” is a fun word. Say it, you’ll see what I mean.

#11 – Algae Oil. A potential carbon neutral alternative fuel source that doesn’t impact the world food supply. What’s not to love?

#15 – Singing Supervillain. A blow for life w/o the big studios as well as a darn entertaining lil flick.

#18 – the MSL. Just in time. The Mars Phoenix lander/lab will be going offline any day now due to the Martian winter. This tough little buggy, launching in Feb. 2009, will pick up where Phoenix left off, but more durably.

#25 – Thin Film Solar. Cheap(er) solar, what’s not to love?

#33 – Portable Power. Take a walk and charge your ipod/crackberry/cell phone without an extension cord. Sweet.

#37 – Clean Building. Concrete that cleans the air!

#42 Disemvoweling. It’s not actually that cool, I just love the made-up word used to describe the process.

#47 – Offshore Internet. We liked this one so much we already blogged about it last month.

Go, check out the list, then come back & tell us ~your~ favorites.

PS – those are Dy’s faves above, not OA at large

There are not enough digits to express how far into debt we are as a nation. It’s true!

In 1989, less than 20 years ago, a Manhattan real estate developer put up the National Debt Clock to call attention to what was then a $2.4 trillion debt.

Sadly, he obviously never thought he’d need more digits. The current national debt is up to 10.2 trillion dollars. The dollar sign on the clock was temporarily converted to a “1″ to allow for the higher number and the organization that maintains the clock plans to add slots for 2 more digits some time nexty year.

Then the will be able to show us our national debt up to a quadrillion* dollars. Yay. I think it’s safe to say that if it gets that high, we probably won’t be worrying about whether or not the clock is accurate, eh?

Shamelessly re-written from CNN.com’s article on the same topic


*Who else thinks this sounds like a made-up number?

Eh? What do I mean?

I’m talking about clickjacking, a nasty little browser expolit that, according to Jeremiah Grossman, of WhiteHat Security, “…gives an attacker the ability to trick a user into clicking on something only barely or momentarily noticeable. Therefore, if a user clicks on a Web page, they may actually be clicking on content from another page.”

And, no, Firefox and Mac users are NOT safe from this one, it apparently affects ALL browsers. Read more at the Linux Journal blog.

Microsoft confirmed on Friday that they will continue shipping Windows XP media through July 2009. Read all about it in this ComputerWorld article.

Yea, Vista is a BIG hit…lol.