Back in 1980 Ohio and Michigan started the trend of offering tax holidays for automobile purchases. All automobiles were purchased state tax free during those tax holidays. New York extended the tradition to clothes and back-to-school supplies. In 1997 for the first time introduced sales tax holiday which were followed by dozens of states in later years. South Carolina surprised everyone in 2006 by suspending the state tax, for the two days following Thanksgiving 2006 which included almost everything from purchases of cars , computers and even airplanes.

Typically August is the month of back to school shopping when most state sales tax holidays are announced.Who benefits ? Past sales tax holidays showed no benefits that economy will gain during these events. With inflation touching the roof this will benefit the consumers a little bit With rising fuel and food costs budgets.

Before you jump on this deal keep in mind that most states leave it to individual towns and counties to decide whether they will waive local taxes in addition to the state sales tax.



Here is the link for state tax holidays.

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Labels: Accounting, Business, Deals, New York, Sales and Use Tax, Tax, Tax holiday, Tax Negotiation and Representation, United States

Image via WikipediaSummary:

"The cloud" aka "The internet" -- computing is a way to access all your data and even applications from any where via Internet. Google Docs is one of the examples of storing, sharing and retrieving documents by anyone form anywhere with any internet accessible PC. The biggest trend is the separation of hardware from software. Cloud Computing is promising trend that changes the way IS manages technology in next five years. All the IT operations can be run from a third party data centers relieving IT from some of the maintainability/support issues.

Analysis:

Cloud computing will be a big part in future of technology. Instead of storing our information on one computer or device, we store them in the clouds – over the internet and are thus accessible via our work computers, home computers and personal devices.

The growing requirement these days is accessibility of documents or applications in a centralized location. Two or three PCs at home and another PC at work, it is difficult to manage and work on same documents from multiple locations. SaaS -- Software as a Service is next big thing I feel that will avoid document versions clutter by making documents available at centralized location. Adobe made its photoshop software -- "Photoshop Express" available free for all online users. No-installation-required version is easy to access and user will get the same photo editing experience as in an desktop installed version.

Amazon has done a great job in commercializing the idea of cloud computing, and of bringing infrastructure as a service to start ups. Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is a web service that provides re sizable compute capacity in the cloud. It is designed to make web-scale computing easier for developers.

Does cloud computing makes money for the companies ? May be not for every company that's in cloud computing. Google was able to cash by getting as many people as possible looking at advertising alongside search and other various software offerings.

I think the market is not yet ready for prime time. Free web based apps still lacks some powerful features to replace desktop version. Security is one major area of concern I feel that limits what can be done in "cloud computing".

Source:

What Does Cloud Computing Mean for You?

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Image by Getty Images via DaylifeGoogle reported that its second quarter profit rose 35% but its flag ship ad business is slowing as the number of paid clicks at the Web giant continued to slow.

Summary:

The #1 search engine that redefined internet is facing legacy system issues as they grow bigger and bigger as company. Getting ad money from YouTube has become a challenge for Google. YouTube with one billion plus page views got a meager $200 million last year. The challenge for Google is take their legacy applications which are popular with text ads to next level i.e. video ads. Besides technology issues the advertisers are hesitant to display their ads besides amateur videos. The lessons learned from Google's issues is that continuous focus is required on legacy systems by improving them to stay on top in the business.

Analysis :

I feel part of the revenue loss can be attributed to the cautious steps that Google is taking as infringement law suits are increasingly filed against YouTube business of Google. It is surprising to note that a world class company like Google lacks fully automated billing system for YouTube and the bills are counted manually. Advertisers had to pore over three separate legal contracts for Google sales people to get back to the advertisers shows how worse is the usability of the legacy system. The team found 105 ad sales problems with YouTube and 24 internal systems are touched to customize to what advertisers need, this shows us the growing problems of complicated system. It is good for Google that it faced similar issues in the past with the "Project Drano" because of overlap of sales database and disparate billing systems. With the current problems the "Project Spaghetti" is aimed to fix the issues and start gaining market share. Combining acquired companies sales systems is always a challenge in acquisitions.

Video:



Source : Google Push to Sell Ads On YouTube Hits Snags

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Image via WikipediaToys R Us has new coupon for the weekend Friday and Saturday of July 18 and 19.

Make sure you have printer ready to print : Here is the coupon link



Its summer time and if you are searching for some other baby sales ..here are some of them from Amazon.

Diaper Promotion, July 1 - September 30. Shop Your Registry and Get Six Months of Free Diapers.

Phillips Avent Promotion, July 1 – July 31. Get $40 to Spend Later with Your Purchase of Philips-Avent.

Top Brands Promotion, July 1 – July 31. 20% Off Top Brands in Baby plus FREE Super Saver Shipping* and Prime Delivery.

Bugaboo Promotion, July 1 – July 31. Save up to 20% on Select Bugaboo Cameleons Sold by Right Start.

Fisher Price Zen Collection, ongoing. Save 15% on the Fisher Price Zen Collection.

Labels: Amazon.com, Fisher-Price, Mattel, Toys "R" Us, United States, Wal-Mart

Image via WikipediaStory Link : Disney's new attraction aims to lure video gamers

This virtual exciting medium in my opinion is the next generation interactive entertainment that most changes the way theme park visitors uses rides at the park. With the advent of 3D game plays, there been such a paradigm shift in the way now video games are played. It is an interesting and immersing experience that I believe will attract new visitors to the park and keep the returning visitors occupied with new adventures.

Disney is taking the online gaming experience to the next level with this investment in technology. Disney Interactive Media Group (Disney Interactive Studios and the company's Internet Group will merge into one unit as per company reports in future) is popular with video gamers. Disney Interactive Studios has published games like Hannah Montana, High School Musical and Turok; meanwhile, the internet division was responsible for hundreds of online casual games and Pirates of the Caribbean Online.

From Disney's brand and business perspective it’s always more effective to promote discovery and interaction rather than pushing a one-dimensional, one-way message with its rides and from online games

The consumer base for video games is expanding, in part due to the efforts of companies like Nintendo with its next generation interactive gaming consoles like Wii. Toy Story Midway Mania is a unique product to market for Disney because it involves the emotional connection requirements of filmed entertainment, the play patterns of toys, plus the technical challenges of software.

The only question that needs probing is if it is built ahead of time when gaming market is just getting used to interactive customer base.

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Image via WikipediaWorcester's Snowhill resident Mohammad Ijaz bribed USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service officials) for six green cards besides participating in a sate tax evasion scam. The result he landed in prison with four year term and three years of probation.

He gave bribes in amounts $900,000 to get U.S. Green Cards for six people and for taxes to Comptroller to assess the sales in the stores to $18 million.

Ijaz is one of 11 men arrested as part of a September nationwide sweep in Somerset, Wicomico and Worcester counties.

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When New Zealand required 26 off 39 balls, All-rounder "Grant Elliott" was knocked over by the bowler "Ryan Sidebottom". Elliot was given run out when England appealed.

It clearly angered Elliott and the team New Zealand too. Umpire - Mark Benson did the right thing offered England and Collingwood the chance to withdraw the appeal. Paul Collingwood and neither his players seems bothered and Elliott was given out. He walked out with "what's that" looks at England players that questioned the gentleman game Cricket.

Collingwood should have withdrawn the appeal for the sanctity of the game. True sportsman ship is lost when the England team appealed for Elliot's run out.

Anyway, the justice is served with New Zealand winning the match from the last over.

Also Colllingwood made history with the four match suspension for being captain of England for bowling too slow in ODi#4

Here is run out appeal video (courtesy @@ youtube)

Labels: Controversy, Cricket, England, videos

Even the re-play video from you tube keeps you at the end of your chairs in excitement. If you have followed this series it kind of brought life back to one day series in the midst of hyped Twenty20 and IPL buzz for three reasons.

1) Controversial no result match which black Caps would have won easily.
2) Switch-hit back to back sixes from KP
3) 4Th ODI last ball thriller.

Last over Video : (Courtesy Youtube)

Labels: Cricket, highlights

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeSays who ? The report from John Miano titled -- The H1B Visa Sham -- discussed the mismatch between number of H1-B visas approved for the fiscal year and the number of jobs created in that industry (both computers and engineering).

As opposed to popular belief John's argument is that there is no direct relationship between H1-Bs and their job creation. Is this measurable ? I doubt it as you cannot just count numbers from the same industry. It is possible that as a result of H1-Bs the jobs are created in related industries if not in the computer industry. This is difficult to quantify.

H1-Bs approvals are 16000 where as jobs lost is 76000 -- This to some extent may account for H1-Bs converting to permanent residents and the conversion is not accounted for. Probably H1-Bs are filling the jobs of once H1-bs but now legal residents.

large percentage of those who legally enter United States on H-1B visas go into the illegal alien pool -- No wonder we hear daily the companies scams and their arrests news. Recently Nilesh Dasondi of Cygate Software & Consulting Inc illegally sponsored visas for six people and they came to US and never worked on H1-Bs.

John's report may be very well true but statistics presented may tell us a different story that a person obtaining H1-B in California usually doesn't work in California but may go to some other city which I think was happening for the unaccounted numbers.

Overall the report puts the focus on numbers mismatch with the reality. correct measures (or system) are required to track this H1-B non-immigrants.

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