Blogs

IRS's Confusing New Ad Campaign Wednesday, 21 December 2011 13:41 Written by D W Hawthorne

With Tax season coming on hand the IRS has introduced a huge ad campaign making the public aware of the EITC the Earned Income Tax Credit.  The ads boast that if you make "less than $49,000 a year" you "could be owed a $5000 refund."  While this is technically true it is also grossly misleading.

The commercial does not indicate that in order to get a credit of around $5000 you need to have two or more children as dependents ($5,666 for 3 or more kids, $5036 with just two) and the maximum salary value to qualify is $48,362 for a combined salary of a married couple.

The commercial never indicates that in order to benefit from the numbers mentioned in the commercial you need to have three or more children or that you need to be married.

While the IRS attempts to do its best to get people to know about the credit the fact is the vast majority of people simply aren't able to benefit from it and it is very misguiding about whether or not it is possible for you to qualify.  If you're curious about whether or not you qualify you can check here: http://www.bankrate.com/finance/money-guides/earned-income-tax-credit-could-pay-off-1.aspx

That guide is a simple and accurate summation of the credit that is far easier and quicker to understand than working your way through the IRS's website.

D W Publishes his first Kindle Book! Sunday, 18 December 2011 22:09 Written by Allan Libby

Our very own D W has published his book as a Kindle download!  Go check it out from the links below for the Kindle version or the paperback version.

2011 NYC Comic Con Recap Monday, 24 October 2011 19:38 Written by Allan Libby

Well it’s that time of year again here at IGT, New York City Comic Con has come and gone once again and here are some of my thoughts on the event.

Maybe because it was the first day for Press, Pros, and VIPs, but some of the bigger names had pretty lame booths.  Both DC and Marvel did not really have much going on.  Marvel had the cool shield set going for them, but as of yesterday they were not utilizing it for much.  The Transformers MMO had a great looking setup, but they were experiencing technical difficulties so there was not any real action, by the end they had some pre-rendered animations of some of the characters playing on their screen.

There were still some pretty good offerings this year.  Square Enix had a number of consoles available to demo some of their new games like Deus Ex Human Revolution and Final Fantasy XIII-2.  Sprint, like last year, had a number of video games to try out in their booths, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Uncharted 3 among them.  Star Wars: The Old Republic had a playable demo, which I did not try this day because the line was so long.  Believe it or not, 5 Gum had a great booth before entering the Con proper, they had a bed of ball bearings under 3 large speakers you could lay on and had some fun video games you could try out.

Panels opened at noon for professionals, but I do not think many people attended them.  They were about comic books and video games in libraries, fairly dry stuff.  I have not been impressed with the overall panel offerings this year.  There are some good ones we will attend today and tomorrow.

The two panels we attended this year were very good.  The first was the Felcia day spotlight which was moderated by Chris Hardwick.  Sandeep Parikh was along for the ride and the interaction between all three was hilarious. 

The second panel was about Star Wars: The Old Republic.  The presenters could not say much as there is still an NDA in place.  Originally, they planned on announcing the release date at the panel, but decided to the week before in London.  Instead, they rendered a brand new cinematic trailer for us, and it was great.

I think Comic Con is suffering from a case of confused identity.  As cool as it was, 5 Gum does not really belong, neither does Chevy or the Microscope/Telescope company.  Last year Intel seemed a bit out of place, but at least they had a place to play video games and had a cool stage for it.  So far, not impressed.

Bellow is some of the pictures I took during the weekend.

http://www.itsgeektime.com/gallery/index.php/2011-NYC-Comic-Con

Doctor Who Actress Passes Away Tuesday, 26 April 2011 06:30 Written by D W Hawthorne

For most New Series Doctor Who fans ("Whovians" for the ultra-dedicated) there is a rough familiarity with the Classic Series characters that have been revisited.  Many will remember the Series (Season) 2 appearance of Sarah Jane (played by actress Elisabeth Sladen).  It was a notable episode not just for nostalgia, but because it was also a cross-over with the British series The Sarah Jane Adventures.  She also appeared at the end of Series (Season) 4 in a larger crossover that also included Torchwood (an anagram of Doctor Who by the way).

Elisabeth Sladen herself was a fan favorite when she became the Doctor's companion in 1973-1976, and her contribution to changed (seemingly forever) the Doctor/Companion relationship.  It was because of her that the Companion role started to shift to a subtle romantic chemistry that was never fulfilled.  This is something that Billie Piper and Freema Agyeman both later brought to the show as companions (and to a lesser degree the current companion Karen Gillan).  How often are classic characters from rebooted series given their own modern spinoff because of fan interest, rather than a character being introduced with the intention of getting a spin-off? 

The Doctor's Appeal to women has become something of a running gag in the series now and has helped drive more than a few episodes and all of this traces back to Sladen and her contribution, evolving the role of the Doctor/Companion relationship from a grandfatherly mentor relationship to partner and cohort relationship with the threat of romance.  Sladen managed to have even more chemistry with the audience than she did with the Doctor and because of this left an indelible mark on a venerable franchise.