February 2008 - Page 4 of 4 - The Force Field Podcast

SOMARK’s Chipless RFID Ink Tattoo Field Demo Brings the Company Closer to Launch

February 6, 2008 by Rick

SOMARK Innovations, Inc. recently completed a field demo of its patented Chipless RFID Ink Tattoo animal ID system.

St. Louis, Mo. (PRWEB) February 6, 2008 — SOMARK Innovations, Inc. recently completed a field demo of its patented Chipless RFID Ink Tattoo animal ID system. The demo proved the SOMARK system's ability to apply a tattoo in less than three seconds and read the tattoo (translate the tattoo into a unique ID, with a handheld reader in real time). The demo was conducted at a private facility in the U.S.

"This is a giant leap for the company," said Mark C. Pydynowski, SOMARK President. "This demo proves our system's ability to function quickly and automatically. Previous tests, which confirmed the technology's feasibility, were slower and required some tasks to be performed manually."

SOMARK's system includes a disposable ink cartridge, a multi-needle applicator and a handheld reader. This technology combines features of several common technologies, including human tattoos (ink-based and inexpensive), chipless RFID (machine-readable and no-line-of-sight), biometrics (unique to the individual) and hot-iron brands (permanent and tamper-proof).

"Although potential applications include cattle, pigs, horses, sheep, dogs, cats, mice, rats and prime cuts of meat, our primary focus is cattle," said Ramos M. Mays, SOMARK inventor and CSO.

"SOMARK's technology is distinct because, unlike conventional RFID, it is not constrained by metal, liquid or organic matter," said Chris D. Justice, SOMARK VP of R&D who joined the company in 2007 after 10 years managing product development, including medical devices. "For example, we can deposit our ink directly on a metal substrate or liquid-filled container and read a unique ID without line-of-sight. Metal compatibility is critical for livestock environments because of the metal laden infrastructure of such facilities."

About SOMARK Innovations:
SOMARK's purpose is food safety. The technology company is developing a patented ID system based on a biocompatible ink tattoo with chipless RFID functionality. SOMARK is targeting the livestock industry to help identify and track cattle and thus mitigate export trade loss from BSE scares, also known as Mad Cow Disease. SOMARK is located at the Center for Emerging Technologies in St. Louis, Mo.

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Former AOL Executives Launch New Online Marketplace at Rogmo.com

February 6, 2008 by Rick

Aiming to simplify the purchase and sale of live expert advice over the Internet, three former AOL executives have rolled out a public "beta" of Rogomo.com, a web site that provides an online marketplace and tools enabling anyone with a computer to easily purchase or sell live services online.

Arlington, VA (PRWEB) February 6, 2008 — Aiming to simplify the purchase and sale of live expert advice over the Internet, three former AOL executives have rolled out a public "beta" of Rogomo.com, a web site that provides an online marketplace and tools enabling anyone with a computer to easily purchase or sell live services online.

The former AOL executives, Frank Marvin, Neil Moses and John Underwood, along with Steve Rogovin, created Rogomo for the purpose of allowing individuals and businesses to take advantage of new Internet-based communication tools, including high quality video calling, instant messaging and social networking, to exchange expertise and services over the Internet.

"While more and more people are using the Internet to find answers to their everyday questions on sites like Wikipedia and Yahoo! Answers," explains Mr. Moses, Rogomo's president, "it's still very difficult to find the right answer or advice quickly, especially if you need personalized or real-time information. We founded Rogomo in order to make it easy for people to find and talk to real experts and get the personalized, live help that they need."

One of Rogomo's competitive advantages is its patent-pending timer and billing platform. "Unlike existing solutions," Mr. Underwood, Rogomo's head of products, explains, "Rogomo works with any form of communication. As a result, our users are free to choose to communicate via the phone, Internet video call, instant messaging, online collaboration tools or any other method they wish. People want technology that complements what they do, not technology that tells them what to do."

In addition to helping users find information, Rogomo also makes it simple for individuals or businesses to earn money by selling their expertise or services. Anyone with specialized knowledge or expertise can sign up as a Rogomo expert and start selling in minutes. Rogomo helps its experts market themselves by allowing them to personalize their Rogomo profile pages, including adding third-party tools such as those offered by YouTube or Meebo. Rogomo also provides experts with promotional widgets and customized signature lines that can be displayed on Facebook, MySpace and many other sites, allowing experts to market themselves as they travel the web.

"As we continue to roll out new features over the coming months and expand our beta, we believe that Rogomo will help open the door for the next wave of online commerce. Just as eBay and Craigslist made it easy to buy and sell goods over the Internet, people are ready to start buying and selling services online as well," Mr. Moses says.

About Rogomo
Rogomo was founded in 2007 for the purpose of creating an online marketplace where individuals and businesses can easily buy or sell live expert advice over the Internet. Rogomo's patent-pending platform allows users to find just the right expert for their needs and to seamlessly negotiate and agree to a fee, track the length of services provided, and safely and securely exchange payment for their services.

For further information, contact Steve Rogovin at 917-204-3954 or press @ rogomo.com.

Yahoo! Gives Small Businesses Unlimited Room to Grow Online

February 6, 2008 by Rick

In a first for the web hosting industry, Yahoo! Small Business today announced a new service that gives small businesses unlimited room to grow online. The new Yahoo! Web Hosting service includes unlimited disk space, data transfer, and email storage space, for one low price of $11.95 per month. The new plan offers small businesses a simple, inexpensive solution for launching a new business or growing an existing one online, while eliminating worries about bandwidth and storage limits. With more than 1.5 million customers, Yahoo! Small Business is one of the world's leading providers of reliable, secure hosting services for small businesses.

Sunnyvale, CA (PRWEB) February 6, 2008 — In a first for the web hosting industry, Yahoo! Small Business today announced a new service that gives small businesses unlimited room to grow online. The new Yahoo! Web Hosting service includes unlimited disk space, data transfer, and email storage space, for one low price of $11.95 per month. The new plan offers small businesses a simple, inexpensive solution for launching a new business or growing an existing one online, while eliminating worries about bandwidth and storage limits. With more than 1.5 million customers, Yahoo! Small Business is one of the world's leading providers of reliable, secure hosting services for small businesses.

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"Yahoo! understands that small business owners face a number of obstacles to success, and we don't think that the growth of their online presence should be one of them. By going unlimited, Yahoo! is freeing its customers to focus on growing their businesses and driving traffic to their sites, rather than calculating the costs of megabytes," said Guy Yalif, director of web hosting products, Yahoo!. "Yahoo! has long been the trusted partner of choice for small businesses looking to launch or expand online. The new unlimited offer shows our ongoing commitment to driving value for small business owners, who are an important part of the ecosystem of partners that we're focused on serving."

Yahoo!'s unlimited hosting service includes award-winning, easy-to-use web site design tools that allow business owners with little or no technical knowledge to quickly create professional-looking web sites. Yahoo!'s service also includes a free domain name, 1,000 personalized email accounts, live 24-7 toll-free customer support, and a new 30-day satisfaction guarantee.

To help small businesses generate leads and get noticed online, Yahoo! automatically submits its customers' web sites to top search engines. In addition, web site building tools automatically optimize customers' sites to be found by search engines. Other features help convert site visitors into customers including automatically generated maps and driving directions, business contact information on every page, compelling content guides, and lead submission forms. Yahoo! Web Hosting also makes it easy to quickly attract web site traffic by providing discounts on marketing services such as sponsored search advertising and email marketing.

"Yahoo! has taken a major step forward in delivering more value to small business owners looking to grow through the Web. Whenever you reduce costs and complexity for small business owners, you add tremendous value to their companies by freeing them to focus on their core businesses, and not worry about technical issues like bandwidth and storage — which they don't understand," said Sanjeev Aggarwal, vice president for SMB infrastructure solutions at AMI-Partners. "This is an aggressive move to lower the barrier to entry for small business owners, and significantly boosts the value Yahoo! offers small businesses looking for complete solutions for getting online."

The unlimited-service offer follows a series of significant enhancements to Yahoo!'s hosting solution that focus on making it increasingly easy for entrepreneurs to quickly create attractive, high-quality web sites, including:

Award-winning tools that guide small business owners through a simple, step-by-step process to open their businesses online;
Web sites that are optimized right out of the box for lead generation;
High-impact, professional site designs created with specific types of small businesses in mind, from attorney's offices and home-repair services to accountants and spas;
One-step email setup and an award-winning online email interface;
A lead-capturing tool that automatically sends the business owner an email whenever potential customers submit contact information or request service from the business;
Detailed guidance on how to develop compelling content for each page of the small business owner's web site.

"I never thought building a web site would be so easy, and now I'm thrilled that I don't have to worry about bandwidth and storage limits," said Kaitlyn Sharp, owner, Custom Plumbing and Hardware (http://www.customplumbingandhardware.com). "The Yahoo! designs were great, and the simple instructions allowed me to quickly add pictures and information, and then to launch the site with a series of clicks. Our site went live after only a few hours, leading to an appointment and then a fabulous sale — all in the first week."

About Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo! is focused on powering its communities of users, advertisers, publishers, and developers by creating indispensable experiences built on trust. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit http://pressroom.yahoo.com or the company's blog, Yodel Anecdotal.

BitsDuJour.com Announces Daily Deal Software Affiliate Web Stores

February 4, 2008 by Rick

BitsDuJour.com offers a new program where websites an easily host their exclusive daily discount software deals on any website and earn great commission, and get free fresh daily content.

(PRWEB) February 3, 2008 — BitsDuJour.com is a 24 hour discount deal site for software. It reviews and features software for 24 hours at deep discounts direct from the vendors.

BitsDuJour's new program allows webmasters to place all of their daily deals on any website. This means that visitors browsing a site will be able to see the software deals and purchase right then and there. The problem with traditional web-ads is that they take visitors off of a website and away from the site hosting the ads. With BitsDuJour's system users stay on the site and BitsDuJour effectively provides a whole new branch to any website in a few short clicks, complete with a full review on the software, newsletters, notifications, comment borads and RSS feeds. This provides visitors with content and deals that they actually want to see, not just more invasive advertisements.

This isn't a standard referral or linking system, visitors will be able to see the deals and make the purchases right then and there. Store owners will receive all payments directly from BitsDuJour, meaning that they won't have to deal with the hundreds of software vendors. In other words, BitsDuJour handles all the day-to-day running of the store. All store owners need do is set up and get the fresh daily content and deals.

On each sale the store owner will receive 50% of the commission that BitsDuJour gets from the sale, so it's really easy to monetize an existing website. It's a powerful system and several stores have already gone live in the inital Beta period.

Here are a few highlights of the system:

Fresh daily reviews on great software, visitors should enjoy the upbeat style even if they don't purchase
Totally customizable user interface
Integrates seamlessly with any website and keeps the domain name in the URL
Email notifications and daily and weekly reminder emails, all branded with the store name and links to increase sales and repeat visits
Message board for comments on software
Minimal time investment on store owner's part
No setup fees
Full admin system where store owners can track traffic and sales on the store

Full details are online here:
http://www.bitsdujour.com/index.aspx?page=partnerStoreInfo.aspx

How to Prepare Taxes for Your Small Business

February 4, 2008 by Rick

As tax day approaches, Paul Stappas had devised tips for small businesses to file with ease this year.

Paramus, NJ (PRWEB) February 2, 2008 — As tax day approaches, businesses around the country will be turning their books over for tax preparation. Some will be well prepared but most small business owners may get “that sinking feeling,” hoping that their accountants can help piece things together. With a little foresight and some planning, however, small business owners can easily adopt smart bookkeeping practices that will make tax time much less stressful and their bottom lines more robust.

“The key is in the set-up,” says Paul Stappas, owner of Bookkeeping Administration Management, a service that implements bookkeeping systems for small-sized companies around the country. “Most businesses use Quick Books. But if the entries are faulty, Quick Books won’t produce accurate profit and loss statements and balance sheets. The adage, ‘garbage in, garbage out’ definitely applies.” Amazingly, of the thousands of businesses Stappas has counseled, less than two percent were using Quick Books to its potential. Stappas says he has also found inconsistencies and incorrect data from every company that has requested his help.

Here are tips Stappas says business owners should follow to maximize their accounting efforts and make tax time as painless as possible whether they use Quick Books or not:

A bookkeeper should never make adjustments to your books entry system without specific authority from you or your accountant. Stappas says that most company bookkeepers will frequently make adjustments to their books and never inform the owner or the owners’ accounting firm. The way information is entered into Quick Books or another program will definitely affect the outcome. If the entry system is changed, you may not get accurate profit-and-loss statements or balance sheet at year’s end.

Make certain your entries are recorded accurately. Even simple entries can be incorrect if they are not logged properly. The interest and principal on a car loan payment, for example, must be separated for proper accounting purposes. For manufacturing firms, the cost of goods must be properly logged. Service companies must properly record hours worked by each employee. Liabilities are frequently not recorded correctly, resulting in improper payments to the IRS.

Spend time planning for the year ahead. Even if your books are not up-to-par this year, don’t hide from the problem. Spend some real time now to correct your books, implementing new entry systems if necessary and resolve to stop the bad habits that can put unnecessary stress on even successful businesses and their owners.

Hire an expert to fix the problem. Bookkeepers might not have the training necessary to correct inconsistent and inaccurate entries. And, accountants might not have the time budgeted to overhaul your books. Find a true Quick Books expert who knows business to repair the damage.

It’s never too late to start over where bookkeeping is concerned. “If your systems seem substandard, don’t despair,” says Stappas. “With a few simple changes, any company can adopt end-of-year bookkeeping and accounting practices that are easy to follow and accurate to a fault.”

Bookkeeping Administration Management is a turn-key bookkeeping service that handles monthly or semi-monthly accounts receivables, accounts payable and payroll needs for businesses of any size. The company is based in Neshanic Station, New Jersey. For more information visit: http://www.bookkeepingadmin.com/

Carroll Publishing Launches New GovSearchLocal Online Database

February 4, 2008 by Rick

Carroll Publishing Launches New GovSearchLocal Online Database

Carroll Publishing, the most trusted name in government information, has launched its new product GovSearchLocal. It is a searchable database of state, municipal, and county government contact information, including local government at the federal level. It is the single source for finding comprehensive and detailed contact information for local governments across the U.S.

Bethesda, MD (PRWEB) February 4, 2008 — Carroll Publishing, the most trusted name in government contact information for over 35 years, launches its newest product, GovSearchLocal.

This online searchable database offers comprehensive and current government contact information for key officials at the state, city and county levels, including all three branches of government – executive, legislative and judicial. Additional content includes: federal government offices located within a state, annual expenditures, monthly payroll figures and numbers of employees.

Carroll Publishing leads the market in providing efficient and versatile access to local government contact information in a centralized, online database. This unique service, unlike print directories, offers two main advantages. The information is updated on a daily basis and the data is adaptable. Users can perform a multitude of functions within the database, such as building and downloading unlimited contact lists, creating dynamic organization charts and performing targeted searches by person, position, office, facility or congressional district. The depth this database contains drills down as many as 12 levels into any department or agency.

"Today is an exciting day for us," notes Thomas Carroll, President of Carroll Publishing. "We are successfully delivering a service that features the right breadth of local government content to meet our potential customer's needs and budget." He further adds, " GovSearchLocal focuses on one selected state, or any number of additional states. Users value the ability to select only what is most important to them."

GovSearchLocal is sold by state and is available for purchase through Carroll Publishing's website at www.carrollpub.com/gslocal_State.asp.

About Carroll Publishing
Carroll Publishing continues to build upon its commitment to provide the best contact information for all levels of government. By offering a range of user-friendly media from print to web-based services, Carroll Publishing is focused on delivering the most current and comprehensive database best suited to meet customers' requirements. Carroll Publishing, strategically located in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, brings together an editorial staff with many years of experience and extensive knowledge of all government organizations.