Planigo.de is a leading European hotel booking website owned by the QCNS Group, and built by system integrator Optaros.

The project required significant modifications to the Magento Commerce system, and currently contains more than 60,000 hotels with real time pricing and availability provided through QCNS’ Quad booking engine.  The site is also built with a Content Management System (CMS) and flexible backend interface for easy administration and marketing.

Smashing Magazine

Exclusively available online, Smashing Magazine has grown to be one of the most popular designer magazines today with articles covering everything from blogging to e-commerce, online typography, free graphics, and more.

Layers Magazine

Calling themselves the How-To magazine for everything Adobe, Layers provides everything from amazing tutorials and tips to industry-related news, and not to mention some really great contests.

Grafik Magazine

More of a traditional graphic design based magazine, Grafik Magazine includes a bevy of artwork and creatives showcasing amazing talent in the design industry.

I’ve had the idea for this post in my mind for awhile, but after reading an article over on The Daily Background about Belkin paying $0.65 for each 5/5 review on Amazon from people that had never used/owned the products, I couldn’t resist digging a little deeper into the current propaganda out there.

The majority of this propaganda comes in the form of Astroturfing, as defined by Wikipedia as:

Astroturfing is a form of propaganda whose techniques usually consist of a few people attempting to give the impression that mass numbers of enthusiasts advocate some specific cause.

So just how prevalent is Astroturfing? Well here’s a short list of some of the companies that have been caught Astroturfing:

• In August 2001 Microsoft orchestrated a mailing campaign to pressure state attorneys general to go easy in their antitrust lawsuits against the software giant.  The campaign was organized by the organization, Americans for Technology Leadership, which is partially funded by Microsoft, and included letters the names of deceased people in support of Microsoft.
• In March 2006 video game manufacturers faced over seventy anti-games bills across the country. Embattled, they established the Video Game Voters Network, “a new grassroots political network for gamers” which publicly portrayed itself as a populist effort to lobby state and federal legislators against supporting violent video game-related legislation.
• Working Families for Wal-Mart portrays itself as a grassroots organization, but was started and funded by Wal-Mart. It paid former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young to head the organization.
• In August 2007 Comcast Corporation’s public relations representatives were accused of astroturfing by posing as fans on internet college team message boards in an effort to spread their negative views about the newly created Big Ten Network.  At that time Comcast and the Big Ten Network were involved in acrimonious negotiations.
• Again in February 2008 Comcast paid individuals to take up seats at an FCC hearing into Comcast’s network management practices, including RST packet spoofing. These individuals fell asleep, applauded on cue, and took up so much room that a number of people with anti-Comcast sentiment were shut out.
• In late 2008, in Osaka, Japan, McDonald’s acknowledged hiring people to stand in line for a new hamburger release. The part-time workers were given a stipend for the product that were to be included in the store’s sales figures.
• In November 2008 Motorola was caught posting illegitimate reviews and propaganda supporting their Krave phone under the guise “M Goode”, and through the company DEI Worldwide.
• In January 2009 Belkin was found offering compensation for perfect reviews on Amazon from users that had never even owned their products.

So the next time you’re looking to purchase something (especially online), remember that those reviews and feedback you’re seeing may not be a reliable source.  And if you’re a company considering an Astroturfing or Propaganda Campaign, remember that things can go both ways (ie backfire), including:

• September 2008, Gamers fight back against lackluster Spore gameplay, bad DRM as noted on ArsTechnica
• February 2009, Customers fight back against Fake Amazon Reviews as noted on the Consumerist

Do you have your own story of company propaganda, or know of another business caught in the act that wasn’t listed here?  Post a quick comment and let us know!

This darker side of Wikipedia stems from the fact that the information provided comes from an open group of contributors, resulting in unreliable data lacking proper sources.

Many teachers today prohibit students from using Wikipedia as a source in reports and research due to the anonymity and possibility for unconfirmed (or even falsified) information.

Wikipedia has also been a target for vandalism by unscrupulous individuals and advertisers as a way to gain traffic and increased exposure, or even to discredit and defame competitors.

The other major problem is brought on by the fact that anyone can become an editor, and by contributing to the site even gain administrator status (granting the power to block and ban users as well as lock and remove pages).

Examples:

One such example is that of the Wikipedia bio of  John Seigenthaler, Sr. (editor in chief of USA Today), in which falsified information was introduced and left unchanged for 4 months!

Another great example is that of the so called Wikipedia War on Gaming, in which articles involving traditional (and historical) gaming references and even classical games were defaced, locked, and even deleted in some cases.

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia has even had problems in the past, including a short entry he created about a restaurant in South Africa that was put up for deletion because the restaurant wasn’t “notable” enough.

So the next time you find yourself on Wikipedia, remember that it can be a great resource of information, as long as you keep in mind that these are real human beings writing (and editing!) these articles (the elitist, arrogant, jealous, and spiteful creatures we are).

Comment Spam
One of the biggest problems with even a not so popular blog as my own has been comment spam.  If your blog is out there, the spammers will find it.  Now Automattic (the company behind Wordpress) offers the Akismet spam blocker, and after installing their Akismet plugin, spam comments were definitely reduced and almost completely eliminated.  Disqus does its own spam filtering, and even has the option for other commenters to flag/report a comment that is inappropriate or spam.

Comment Follow Up
Another problem with Wordpress is the inability for comment authors to subscribe to a specific post, or group of comments, to be notified of follow up comments.  This can make it a real pain to try and keep up with your comments (especially if you comment on many different sites), and makes it hard to have a back and forth conversation within your comments on a post.  To achieve this functionality within Wordpress another plugin, Subscribe To Comments, which can send you an email when there are new comments.   With Disqus not only can you follow up with comments, but you can track and view other user’s comments on your blog (as well as others) on the Disqus site.

Comment Rating
Not necessarily a problem with Wordpress’ default comment system (although it can be added with the Comment Karma plugin), but a very nice added feature when using Disqus for comments.  Similar to the functionality you see on Digg and other popular sites, Disqus allows commenters to rate each others’ comments (and even bury comments with too many negative ratings).

Install
The one place where I can honestly say that Wordpress has the edge on Disqus is the install/setup process.  Disqus does require some additional special steps to get everything configured correctly for you blog, but luckily Dale Dietrich has a handy guide on installing Disqus with Wordpress version 2.7.  Following Dale’s guide I was able to have everything up and running without a hitch in a matter of minutes, and once my existing Wordpress comments were imported into Disqus, the new comment system was ready to roll (the comment import process did take about an hour).

The best thing about using Disqus for comments? I was able to delete 3-4 different Wordpress plugins and replace them all using only the new Disqus plugin.

So what do you think of the new Disqus comments?  Would you rather use Wordpress’ default comment system?  Or something else like Intense Debate perhaps?

First off I hope you kept records of your income and expenses, because it will make this process much easier.  As I see it you have two options for preparing your taxes, do it yourself, or pay someone else to do it for you.

Either way there are some basic rules that apply:

• Freelancers without a proper business structure (LLC, Corporation, etc.) will have to file form 1040 schedule C and pay the self-employment taxes (15.3% of your freelance income for social security and medicare just like a real job)
• If you can prove that your freelancing is a business (and not a hobby), you can also claim any additional related expenses.  Do you regularly apply for and do freelance work?  Do you take freelancing seriously, and plan to make a profit?
• Deductions, Deductions, Deductions!  If you can prove that you’re freelancing is more than just a hobby, be prepared to deduct your expenses.  Remember, you can deduct just about any business-related expense, including: supplies, gas, books, hardware, software, phone calls, private insurance, and plenty more.

Alright you’re still with me, armed with your income and expense information you’re ready to go it alone and prepare your taxes, so what’s next?

Personally, I recommend Turbo Tax be your next step.  Turbo Tax is a really great service that I can’t say enough about, when it comes time to prepare your taxes.  Turbo Tax even has a section that can handle your freelance/self-employment taxes, and takes care of filling out form 1040 schedule c for you!

Alright, so you’ve finished your taxes for the year, now what can you do to better prepare for next year?

First things first, make sure that you keep detailed records of your business income and expenses (consider using an accounting program such as Quickbooks – Simple Start is freely available to get you started).

Secondly, as you are tracking your income/expenses, set aside some of your business income to be prepared to pay taxes at the end of the year (or could even make quarterly estimated tax payments).

Last but definitely not least, consider re-organizing your business with a formal business structure (such as an LLC, Partnership, or S-Corporation).  Not only can you get some liability protection and seperate your personal and business endeavors, but the added tax benefits/savings are nice too.

The Impossible Project (www.the-impossible-project.com) has purchased Polaroid’s Factory in the Netherlands (including all equipment), and plans to resume Integral Film Pack production by 2010.

But Impossible’s Mission doesn’t stop there.  They plan not only to resume production at the Polaroid Factory, but also to improve upon the existing integral film pack design, and have brought integral film experts onto their team from around the world.

Here is the full text of Jobs’ letter to Apple Employees:

Team,

I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.

In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple’s day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan.

I look forward to seeing all of you this summer.

Steve

This information courtesy of www.appleinsider.com

Twitter – www.twitter.com

Takes a little getting used to, but Twitter is an amazing social platform that allows you to communicate with others around the world.  Especially popular with web/graphic designers, and online marketing types, your Twitter connections can be a powerful way to solve problems and learn new things (not too mention a great place to hang out and chat).

Wufoo – www.wufoo.com

One of my new favorites, Wufoo provides an advanced and powerful online form builder to collect the information you need.  Whether you’re building a customer satisfaction survey, a contact form, event registrations, or more.  Wufoo has the flexibilty to do it all, including easy integration options for your website.

Mailchimp – www.mailchimp.com

Simple, Powerful, Fun Email Campaigns.  What else can be said about this awesome web service that includes cheap, pay as you go email campaigns, thorough reporting, and an extensive api?

Backboard – www.getbackboard.com

Get feedback on documents (Word, Excel), Powerpoint, images (including Photoshop PSD files), webpages and free-form text. Backboard also features multiple versions of a project, email integration – just send an email with the file for review attached, desktop upload and SSL encryption.

Plans ranging from Free for one non-commercial account (unlimited “backboards”) to $49 p/month

Wordpress – www.wordpress.org

An amazing online publishing tool, with features and extensibility to fulfill a wide range of applications.  Build a simple Wordpress blog for starters, or for the more advanced, build an entire content management system off of the Wordpress core.

Google – www.google.com

• Analytics – www.google.com/analytics – Free website statistics
• Webmaster Tools – www.google.com/webmasters – Free webmaster tools for your website
• Local – local.google.com – Create a free Google Local listing for your Business
• Gmail – mail.google.com – Free web-based email that makes it easy to keep in touch
• Apps – www.google.com/apps – Free tools to enhance your business intranet, includes branded calendar, email, documents, chat, and more
• Calendar – www.google.com/calendar – Free web-based calendar to help you keep track of tasks and synchronizes with the majority of today’s calendar software

Basecamp – www.basecamphq.com

Basecamp is a web-based tool that lets you manage and track projects (or simply ideas) and quickly create client/project extranets.

Harvest – www.getharvest.com

Harvest, online time tracking and billing software for PC and Mac. Possibly the world’s best new time tracking, invoicing, web-based application, including integration with many of today’s online applications such as Basecamp, Excel, and Quickbooks.

Pandora – www.pandora.com

Pandora radio is the personalized internet radio service that helps you find new music based on your old and current favorites.  Create your own personalized web radio station, and Pandora takes care of the rest.

Ringcentral – www.ringcentral.com

Get a toll free number and hosted phone services, including a virtual auto attendant, hosted voice mail, internet fax features and more.

Dropbox – www.getdropbox.com

Not only does Dropbox provide your own personal online storage and file synchronization service, but you can also provide public or private access to any and all of your hosted files (think client files, photo galleries, etc.).  Did I mention that Dropbox works across all platforms (PC, Mac, Linux, and Online) to give you access to your files anytime, anywhere.

So if you haven’t had a chance to try out these amazing new online services, be sure to give them a spin in 2009.

This latest version includes a completely revamped interface to make it easier and faster than ever to manage your blog and/or website.  Another great feature that has finally made it into the mix are one click plugin installs from the Wordpress.org website, and an easy to use, online upgrade tool (no more manually upgrading/replacing your wordpress install).

What are you waiting for?  Get it Now!