payroll program

Those of us who direct writing programs recognize how difficult it can be to balance administrative and scholarly work. While we produce a number of in-house publications or internal program documents, we don’t have as many opportunities to frame and present these to our colleagues in the field. The Program Profiles section of Composition Forum provides an opportunity for those of us who engage in various kinds of program administration and curriculum development work to share that work with others in our field at the same time as it provides an opportunity to have that work recognized as scholarship.

As co-editors of the Program Profiles section of the journal, we invite you to submit profiles of your FYC, WAC, undergraduate, or graduate programs in Rhetoric and Composition. Profiles are generally 2,000 to 4,000 words and should include a general description of the program, the theory informing the program, a structural description of the program, institutional constraints, and a section that explains what you’ve learned from your directorship of the program or what you might do differently based on your experience.

{This information is from Intuit’s website and posted here for your information.  Visit Intuit’s payroll website for additional information.}

What does the stimulus plan mean to your business?

New payroll tax credits and COBRA provisions will mean changes to how you handle payroll taxes and quarterly tax filings. The IRS asks that employers calculate federal withholding and advance earned income credit payments with new tables just issued as soon as possible, but no later than April 1st, 2009.

Why not let Intuit Payroll handle the burden of tracking these changes so you can focus on running your business?

Over one million small businesses trust us to do just that already, more than any other payroll service.

With Intuit Payroll:

Keep up with changes. Intuit Payroll’s team of compliance professionals works with tax authorities to get ahead of changing requirements and deliver the latest tax rates, tax forms (for services that include forms) and compliance information to our customers
Be confident your payroll is in compliance. In 2008 alone, Intuit Payroll delivered over 490 compliance rule updates to customers. We worry about keeping up with changing payroll requirements, so you don’t have to!
Get every penny of the payroll tax credit you deserve. The stimulus legislation provides up to $400 of payroll tax credits per eligible individual or $800 per couple. For as little as $100 per year for Basic Payroll service, Intuit can help you make sure that eligible employees get the tax credit dollars they’re entitled to.
A payroll update is scheduled for mid-March and will include important changes resulting from the new legislation.  For more information, visit Intuit’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 webpage.

Geeks everywhere got excited recently when they heard that SimpleDB might be based on Erlang. Why? Is Erlang the next big thing? Probably not — it’s a 20-year-old language that some programmers find weird.

But the model Erlang offers for parallel programming — distributing computing instructions across multiple processors such as are found in multicore computers or clouds of servers linked together — does represent something radically new to many programmers, even though it’s two decades old.

Parallel programming too difficult and buggy?

Programming for multiple processing units — also known as concurrent programming or parallel programming — is not easy, especially with programming languages designed mainly for situations in which instructions are executed one at a time, in a predictable order.

Languages like C++ and Java work mainly by using sequential processing. They have the capability to run multiple pathways of execution at the same time — allowing computer instructions to run in parallel — but in order to do so, they usually use something called “shared memory.”

With shared memory, different paths of execution (called “threads”) access different bits of data at different times. Your program needs to control access to that data and ensure that no matter what order in which the instructions arrive, the data is in the state you what it to be.

Edward Lee, a professor in UC Berkeley’s EE/CS department, calls threads harmful, citing the indeterminate results you get with multiple threads reading and writing shared data in parallel. Indeed, programs using shared memory can be subject to unpredictable bugs.

Erlang dispenses with shared memory

Erlang was created by Ericsson in 1987 to use in the development of fault-tolerant telecom applications running across many processors. It approaches the problem of program parallelization differently than do C++ or Java or other so-called sequential languages: It uses very lightweight processes that don’t share memory but rather pass messages asynchronously.

Asynchronous message passing, as opposed to shared memory usage, removes the possibility of deadlock and race conditions, two bugs that sometimes occur in shared memory parallel programs. But making an effective and efficient concurrent program still requires plenty of work on the part of a developer and Erlang’s approach doesn’t work for every situation.

Erlang too old and too weird?

As Sun Distinguished Engineer and Director of Web Technologies Tim Bray has said of Erlang, “It’s too weird, and in my brief experiments, the implementation shows its age; we have in fact learned some things about software since way back then.” Another engineer I talked to who’s used Erlang chose the same adjective, telling me, “The problem with Erlang is it’s just too weird. Too many programmers hate weird.”

This fall, Bray launched his Wide Finder project, a programming exercise intended to see how Erlang could parallelize the processing of a large text file. I asked him if his opinion had changed since getting to know Erlang better by way of that project. He said it largely remains the same, but expressed a wish for Erlang’s concurrency model — lightweight threads that use message passing instead of shared memory — to be incorporated into his favorite modern languages, such as Java and Ruby.

Erlang may not be entirely suited to general purpose parallel programming projects, even for SimpleDB maker Amazon. Although Amazon wouldn’t comment on the technologies they use in SimpleDB, a source close to the company told me that while Erlang was indeed used in the SDS project (which became SimpleDB), the engineers implemented their own inter-process communication instead of using Erlang’s built-in distributed communications capability.

But even if Erlang isn’t the next big language, it could serve as a concurrent programming game-changer (as could other languages that offer similar concurrent programming support). By suggesting an alternative to shared memory concurrent programming, it can teach programmers one new way that concurrent programming can be done — even if it’s two decades old.

Every child can learn. There are no problem learners, only problem learning programs and systems. With proper learning techniques, learning can a pleasure, even for those facing difficult learning challenges. If we teach to the way children learn best, through movement, play and language expression, we achieve better results. We discover that no matter how many times we repeat a learned task, if a better way is presented, we can learn that way, and a new pattern is developed. This is true learning. The results bring better health and wellness, intelligence, and more fulfillments, both personally and professionally.

Learning is that magical thing that takes place in a split second and changes us forever. And who knows more about true learning, than international award-winning learning expert Paul E. Dennison, Ph.D. Dr. Dennison received his doctorate in education in 1975 from the University of Southern California for his research on reading and cognitive development and is the founder of the Brain Gym Program. This program has received astonishing worldwide media attention recently with media spots on CBC Radio’s 1 “Ontario Today” and City TV, “Breakfast Television” with Jill Hewlett, and a full-page article in Woman’s World Magazine, May 8th edition. The Woman’s World article talks about how beneficial the Brain Gym program is for those who are stressed or forgetful. It states by following these simple techniques, you can give your brain a workout and help achieve a calmer you. In fact, Deborah Bebb, who was interviewed for the article, states, “Brain Gym is so easy, anyone can do it. And it works! Now I feel calmer at home and at work. I can remember everything and get more done. It definitely made my brain work better.”

The Woman’s World article also provided the following Brain Gym exercises to boost your brainpower:

1) Double-doodle – Using both hands like a conductor, “draw” large, free-form mirror-image shapes in the air.

2) Lazy 8’s – In the air or on paper, “draw” figure 8’s with your right hand, following the movement with your eyes. Then do the same with your left hand, and then, with both hands at once.

3) Cross-crawl – Slowly march in place, bringing your opposite elbow to your knee each time. Doing just a few of these will increase your focus.

Additionally, Dennison received a rave review from Reader’s Views, where Professional Reviewer, Debra Gaynor states, “Brain Gym should be mandatory reading for all teachers, as Dennison has successfully returned the pleasure of reading by presenting his lessons in an easy-to-understand format.” Additionally Gaynor reports, “What I came to realize is that, for educators, effective teaching isn’t about presenting the information and letting the student passively take it in, but about connecting the information to the movement of the body in an active way.”

So how does the Brain Gym Program work? This movement-based system introduces simple physical activities to enhance a learner’s ability to process information, and effectively respond. The Brain Gym learning program is based on five basic premises known as the Five Principles of Educational Kinesiology.

Payroll accounting is often a source of great stress for small business owners. There are several options available to small businesses when it comes to computing payroll, but one option far outshines the rest. Hiring an accountant - starting a small business is all about finding ways to save money and not overburden your budget. Because of this, hiring an accountant is often not a feasible option for small business owners. Although it is an effective way to handle payroll accounting, the price of hiring an accountant often outweighs the efficacy. Small businesses usually cannot afford to hire an individual accountant, and even less often can they hire an entire accounting department. Getting payroll accounting software - these days there are software programs that perform just about every function possible. People used to fear the day that robots would completely eliminate the need for human workers. Perhaps now they should shift this same fear to software. Luckily for us that day will never come. Software programs can do amazing things, but they are still limited and usually still require a human to operate them. They are also limited in the fact that they are sometimes difficult to use. This can be especially true with payroll accounting software that often requires some accounting knowledge to correctly operate it. Outsourcing your payroll to an Internet based payroll service is often the best option for small business owners. This allows owners to devote more time to developing their growing business rather than worrying about their payroll. You can simply send your payroll information over the Internet (or by phone/fax) and the rest is taken care of for you. Once your information has been sent your payroll is calculated for you, including all deductions and tax withholdings. All pay vouchers, checks and reports are then sent to your business and are also available for online viewing. If errors have been made the company you have outsourced to usually pays the fees and answer any questions regarding your payroll that may be posed by taxing agencies. Don’t fret over accounting woes for your small business. Solve your problems today with our free online accounting service.

The Terrazas Branch Austin Public Library recently had a two month long program on altering books. The teen librarian, Joanna Nigrelli sent out their flickr album link http://www.flickr.com/photos/aplteens/sets/72157594326521707/ to the YALSA listserve today and I just love seeing all the different pieces. It just seems like such a fun program to do. She remarked that it was a very successful event. They held a total of twenty workshops between October and November.

I think collage art in general would be a wonderful activity for a teen program. It’s so intuitive, theraputic and it gives teens a chance to be creative and artsy without actually having to possess what is thought of as traditional artistic skill. Teens spend so much time in a school environment where final grades and test scores are ultimately what matters most. Not only that but many public schools are often faced with budget issues and art/music programs are typically the first to feel the effects. Libraries can help fill in the gaps by offering creative art/music programs and encourage an environment where teens don’t have to feel pressured. Art and music can teach teens how the process of creating or learning something is just as important as the outcome.

I think this kind of thing would work well as an ongoing everyday after school program. However, rather than focusing soley on altered books, you could just do a general altered art program. You can pretty much alter anything, from books , journals , postcards , playing cards , cd’s , boxes …then provide them with the general supplies: paint, markers, pastels, assortmant of paper/collage paper, yarn/ribbon, found objects. You can, of course, get real fancy with stamps and such but I think it would be best to start with the basics and see if it takes off before investing in the expensive stuff.

There’s also a lot of potential for this to go beyond just a basic craft program. Take the Found Art project for example. Post/playcards can be altered to include quotes from a favorite book and then placed in another book for a reader to be pleasently suprised with. If you include the author and the title of the book on the card then it could potentially function as a niffty little readers advisory tool, something which teens may find a little more intriguing as opposed to a traditional book talk.  Perhaps this could be a TAG project of some sort.  Teens providing readers advisory to other teens.

The financial payout given to employees at regular intervals is called a payroll. Salaries, allowances, commissions, and bonuses less deductions comprise the payout amount. Taxes, retirement plan contributions, insurances, and loan payments make up the deductions. Companies, and even employees of different job grades within the same company, have different payroll cycles. Daily, weekly, twice a month, and monthly payments are the standard payroll schedules. It was customary to pay out salaries with paychecks but more and more companies are shifting to systems were salaries are credited directly to employees’ bank accounts.

Payroll preparation and handling have become sophisticated due to automation of most companies’ processes. One such automated process is payroll software. Payroll software is being utilized to target a company’s size and needs. A company may develop its own payroll software, outsource it from a software solutions firm, or combine the third party product with its own inputs. Some companies even outsource entirely their whole payroll unit to businesses that specialize in human resources services such as payroll processing.

The right payroll software saves time and money, whether the company is a small business or a multination corporation. Everyone in the human resources department benefits from the payroll savings. Reliability in data storage and retrieval is one of the basic characteristics of a good payroll software. It should be user friendly such that data entry and calculations can be done easily. Compatibility of the software with the company’s existing operating systems and processes is a must.

Another important and major feature that the payroll software should have is direct deposit capabilities. It offers the advantages of convenience, security and savings to both the company and its employees. The company is assured of safe delivery of its employees’ salaries and can save on forgoing physical paychecks. On the employees’ side, their pay is assuredly in their accounts on time and can be available anytime. They can also save on bank service charges and time spent driving to and standing in line in the bank.

A payroll software that is web-based is also preferred by some companies. Anywhere there is an Internet connection, one can conveniently access online payroll systems. That is why there is UK payroll software that will work in any country and not just the UK. Businesses with branches scattered around different areas can benefit greatly from this payroll software. Employees at these remote sites can have access to information. Security access issues are addressed by control passwords. An advantage of online payroll software is that server maintenance and software updates are taken care of by the software vendor. Other changes such as tax and compensation regulation amendments are also immediately updated as well. Compliance to the law is assured this way. Employee self-service capabilities can also be available with an online payroll software. With this feature, employees can access their pay statements, attendance records and other personal information.