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Posts with tag new york

Filed under: Business, News, Web services, web 2.0

Newegg says 'No' to NY sales tax law

At the beginning of the summer, a new sales tax law went into effect in New York State, requiring online retailers who have some sort of presence in the state (like shipping centers or affiliate programs) to charge sales tax on any item shipped to New York residents. Big e-tailers like Amazon.com and Newegg complied with the new law, although Amazon is still suing the state of New York, claiming the tax law is unconstitutional.

Today, Newegg, a favorite shop amongst Download Squad's staff, has decided to stop collecting those taxes. According to PC Magazine, Newegg wrote an e-mail to customers, explaining, "After careful review and consideration, we are pleased to inform you that we have stopped collecting New York sales tax, effective August 21, 2008."

Although Newegg will no longer be charging sales tax on orders shipped to New York, New York residents may still be required to pay sales tax for those purchases (usually when filing annual income tax statements). Much of the rationale for the tax bill in the first place, as I understand it, was to force businesses to do what residents were not doing: paying sales tax on online goods ordered from out-of-state.

It will be interesting to see if Newegg's decision has any trickle-down effect on any other shops that are currently complying with the law. Although I can't see Amazon following suite -- that could potentially harm its legal case -- perhaps retailers like Overstock.com, which temporarily suspended affiliate-agreements with New York residents as a way of avoiding the tax issue, will re-evaluate the situation.

Filed under: Fun, Internet, web 2.0

Want to Rickroll the New York Mets and fans for the rest of the year?

rickrolling the new york mets
In what could only be described as genius and wonderful, a web user submitted the recent NY Mets song contest to Digg, asking Digg users to enter Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up." The winning song will be played as a sing-a-long during the 8th inning of at the Shea stadium for the rest of the year.

During this year's April Fool's Day, YouTube "Rickrolled" -- as its called -- every user that clicked on a "Featured" video on its front page. Rickrolling refers to getting unsuspecting victims to watch or listen to "Never Gonna Give You Up." There were several efforts that linked to YouTube vidoes of the music video on April 1st, but getting a giant crowd to sing it on a regular basis for the rest of the year is... well, ridiculous. Here's to supporting ridiculousness.

Note: The dancing in the video is also ridiculous, and if you happen to need an extra identity (hey, some of us don't like being counted only once), the fake name generator is always good to go.

Filed under: Business, Fun, Internet, Yahoo!, Social Software

Yahoo covers fashion week with ELLE

Yahoo covers fashion week with ELLEYahoo has teamed up with fashion giant ELLE to bring mobile coverage of fashion weeks in New York, Milan and Paris.

The special fashion coverage runs through Yahoo! oneSearch on mobile devices, which we have covered in the past, providing up to the minute fashion news, trend reports, behind the scenes blogs, and city guides. But perhaps the best must have feature for fashion lovers is the photo coverage.

ELLE will be running exclusive runway reports starting today. The reports will feature editors reviews of the top designers, models and trends of the day, fashion blogs will be profiled and share their insight, with photo diaries documenting the whole event available to view. And of course, no fashion show is complete without special events, Yahoo! oneSearch users will have access to complete coverage of the must attend parties of fashion week.

To get started, visit http://m.yahoo.com in your mobile browser and simply search for fashion. Or alternatively, visit http://fw.elle.com, or text "fashion" to 92466 (YAHOO).

Filed under: Business, Design, Developer, Internet, Web services, Google

Google presenting at the Citigroup Technology Conference

Google presenting at the Citigroup Technology ConferenceGoogle is schedule to present at the Citigroup Technology Conference in New York on September 6th 2007. The Director of Product Management, Sundar Pichai, and the Group Business Product Manager, Nicholas Fox, will participate in a question and answer session at the conference.

The Annual Technology Conference sponsored by CitiBank will be held from September 4th to 6th, at the Hilton New York. No word on what the team will discuss, but you can sure bet it will most likely be about search and technology. There will be a live audio webcast of the session at http://investor.google.com/webcast.html .

Filed under: Web services, Google, Microsoft

Microsoft adds New York 3D imagery to maps

Live Maps NYCIf there's one city in the U.S. that you might actually want to see a 3D map of, it's probably New York City, because, you know, there's stuff to look at. Des Moines, Iowa, not so much.

But for some reason, when Microsoft launched 3D views of major cities for its Live Maps and Virtual Earth programs, New York was curiously absent. Today, Microsoft is rolling out 3D imagery for New York and other cities including Austin, Cincinnati, Tampa, and Savannah in the U.S, Ottawa in Canada, and Northampton, England.

If you want a sneak peak before downloading Virtual Earth, Search Engine Land points out this movie of the 3D New York imagery in action. In the meantime, Google could be preparing to announce a new "street view" for Google Maps, and the search company is also expected to announce a major expansion of its 3D building rendering for Google Earth.

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Productivity, Web services, Google

New York's live traffic Google Map mashup


The New York State Department of Transformation has their Google on. They've created an intuitive Google Maps mashup that makes traveling through the state a little easier.

A Real-time transportation status map plots live camera feeds, roadwork, critical incidents, road closures, weather or alerts, and traffic speeds. A legend on the left side of the map allows users to plot one topic at a time to get a birds eye view where their might be trouble. Clicking on the pinpoints gives the user a larger description of the problem, including times for construction or lane reductions.

It's a great site to bookmark and load up just before taking a trip through the coverage areas. Unfortunately, it's not that great while you are already driving along, but then again, you can always call up a buddy and have him or her check the site out for a report!

If you find yourself in a traffic bind while in NY, you can always check out some mobile applications such as the DOT Traffic Management Center's Advanced Travel Information System, that is accessible by mobile devices and shows real time traffic cameras. We've also covered the WCBS mobile application that covers over 400 roadside traffic cams in the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut areas.

[via InformationWeek]

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Google

New York Times Travel Guides - Today's time-waster

new york times travel mashupIf you're planning on doing some traveling to New York City soon you're in luck. The New York Times just made finding your way a lot easier with their New York Times Travel Guides map. A Google Maps mashup designed to make it easy to check out popular locations in the city.

The New York City map mashup drops icons on places to stay, dining locations, attractions, and also gives out seasonal information. The New York Times also has map mashups for San Francisco, Toronto, and Miami.

[via GoogleMapsMania]

Filed under: Business, Internet, Web services

Legal Music Downloads with SpiralFrog

spiralfrog legal music downloadsSpiralFrog is coming out of the streets of New York City to prove that free legal music downloading is where its at. The service will stay in business by offering ad-supported downloads of audio and video. There are some major labels signed on to this startups project including recording giant Universal Music.

The Universal music deal will allow SpiralFrog users in Canada and the US the ability to download the Universal Music Group's catalogue. There will be no cost to the end user. There will be DRM built into all of the audio and video content. There is no word on the effect that this might have on the content, but it could potentially block it from being burned properly, or transferred to MP3 devices. The SpiralFrog service is scheduled to launch in beta form at the end of 2006.

[Via GigaOM]

Filed under: Business, Design, Developer, Internet, Utilities, Web services, Google

Google Code Jam Finals

google code jamGoogle's Code Jam finals are here. The world's best coders will be hosted in Manhattan, at Google's second largest development center.

If you're up for the challenge Google is presenting, make sure you are brushed up on accurately and swiftly solving challenging problems with your computer, and sign up now! Google is flying out the best 100 coders to New York, with all expenses paid.

First prize for the competition is $10,000, and all 99 other finalists are guaranteed a prize of $750 minimum. Registration just got off the ground today, so sign up, and drop us a line when you do! We'll be rooting for you!

Featured Time Waster

Forumwarz - a potentially offensive time waster

I pwn UAfter spending the better part of an hour on Forumwarz I still can't decide if it's just sick or if it's kind of fun. It's a bit like a car wreck on the highway. I know I shouldn't be looking but I can't quite turn away.

It's sick, it's twisted, it's the internet on it's worst level and darn it, it's kind of fun. At least for a little while.

Forumwarz is a parody role-playing game that takes place on the internet - or at least the Forumwarz version of it. Your goal is to complete missions that are given to you through a mock up of GoogleTalk called Sentrillion.

Your first "friend" is ShallowEsophagus who begins giving you missions to pwn various forums by being a troll. Depending on the character type you are assigned at start up, you have tools like drooling on the keyboard or bashing your head on the keyboard that you can use to destroy forum threads and eventually, pwn a forum.

Future missions involve buying illegal software from the Russians, pwning more difficult forums and other internet oddness.

Completing missions gives you cash, called Flezz in game, and items that you can pawn or use in other missions. The game is NOT for those easily offended. It's crass, coarse and there are frequent f-bombs in the fake chat sessions.

This is also a game for a more mature audience as it requires you to shop at the Drugs R Fun store to get various concoctions to improve your playing, engage in certain cyber activities to get more Flezz and just generally use a more adult perspective.

If you can get past that, here are the more enjoyable and time-wasting aspects.

View more Time Wasters

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