Jimmy's Favorite Sites

By Jimmy R. Hammond, CPA

Here are a few sites I have discovered which are helpful, informative or interesting. These sites relate to Annapolis, to business or are just worth dropping in for a casual visit. Let's go surfing and take a look.

Do you have a small company? Is your human resource department one person and each decision you make takes time and a toll? Then check out the Jian product line of employee and safety manuals at www.jian.com/index.html. This might be the place to start your human resource library and restore peace and harmony in the ranks. The site has many other business publications, like business, marketing and capital acquisition plans. This is definitely worth a visit.

Recently, I took advantage of an offer from American Express to receive several programs for just the cost of shipping. One of those programs was the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus. When I completed the installation process, the application gave me the standard prompt "check for upgrades." There it was online, a link to the very program I had just installed. I left the program on my computer but I now have an additional icon on my computer desktop to the Merriam-Webster site at www.m-w.com. It's quite useable and fast with the cable, and now I am never at a loss for words. No one should leave home without it.

Several months ago I received an invitation to place an active link on my computer from the Weather Channel. I have become cautious and more frugal with my hard drive space, and concerned about operating speed degradation, but took them up on the offer. The program placed a small icon with the local temperature in my system tray at the bottom of my screen. When you double click the icon, a small window pops up with maps, forecasts, current conditions and severe weather alerts. When a severe weather alert occurs, the icon changes from blue to flashing red, and a thunderstorm sound file is activated just in case you miss the icon change. Since I am online 24/7, it is like having my own personal weather station. This is one link that you will enjoy and it is free. Go to www.weather.com/services/desktop.html.

If you haven't visited the City of Annapolis web site at www.annapolis.gov recently, you're in for a big surprise. The site is totally new. Thanks to the webmaster Inna Young and the site coordinator Jan Hardesty, Annapolis has a state of the art site. Snow alerts, trash collection issues, community support groups, legislative updates, media outlets, a live camera at the dock, or you can take a virtual tour of the city. These features and many more are just a click away, thanks to their efforts. You'll never be away from Annapolis if you can get on the Internet.

Recently, while working with a local charity, I had to find the names, addresses and telephone numbers of several schools in Anne Arundel County. During that search, I came across this gem: www.greatschools.net/modperl/browse_district/2/md. Student mix, teacher-to-student ratios, testing results for each school, and more are all here. If you take pride in being an informed parent and want to keep up to date about your child's school, you must visit this site. It is also a great resource for relocation information to counties or states.

As always we encourage your thoughts and suggestions. Thanks.