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!

Today with all the vagaries of flight delays, man-made and otherwise, here is your own personal portal, www. bwiairport.com/frames/0_arrivals.html, to the flight operations at BWI airport. Within minutes of landing on my last flight back to Maryland, my wife had discovered the plane was safely on the ground at BWI and had called me on the cell phone to find out if I was on my way home. This site might help shorten those new early arrival times, with all the new security measures. Give the BWI Flight Tracker a try before your next flight.

A companion site to the BWI Flight Tracker is the United States Air Traffic Control System Real-Time Airport Status page. At http://rcmtravelsite.com/ta_ndx/airportStatus.html you will be able to enter the FAA's database and locate real-time information on airport and flight delays caused by bad weather or other natural causes. The graphical page lets you navigate smoothly from region to region on a detailed map of the United States. You can find the status of all commercial airports around the United States at this site.

After several purchases and returns I finally found the perfect pouch for my wife's HP 548 Jornada palm computer. At www.igo.com/Default.asp I found a diminutive little zipper case that would hold the Palm unit and foldable Targus keyboard. It was half the price of anything I could find locally and it cost only $6 to get it shipped from New Jersey to Maryland in 2 days. If you're looking for computer accessories, this site should be your first stop.

Did you know that Anne Arundel County has 9.2 percent of Maryland's total population and that it has 1,117 persons per square mile in the county, twice the population density of the rest of Maryland? Did you also know that 29.3 percent of all county businesses are owned by women? These facts and more were extracted from the 2000 census data on-line at http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/24/24003.html. This type of information is also available for all other counties and all other states. It's a perfect site to visit the next time a report requires authoritative and current county demographics.

The paperless office should have been a reality by now for many offices. According to the Adobe site www.adobe.com/epaper/eforms/main.html, the IRS is well on its way, at least with online forms distribution using the Adobe product's PDF format. This site is a great resource for the "How to" question. Take the three-minute video tour and review the FAQ section about electronic forms. You will be encouraged and again be hopeful that someday your office will be paper-free.

As always we encourage your thoughts and suggestions. Thanks.