F.H. Black & Company

January 2009 marked the beginning of a major effort for Microsoft Dynamics to “Go Green” by eliminating complex and environmentally unfriendly plastic packaging for Microsoft Dynamics® Products. As part of this initiative, digital downloading has replaced physical compact discs as the primary method of delivery for all Microsoft Dynamics products in the North America, Latin America, and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions. The shipment of physical media will continue for regions where shipment of physical media is required.

Customers can start taking advantage of the digital download option by logging into their CustomerSource account and selecting the Downloads & Updates link.

Never heard of or not quite sure what CustomerSource is or what it does for you?  Read the full article here.

Canada's unemployment rate has emerged as another casualty of the ever-weakening economy. Statistics Canada reports that the unemployment rate in January jumped from 6.6% to 7.2% exceeding any monthly decline in recent history.

Of the 129,000 jobs lost in January:

• Manufacturing accounted for 101,000;
• The core age group (adults aged 25 to 54) lost 111,000.

Our HR consultants can assist in ensuring you are using your human resources in the most cost effective way and recommend no- to low-cost retention initiatives to assist in retaining your valuable staff. For those that may have been affected by layoffs, one of our clients may be a perfect fit for your skills! Please contact us to arrange a meeting.

January 27th the Federal Government unveiled the 2009 budget. Regardless of your political affiliation, you undoubtedly watched with interest to see how the Harper government would attempt to support the Canadian economy in a time of great uncertainty.

Canada's Economic Action Plan, designed to "protect Canadians during the global recession, to create new, good jobs for the future, and to equip our country for success in the years ahead."

One of the strategies - $20 billion in tax relief:

• Basic personal amount will increase in 2009 to $10,320 from $9,600 in 2008 (worth about $66 for a person with an income of $30,000 to $150,000).

• The upper limit for the first income-tax bracket (15%) will increase to $40,726 from $37,885, allowing more income to be taxed at 15%; the upper limit for the second tax bracket (22%) will increase to $81,452 from $75,769 (total savings of $133 for a two-income family earning $80,000 with two children).

• Up to $150 in annual tax savings for seniors through a $1,000 increase -— to $6,408 -— in the age credit amount.

• Low-income families can earn an extra $1,894 and still receive the maximum National Child Benefit supplement, providing additional benefits of up to $436 annually.

For more information on how the new budget will effect your tax situation, or to begin planning to take advantage of these changes, contact us to arrange a meeting.

 

Today (January 22nd, 2009) is the one year anniversary of the release of Joomla! 1.5. Click here for the official announcement.

Joomla! 1.5 is an amazing success story for the Open Source movement:

• Joomla! code has been updated 9 times in the past year.
• The install package has been downloaded more than 8,000,000 times.
• The discussion forum has more than 1.5 million posts from more than 250,000 members
• The Extensions Directory contains more than 4000 ways to add to and extend your Joomla! website.

This level of activity means that Joomla! users can be confident there is a community ready and willing help when you need it. And the frequent updates is proof that a team of experienced developers are constantly searching for, and fixing, security problems with the project.

F.H. Black & Company is proud to be a part of the Joomla! community of users, developers, designers, and consultants. If you would like assistance with your existing Joomla! website, or to discuss setting up a new website using this exciting technology, please contact us online, or by telephone directly at 204-949-9113 or 778-785-3752 and our reception staff will direct you to a consultant who can advise you.

If your organisation uses the Joomla! content management system (CMS) to operate your website, an important update to the CMS is now available.

On January 10th, 2009, Joomla.org made the new Joomla! 1.5.9 Security Release available for download. This Security Release contains fixes for 81 bugs found in the earlier 1.5.8 version.

In addition to important updates to the core system, the Administrative back-end, and the standard Components/Modules/Plugins, this release contains fixes for 2 security issues: one low priority and one high priority.

For more information about the list of bugs and issues which Joomla! 1.5.9 addresses, see the official release announcement here.

The Joomla! Project and F.H. Black & Company strongly recommend that all existing Joomla! users upgrade to this new version immediately.

To get help upgrading your current Joomla! website, or for more information about Joomla! and how it can help your organisation manage your online presence, please contact us online, or by telephone directly at 204-949-9113 ext. 0 or 778-785-3752 ext. 0 and our reception staff will direct you to a consultant who can advise you.