Well, it wasn’t too long ago that BAE systems were rumored to work on insect-like robots for the military.  Now, BAE systems have developed Border Patrol Bots that can go under trucks, equipped with sensors, and practically allow travelers to move along faster while increasing security.

I think it’s a good idea I guess, just don’t tell me any of my tax money is going into it.  THEN, I’d have to ask the government to stop doing it as I don’t want to spend money on border patrollization.

With so many people I know are illegal immigrants, well, every person in the U.S. did in fact enter through as an immigrant at some point or another.

Damn, now I have to worry about paying taxes to support the illegal immigrants.

Either way, I don’y have control here.

The robot can … be fitted with heartbeat detectors as well as sensors to identify chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear materials being smuggled into Britain. News of the device comes only days after a group of stowaways was found after entering the country hidden on Army vehicles.

via wired

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Border Patrol Bots!

Related posts

• Zedomax Network of blogs
• Wine tasting robot from Japan!
• Wheel Style Robot Parking System
• What kids do these days - Robot War
• Weightlifting Champion Robot
• Weekend Evil Humor - Furby in Microwave
• Volvo to create mini bots
• Viper robot Kit using PIC16F876

Sometime back one of our beloved customer had asked us to support “ritenuta d’acconto” in Zoho Invoice.  Yes, you read it right!  “ritenuta d’acconto” in Italian stands for tax that is pre-paid by the seller.

In some countries (especially Italy) it is a common practice for the sellers to pre-pay the tax.  Say for example (I am using the same example posted by our customer) a 1000$ consultancy made by a professional would have a +20% VAT on its price and a -20% “ritenuta d’acconto” (a pre-tax paid by the seller) on its price.  The total would amount to 1000$.  The law however requires both the tax and the pre-paid tax be shown on the invoices.

Now you can do that!  Just add the tax as is it and add the pre-paid tax as a negative tax.  Shown below is a snap of invoice that I had created for the above example.

You can see the original request here.

Hope this feature will come handy for our other customers also.  Give this a try and let us know your comments.

Happy Invoicing
Siva

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

Here’s an interesting video on future hovering spy drones.  Well, my hopes are there are no wars in the future and that these future hovering spy drones will only serve to prevent wars.  Where are my tax dollars damn Uncle Sam?

This video shows, which is a lot of fun to watch, shows STARMAC, the Stanford Testbed of Autonomous Rotorcraft for Multi-Agent, described as “a testbed of 6 quadrotor helicopter unmanned aerial vehicles that fly indoors and outdoors to experiment with autonomous agent algorithms.”

via wired

We are happy to announce the support for stacked or compound tax feature in our invoicing service. Now it is very easy for you to specify your QST (Quebec Sales Tax) or PST (Provincial Sales Tax) or other similar compound taxes in the invoices.

Where and how to specify, that a particular tax is a compound tax?

You can specify this in the tax settings page while adding or modifying taxes. Make use of the “Apply On” field in the tax settings.

If the tax is a compound tax, do the following -

• Select “Item Amount + Tax1″ as the value for “Apply On” field. Refer the image below for details (here PST is a compound tax)

• Specify the tax as the second tax (Tax2) while associating it to an item (product/service). Refer the image below for details

If the tax is not a compound tax then select “Item Amount” as the value for the “Apply On” field. Nothing specific needs to be done while associating the tax to an item.

Here is a example as to how it works:

In certain provinces you are required to charge two taxes, the best example is GST (Goods and Services Tax) and PST (Provincial Sales Tax).

GST is generally charged on the selling price before PST, whereas PST depending on the province may be charged either on the selling price or on the total of selling price plus GST. Now you can handle both these scenarios easily in Zoho Invoice.

Scenario1: PST is charged on the selling price + GST

To achieve this, add both the taxes (PST & GST) in the tax settings, for the “Apply On” field select “Item Amount” for GST and “Item Amount + Tax1″ for PST. Now associate them to the item (product/service) for which you want to charge the taxes. While associating the taxes to the item specify GST as Tax1 and PST as Tax2.

Scenario2: PST is charged on the selling price

To achieve this, add both the taxes (PST & GST) in the tax settings, for the “Apply On” field select “Item Amount” for both these taxes. Now associate them to the item (product/service) as Tax1 & Tax2.

Note: While associating compound tax to an item (product/service) you will always have to associate it as the second tax (Tax2).

For further details on tax settings refer our help.

Hope you find this feature useful; feel free to share your comments.

Check into this feature by logging into Zoho Invoice now.