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My old college roommate and groomsman Ben Williams was recently interviewed for NPR’s Science Friday’s radio program to talk about his new energy-startup, Open Sky Energy. Ben’s company specializes in solar photovoltaic and solar thermal heating and hot water installations. They work closely with customers to design and install solar projects for both homes and businesses. They even guide clients through the regulatory and tax benefits of going extra green. How cool is that.

Click to listen to Ben’s interview on NPR

For more, checkout Ben’s website, Open Sky Energy.

The one thing Ben didn’t mention in the interview was whether they offer “friends and family” discounts on solar panels. I’m going to assume they do.

Recently, with all the spin and deceptive ads running on television, it’s been hard to figure out whose tax plan is the best for you (and me). Luckily, the Wall Street Journal has published this very handy article called, How Your Taxes Will Fare Under Obama, McCain.

The details of each candidate’s plan are pretty straight forward. McCain wants to extend President Bush’s income-tax cuts and cut the corporate income-tax rate. This benefits everyone but more so the rich (who pay more taxes since they’re, well, rich). Obama wants to increase taxes on high-income earners (families making over $250,000 a year and individuals making over $200,000). But Obama is also proposing tax cuts for lower- and middle-income households.

So what does that all mean for you and me? Read the article or click this handy chart on the right to learn more.

But regardless of whose plan works better for you, chances are it’s all a pipe dream anyway. As the article points out:

Congress “will have its own ideas, and the economic as well as the budget realities of 2009 will shape the new administration’s actions.”

And a word of warning from this CNN article that I mentioned before:

Tax studies have shown that when tax cuts are deficit funded and they’re paid for by raising taxes in the future, “the economy is worse off than if you didn’t cut at all,” Burman said

Really, the economy is the biggest issue in this election. So think hard before deciding.

My company, Appian, is hiring technologists in the DC area. Some of you may remember that 12 months ago we weren’t doing so well, but it’s amazing what a year can do. We’ve made some awesome productivity improvements since last fall, gotten some serious venture capital, attracted a whole bunch of new clients, and are now looking to grow quickly. To start, we’re searching for some skilled QA engineers and change management engineers.

So if you are serious about software development, check out this job posting on LinkedIn.

For more on Appian, check out Appian’s company profile on CrunchBase.

So I’ve tried to tell most people in person or via a direct email. But that really doesn’t scale, so it’s time to let the cat out of the bag. Nicole and I are expecting our first child in March. I’m going to be a dad!

We don’t know the gender of the baby yet but we are going to find out at our next sonogram. Nicole has a bunch of potential names although we haven’t decided on anything yet (waiting to find out the gender). We’re also moving from DC out to West Falls Church to have a little more room for our growing family.

It’s been a pretty crazy few months but the good news is that everything seems to be going well according to the doctor. Nicole was pretty miserable for the first trimester but now most of the nausea has passed. Unfortunately she still has some pretty wicked heartburn most of the time. But aside from that, we’re both pretty excited and can’t wait to meet our new son or daughter.

And according to the development charts, our baby is currently the size of an avocado. Ah, they grow up so fast nowadays…

The second installment in Microsoft’s $300M ad campaign featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates has been released. It’s not really funny but the theme of the campaign has been introduced, namely that Bill and Jerry need to connect with “real” people.

Like the churro in the first ad, there’s more strange symbolism in this TV spot. The grandma is seen throughout the ad doing work while the rest of the family, well, who knows what they do. Does this old lady, who’s “been here for 12 years”, symbolize Windows NT/2000/XP¹ and the fact that it’s still the workhorse in the Windows family? More importantly, what’s the significance of the fancy mustard?

I think we could really dive into this ad and find lots of things to analyze, but in the end, it’s just a weird commercial.

And Bill Gates doing the robot is just creepy.

¹ Windows NT was released in 1996 and Windows 2000 and XP were built on the same kernel as NT.