TechnoLust's Journal: Linux Stuff, Amarok (media player), and I gots da bonus!

Yeah, so I'm writing this from Firefox on Kubuntu 6.10 (Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft with KDE) on a old P4 with 512MB of memory. This compy was the first I'd ever bought. (I'd always built my own, bitches!) It came with Windows ME, the worst OS in the history of computing. I think I used it for about 30 minutes before it BSOD'ed and I installed Win2k on it. (Also the first time I'd installed an OS I hadn't legally acquired, but I figured they owed me since they sold me lemon OS.) Anylou (shout out to ma boy, ellem!) I've had Linux on it since WinXP came out and I installed that it slowed this thing down to a crawl. I installed 6.10 (upgrading from 5.10) a while back but I haven't had time to JE about it.

I used to use XMMS to play media and I used YamiPod to sync up my iPod. Kubuntu came with Amarok and I'll admit, the only reason I tried it is because the icon is a howling wolf. (I love wolves, as Some Woman, bfofSW, rdewald, and anyone else that's been to my house in TN can attest.) But this program is not only the best music proggy I've seen on Linux, it's better than most I've seen for Windows. iPod support is built in. I plugged my iPod in to the firewire and told Amarok it was an iPod and was able to instantly play music FROM THE iPod without having to copy it over. Oh, and with YamiPod, I had to write a shell script to safely unmount and remove my iPod, while Amarok has a Disconnect Media button. (I have Disk Access enabled with my iPod, so I still have to go unmount it before I can remove it... I don't know if Amarok will work without Disk Access, YamiPod won't.)

So I was told yesterday that I did get the bonus and instead of adding it my next paycheck, they did it as a separate direct deposit. I checked my account today. I KNEW that bonuses were taxed at a higher rate, but 38.65%! (Breakdown for those interested: (Fed Income: 25%, Social Security*: 6.2%, GA State Income: 6%, Medicare: 1.45%) Shit! Speaking of taxes, my 2006 taxes are turning out to be a bitch. I contracted part of the year, and was a full time employee part of the year, and maintained a residence in 2 states.

*Damn I wish I could opt-out of that mess!

25%

[PreviouslySeen]

Is the standard fed withholding amount that most employers apply to supplemental wages such as bonuses. (the employers follow the pub 15/circular E from the IRS that specifies the withholding calcs/rules)

Amarok roks!

[October_30th]

Amarok is a great piece of software!

I tend to find most open source / linux software annoyingly unusable and flaky, but Amarok is truly one of the rare gems. It's more usable than anything else available for Windows and I'd say it's much better than iTunes on Mac (the Windows version of iTunes was utter crap and not even worth talking about), too. I couldn't believe it when Amarok actually read in the contents of my iPod shuffle and was able to save new content, too. It's a good player, too.

Re:

[TechnoLust]

Yeah, I remember XMMS and YamiPod randomly crashing, so when I was trying out Amarok, I was half expecting a crash. Ironically, one of the things I tested was disconnecting from Linux, connecting to iTunes on lappy, adding a song and then connecting back to Amarok. Instead of Amarok crashing or not recognizing that the iPod had been reconnected as YamiPod had done, iTunes crashed on me. :-)

no 401K?

[FortKnox]

I just got a bonus myself. Had about 45% taken away with taxes and 401k. The 401k seemed odd to me... I understand how it gets removed for regular pay, but I didn't know they took it out for bonuses, too...

Re:

[dthable]

A lot of companies view a bonus check as just an extra payroll run so your bonus is subject certain deductions - taxes, 401K or any garnishments that you might have. Medical premiums are calculated with the assumption that you won't get a bonus and hence don't appear.

IIRC, this is the way SAP wrote the rules and most people just follow suit.

Re:

[TechnoLust]

One of the bad things about this company is that they don't let you enroll in 401(k) until your 1 year anniversary date. I understand why. (I see the 5-10 emails per week, sent out every time a GM position turns over.) But I don't like it. I will have been here 1 year May 1st.