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It sounds like a dream, a company with a vacation or paid time off (PTO) policy that doesn’t restrict or enforce any rules around the number off days an employee can take off. That’s right, take 15, 20, 25+ days in a year – you decide. Believe it or not, there are a growing number of companies who have removed the restrictions on common time off policies and are giving employees the ability to essentially manage not only their work, but their time off.

A Black Swan event is a metaphor used to explain a disproportionate, hard to predict event that is beyond the realm of normal expectation in history, science, finance and technology.

As applications for the 2011 Inc. 500 | 5000 pour into our offices, we thought it would be worthwhile to shine a spotlight on some of the companies that are vying to appear on our ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. (For more information and to apply, go to http://www.inc.com/inc5000apply/2011/ .) One that caught our eye was Cotati, California-based KG Technologies .

"What's the short code for American Idol?" asks Joseph Gillespie, CEO of mobile marketing company Zoove, referring to the show's text-message voting system. "It's the largest use-case in history, but no one can remember it because the number doesn't make any sense." How brands connect to consumers is a huge headache for marketers--not just Idol fans--who've now tried almost every trick in the book to get your attention. SMS messages ("Text YES to 45938993"), QR codes, Facebook profiles, website addresses--you can't find an advertisement today that doesn't feature at least one of these marketing tactics

Each day, Inc.'s reporters scour the Web for the most important and interesting news to entrepreneurs. Here's what we found today. Work less

Bravia color-blasts San Francisco's streets. When announcing its new line of TVs, Sony enlisted Fallon, an agency based in London.