Eric

Jack, do you know if ATX is working on anything that would reduce the amount of drive space required to store a return? Just curious--500/512GB SSDs aren't cheap. All of my computers have SSDs now, but I'm able to get away with 240gb drives as well. I think I'd look into how difficult it is to migrate an installation of ATX software from one drive to another, and only keep the most recent year, or maybe most recent two years on the SSD, and keep moving older installations to a big standard spinning drive.

Yeah, I'm going to have to go with clearing cookies. I'm kind of at a loss. If you hit that Sign Out link at the top right, you really shouldn't be logged in when you come back.

I'm not much of an IT guy. I'm more of a software/web guy... and all of my web servers run Linux. I've never touched/maintained a Windows server. I have my doubts about whether it's Heartbleed related. To my knowledge, Windows servers weren't affected by the vulnerability... unless third party software was using OpenSSL. Of course, who knows what Microsoft puts in their patches. Anyway, just based on my general knowledge of how these things can work, here are some possibilities. File delivery can happen a number of ways. Sometimes they work by FTP. Sometimes the machine uses a specific user account to access the network and place files. Maybe that user account is also being used for email delivery. If it's an active directory user account, an administrator should check the status of that account. Is the account locked? Has the password expired? Maybe that user can no longer access the necessary network locations due to some other permissions issue? The administrator's best bet is to view any error logs generated by the bizhub to see if they're descriptive enough to point at a specific issue. If not, look at error logs related to user account access. Look at email error logs to see if emails are being bounced for some reason.

Last week I finally got the one where the guy calls from "Microsoft" to tell me that my computer is infected with viruses, and wishes to help me to "clean" my system. I started up a Windows XP virtual machine, and let him walk me through everything he wanted me to do so at the very least the phone call would at least cost them some money.

A friend of mine degloved his ring finger getting down from his tree stand this past hunting season. I've got pics if anyone wants to see them! (they cut the ring off, but luckily he was able to keep his finger, although just barely.)

I'd totally buy my kids fishing poles though.

I'm glad to live in a place where all of this still applies.

I don't think the comparison to Vista is totally fair--Windows 8 boots noticeably faster than Windows 7 from an SSD. Overall system stability is no different than Windows 7. Windows 8 performs better than Windows 7 on the same hardware, using less RAM and CPU. Judging by ATX's system requirements, the less your OS uses, the better. The start screen will probably bother people who (initially?) hated the Ribbon UI in MS Office 2007+ but I don't have any issues with it. If you still hate the Ribbon, I suggest you never upgrade Windows ever again. It's all over the place in Windows 8. I have heard rumors that Microsoft will give us back an option to enable the old start menu in Windows 9, but I haven't seen anything directly from Microsoft about it, so until then it's just a rumor. Metro/Modern UI probably isn't going anywhere. With tablet/mobile device sales eating away at the PC market, it's not surprising that they'll continue to shoot for a unified OS experience across platforms. Windows 8.1 smoothed out a lot of rough edges that were left in 8, and I think Windows 9 will likely continue to refine the interface. If you're waiting for Microsoft to reverse course entirely, I think you're going to be disappointed.

You need admin rights to install the software, but not to run it. That's pretty much the case for any software installation though. When you run the setup, Windows will probably pop up the usual message that you have to agree to before the installation can continue. Or you can use the portable version, which you run from anywhere without installing it, including from a USB stick.

Likewise, if you have two feet, you have more than the average number.

My nerdiness is really gong to show here. For passwords that I must remember, I use some kind of keyboard pattern, usually alternating holding down the shift key. For example, start with a, and make some kind of shape/trail across the keyboard, holding down and letting go of the shift key every 2 digits for example. Another popular method is creating a few pronounceable syllables, and separating them with hyphens: foj-mip-mong-foog. You could substitute letters with numbers too. Maybe add a question mark or an exclamation point to the end. Really, as long as a dictionary word doesn't appear anywhere in the password, and you have a digit and a special character (preferably breaking up the letters instead of added to the end), it's pretty difficult to crack. I have no chance of remembering my passwords, though, so I don't try. I have about 270 passwords that I keep track of for websites that I build and websites that I use. They're all between 12-20 characters, but usually closer to 20. They are random letters, numbers, and symbols. I use an application called KeePass to generate, remember, and organize all of them which itself is an encrypted and password protected database. I keep the database file stored in my Google Drive folder, which syncs across the few computers I regularly use, so every time I add a password at one computer, the database is updated on all 4 machines. It's helpful that the database format is supported by password software available for Windows, Mac, Android, and Linux. Probably iOS too.

The number of sites affected by the bug is so huge, that if you're in the cautious mood, you might as well just change your passwords anyway. I've heard estimates between 2/3 and 3/4 of all websites on the internet were vulnerable at some point. And while it's not good practice, I know that lots of people use the same password for multiple (if not most) websites, which compounds the problem.

I've got a couple of them. One is used as a computer to run the home theater in our living room. http://openelec.tv/ They even make cases that bolt up to the VESA mounts on the back-side of most LCD TVs.

I included both OLTPRO and OneDesk in the title, just to reduce confusion and add a little clarity for search engines. Thanks for the feedback!

I should have asked about this before I filed my return two weeks ago. Haha.

I don't know if there was a 1099 or not, but I doubt he would have failed to include the income if he received one. At any rate, an auditor came to visit, asked a lot of questions, didn't find anything else, and didn't pursue it further after they talked about golf for 45 minutes. I do understand the impact on my return. I don't take the deduction because I didn't think I was allowed to, not because I thought it might trigger an audit. If I am allowed to take the deduction, I wouldn't worry about an audit because that's the only detail on my return that I'm questioning. The room contains: books unrelated to the business on the shelvesa dog bedcloset for storage of non-business stuff, although not counted in the square footage of the officea gun cabinetI spend at least 20 hours a week in there, and 100% of that time is spent on freelance web development. This is on top of a 9-5 job doing the same type of work, but I commute for that job.

My friend was audited because he sold some of his artwork to McDonalds, forgot about it, and then failed to report the income. I do a lot of projects for a lot of large companies, but I also report all of that income. Would any of you folks recommend that someone in my position take the home office deduction? My paranoia may be unfounded, but is it the right thing to do? Maybe it's a bit of a grey area, Idunno.

Everyone I know (as in people who aren't tax professionals) says I'm nuts for not doing a home office deduction. I use my office exclusively for work, but I have book shelves built into two walls filled with tons of books. Kids books. Programming books. Text books. Just lots of freaking books. Also, there's a closet in the room where I store stuff that's not business related. I have very few expenses, so the money I make freelancing just destroys my tax return. But I'm still too paranoid about using the home office deduction.

A man, a plan, a cat, a ham, a yak, a yam, a hat, a canal Panama!

If you're voting No, please post to explain why the TRX forum should not be renamed to OneDesk.

Works for me. I'll pose the question in the TRX forum.

Melting, sorry. The size of the banks is what's falling, although I wouldn't be surprised to see another small storm or two. It's been a long winter... the cold and snow have been just relentless. So glad it's (mostly?) over.

Down to about 3 feet of snow and falling...

And now I'm wishing KC a happy birthday

...wishing the ATX Community a happy 7th birthday. This site was created April 10, 2007.