Eric

I think Firefox is great. I use it a lot for development because it's got a few extensions that I'd have a hard time working without. I use Chrome for 99% of my casual browsing. It's faster at page rendering and javascript performance than any other browser. I like the minimal interface more, but that's a personal preference. I log into Chrome with my Google account, and my bookmarks, history, passwords, extensions, and even open tabs can be synced across all of my computers and my cell phone and tablet. Both Firefox and Chrome have AdBlock extensions that make browsing the web a lot less obnoxious. Not sure if IE has such an extension or not. If it weren't for the sync features of Chrome, IE might be good enough with version 11 for me to try using regularly again--it's come a long way.

My suggestion as a web developer is to always use the latest version of whatever browser you have installed. It's especially important with Internet Explorer, as it lags pretty far behind every other browser in terms of standards support. In my opinion, Internet Explorer stopped being total garbage with version 9, and has improved greatly with every version since.

The errors are related, still having some issues with the data center. There are about 30 servers all suffering from the same low level software (Linux kernel / configuration related) problems. This is my primary provider, and I'm strongly considering a switch, but choosing a company is a very difficult task. I've got jury duty all next week, so this couldn't possibly be happening at a worse time. I'm still holding out hope, though, that they'll get their together by this weekend.

Correct implementation requires that you don't implement it where it shouldn't be used.

Haha

I do have another server at FortressITX, a data center in Clifton NJ, and if things continue to go badly over the next few days, I'll have to see what I can do about moving everything there at least temporarily.

Hey folks, Sorry about the downtime yesterday. This is the second time this week that we've experienced issues with the sites slowing down and crashing. The problem was at the data center where my server is located. Anyway, I believe they have fixed the issue for good now, but we'll see. I'm also scheduled to migrate all of my websites to a brand new server within the next couple weeks, and those things usually come with a bump or two. I should probably start a blog at Blogger or WordPress.com to communicate with you guys when the site goes down and I can't get the word out.

Our top loaders just died recently (within the last few months) and we went with the Whirlpool Duet based on Consumer Reports ratings and price. We don't have treated town water, so if we were going to have a problem with musty smells, we would have by now, I think. We always bleach the whites, so that might have something to do with it. We never do an empty load after a bleached load, and haven't had any trouble with getting bleach on things in subsequent loads. The most we've done to clean the washer itself is to wipe dog hair out of the bottom of the rubber seal where it tends to collect. Our electricity bill was reduced by about $15 on average after the switch. We do a lot of laundry with a couple 2 year olds, but the new washer gets clothes a LOT dryer in the spin cycle than the old one did, and the dryer time is almost always less than half of what it was with our old set.

Our kids are 2 and a half so we go to a few relatives and some close neighbors who want to see them dressed up, but yeah, the rain is kind of a drag.

We don't believe in ghosts, demons, or flying witches, so as far as I can tell, we're only honoring Type 2 Diabetes with candy consumption. Either that, or The Great Pumpkin. *shrug*

I watched until the 7th inning when Koji Uehara took over pitching. Then I went to bed. Looks like I didn't miss anything.

It may be common, but ATX has some ground to make up in the customer confidence department.

Columbus is credited for a lot of terrible things that teachers don't tell you. http://theoatmeal.com/comics/columbus_day

Quoted For Truth? Quite Freaking True? Something like that...

Jack: We have considered closing it. Still might. I'm not in any hurry to do anything though.

Have you people with very different experiences with similar returns created test returns that behaved badly, exported them, and shared them with others to compare performance? It would be interesting to see how much of this is return-specific, and how much is hardware/network configuration. Eliminating variables in situations like this can really help to give you some direction. I believe that the power of the community, and free exchange of information is the best way to tackle these issues, so let me know if there is anything I might be able to do to help. (more space to upload attachments, a new forum to contain threads for comparing notes, some custom thread tagging to help organize things, etc.)

Just like any argument, I guess. The person who shouts the loudest wins?

You're quite right, and being the behavior police and treating people like they're in kindergarten is the last thing I want to deal with. But is it really so hard to just not be a dick? EDIT: Excuse the terminology, but that really is the best way I know how to put it.

There is talking politics, and then there is emulating a loud-mouthed radio/tv pundit. If we can be capable of the former without resorting to the latter, then there shouldn't be a problem. We may have to remove the Politics forum, but if that's the only solution, then the Politics threads in General Chat are going too since it's the subject matter that's causing people to behave so emotionally. And when I say emotional, I don't mean just being offended, I mean being offensive too. The goal of the Politics forum wasn't to provide an arena for offensive behavior, it was meant as a place to discuss political topics without cluttering up General Chat. We're not doing politics the Rush Limbaugh / Bill Maher way, so if that's your idea of a political discussion, then feel free to not participate. You shouldn't require "thick skin" to participate in calm and rational debate.

I'll give some thought to how to address this within the system. It's automatic. No intervention by moderators is required for any step of the process except for giving the actual warning.

I accept bribes

Well put. That might be the only rule we need. Speaking of dumb congressmen, did you hear that their approval rating has dropped to 5%? Who are these 5%? Their moms?

Congrats, Jack. Grandparenthood sounds like a pretty good deal. All of the fun and none of the sleep deprivation.

I need to create a list of "reasons" to add to the warning system. When a warning is given, one of the pre-determined reasons is selected. I wouldn't mind a few suggestions. I think we should be able to get by with 5 or fewer generic reasons.