Eric

Only half? That's amazing.   1 in 4 Americans don't understand that the Earth orbits the Sun.   The average American reads at something like the 7th grade level.   I don't think there's a statistic about what American's don't know that could possibly surprise me.  Especially something like this.  Our healthcare and tax systems are harder to grasp than differential calculus.

They're right.   Technically, Windows 10 is the same major version as Vista, part of the 6.x series.  So yeah, you could call it Windows 8.2.  Or Windows Vista 4.  Or Windows 6.4.   Microsoft hasn't used actual version numbers for the names of their operating system releases since Windows 3.11.  The name of Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10 have been marketing driven--the numbers don't mean anything.

I've done a little maintenance.  Not sure if it's improved anything or not since I couldn't reproduce the issues in the first place.     So if anyone is still experiencing weird behavior, please let me know!

I didn't think that refreshing would fix the issue--actually, I was wondering if visiting the page a few times would produce random results with every page load.  Just trying to narrow down where the problem is.

I keep refreshing the page to see what shows up on the topic list, and then looking at the topics, and it's always accurate.   Not being able to reproduce a thing is really frustrating.    For those of you who see mismatched information in the topic list... does it ever change if you just refresh the page?

Rita, that is beyond weird.   Everyone should see the same list of topics, with the exception of hidden topics that only moderators can see.  I can't even begin to explain why some people wouldn't see random threads.   I've got a couple minor forum software updates to do, and I'll try to tackle them tonight.  There could be some short downtime during the update, but probably no longer than 15 minutes... I'm not really very optimistic that it'll change anything, but we'll see.

Margaret, are you still having any issues?   Also, just another tip more related to the email you sent, if there is a specific topic you want to follow closely, click the "Follow this topic" button at the top of the thread.  It'll send you notifications when there are replies.

About the downtime, that was scheduled server maintenance, but it was brief.  There could have been a couple of weird hiccups on either side as services came back online.   As far as marking a forum read... I'm sorry, that's weird.  It works for me.  I'll keep trying to reproduce the issues.  What browser and version are you using?   Also, if you do mark a forum as read, and then you come back and items are bolded again (but there aren't new replies) maybe try refreshing the page.  Also try Shift + F5  or Ctrl + F5 to do a hard refresh, which should rule out any browser cache issues.

I don't think you can guarantee no problems with any system configuration given the state of the software over the past couple tax seasons.   Jack feels pretty strongly about Windows 8, but I believe it's entirely due to the new user interface elements, and not the performance of the system or software issues.  The full screen start menu, the "charms" bar that appears when you move your cursor to the right, etc. That's the stuff that people are complaining about.   As far as how the software will run, I don't think you would see any difference between Windows 7 and Windows 8.

It's a cut-throat market.  A lot of people starting out figure they can just do a little searching to find a company offering service for a the lowest price possible, and fail to take into account things like long term contracts, cancellation fees, misc. service charges, other hidden fees, and actual quality of service.   I think you usually can avoid a lot of issues by just going to a local credit union and seeing what they offer.

The only benefit to using an iPad / iPhone (as far as I know) is that there are few variations of the hardware, so there are more accessories available to fit that hardware (like that weighted stand)

I've only heard good things about it.  My parents paid an early termination fee for their POS system and switched everything to Square.  Got rid of their cash register and terminal in their store and replaced it with an iPad with weighted stand (that incorporates the swipe doodad) with a bluetooth cash drawer and receipt printer.   My dad, who is... uhh... not very good with technology, was able to figure it all out very quickly. 

Something got sideways in cyberspace is a pretty good way to put it.   Unfortunately, I was powerless to do anything but wait, so the what and when were limited to "pacing back and forth pulling my hair out" and "all day yesterday"   I feel bad for the poor support techs at the data center.  They had to answer to thousands of angry website developers, who were getting pressure from their clients.  I imagine that's what tax season at CCH has been like for the past couple years.

Howdy, It's been a rough 24 hours.   I have very few details at this point about what is going on -- the data center where my server lives had/is having some very serious issues, possibly related to some bad OS/software updates.   My entire server was inaccessible for about 12 hours yesterday, then it seemed to be working fine for about 6 hours, then went down again for a short time yesterday evening.     The data center assures me that they are doing everything they can to restore normal service, but they are working server by server and they maintain hundreds, if not thousands of them.   So, my apologies for the downtime from yesterday, and for whatever additional hiccups we have ahead.  Once they have finished their work, I expect them to share the details of the outage, which I'll post here.   What a nightmare.  I may start shopping for a new hosting provider.  Again.   PS - Of all of the sites hosted on this server, this is the one with the most frequently updated database.  If you notice any missing posts, threads, etc, please let me know.  

Political views regarding gun ownership aside, I'm curious to know why anyone would take part in such a thing.   I mean, guns aren't cheap.  Even my little .17HMR rimfire rifle cost more than $500.  My handgun cost twice that, and hunting rifles can easily go for three times that much.  I'd need to have quite the tax return to make it worth trading one of them for tax preparation services.  I have two guns that I didn't pay anything for, one belonged to my maternal grandfather, and the other to my paternal grandfather--I wouldn't trade them for anything.     Are there people out there with unused guns just hanging around the house?

It's crazy how many times this has happened recently.   Maybe it's time for me to start using Google Wallet or Apple Pay or whatever.  I've had to replace my debit card 3 times in the past 5 or 6 years as a result of these kinds of things.   At least with Google Wallet (not sure about Apple Pay, which is new), your full credit card number is never transmitted to the retailer.  Google having my credit card info is no doubt more secure than every retailer getting it.

  It meets all of the requirements, except for "quad core" because it uses a low TDP cpu, so they're dual core only.  That's pretty standard for laptops, though, and shouldn't be an issue.    Before buying one for business use, I'd definitely go try it out first, especially if you're a decent touch typist.  As someone who types better than 85wpm, I personally found it frustrating.

    Could it be that different people might value different things in a laptop? Perhaps someone else would feel that a laptop without a number pad is a toy.  Or a laptop without two internal hard drive bays.  Or a laptop with a screen smaller than 17". Or a laptop that can't last 10+ hours on a charge.  Or a laptop without a dedicated video card.     I looked for quite a while for a good convertible laptop/tablet hybrid with an active digitizer, but never did find one that really fit all of my needs (that I can afford).  For me, a Surface Pro or a Thinkpad Yoga would be excellent for note taking, drawing quick flow charts, sketching website layouts, etc.  In my opinion, the CD is the new floppy, and I'm thankful that my laptops don't have the bulk and weight of an optical drive that I personally have no use for. The Wacom digitizer and pen would be a thousand times more useful to me.   If someone is looking for those pen features, but a comfortable tablet form factor is less important, I'd suggest looking into the Thinkpad Yoga.  It's a bit bulky/heavy for use as a tablet, but it'd work well on a table top like that.    EDIT: I think you can only get the Thinkpad Yoga with the digitizer/pen directly from Lenovo's website, not from retail/online stores.  Last time I looked, the model that you could get from Amazon was without the pen.   There's also the Fujitsu T904, which had everything I wanted, but it's out of my price range.  Extremely nice though.   EDIT 2: If you don't care about the pen, and just want a hybrid... well, idunno what to tell you.  It seems like you have to choose between a decent tablet that turns into a crappy laptop, or a decent laptop that turns into a crappy tablet.  I don't know that you can have the best of both worlds.

You'll have to spend about $2000 to get the highest end model, probably.     The form factor might be a tablet, but it's normal PC / Laptop hardware.  In terms of power, it's no different from a laptop with a Core i7 and a 512GB SSD.   The problem for me would be the keyboard and maybe the screen size.  Even with the more expensive ($130 extra) Type Cover, the key travel is shallow.  Text size on tax forms might be on the small side viewed on a 12" screen also.

Hey Jack, will you be sticking with your PC laptop?

All that is irrelevant if you don't run it in a virtual machine.  You can run Windows natively on Mac hardware, no virtual machine, exactly the same as running Windows on a PC.  The only differences are minor things like Contrl/Alt/Command/Delete buttons on the keyboard.   Use Bootcamp so that when you start your computer, you can choose to start either Mac OS X, or Windows.  Dual booting is well supported by Apple.   Or buy a PC laptop and don't worry about it.  If you're looking for a nice laptop that rivals the quality of a Macbook, check out the Asus Zenbook line or Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus or the Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon.   They're all more expensive than your average laptops, just like a Macbook is more expensive than your average laptop.  But the hardware is a lot nicer than your average laptop, if you care about quality of materials and construction.

I use Windows, Mac, and Linux daily, and don't have very strong feelings about any of them--what really matters is that the software you use is available for your chosen platform.   Like Marco says, it's been a while since virtual machines were required to run windows software on a mac.  The innards of a mac are no different than the innards of a PC these days, so you can run windows on them just as you run windows on any PC hardware.  There is no difference aside from a slight difference in keyboard layout.   Unfortunately, I don't think the answer to the original question is very straight forward.  If you're set on a Macbook, you have to make a difficult decision between getting the right display, or getting beefier specs.   The Macbook Air can't be configured with the best CPU or the most RAM, and from what I've read over the past couple tax seasons here, ATX has become quite a resource hog.  Someone with more experience with the software can correct me if I'm wrong.   And the Macbook Pro with Retina Display, although you can get the best CPU/RAM configurations, most Windows software will look like garbage on that beautiful high resolution display... unless you have really really good eyes.   Windows hasn't had support for super high resolution displays until version 8, and improved in 8.1, but even with OS support, most third party windows applications look terrible.  They either appear too small on the screen due to the high resolution, or they get scaled up and buttons/icons/text get bitmapped/pixelated/blurry.  If you're curious about this, do some google searches for Windows software High DPI" or something like that.  Plenty of PC Laptops are available with even nicer screens than what's available on the higher end Macs, so it's just a matter of time before software catches up.  Don't count on ATX being early to that party though.   I guess I would wonder if you plan on using the Macbook with an external monitor.  If so, plug a standard resolution monitor into a Macbook Pro (like a 1080p 23" monitor, for example) and you'll be all set.   Display aside, I suggest the Macbook Pro with the fastest Core i5 processor available.  Don't spend on the i7 unless there is almost no price difference, and instead put the money into a large SSD and as much RAM as you can afford.  I'll expand on my reasoning a bit:   In a Macbook (and most Windows laptops too), you're probably fine with an i5.  What most people don't realize about the Intel Core i7 processors found in the majority of laptops is that they're not the same as the quad-core desktop versions.  They're dual core low-power versions that are built to use less battery and require less cooling.  This isn't specific to Macs, this is usually the case with Windows laptops as well but there are exceptions.  The difference in processing power between the dual core i5 and dual core i7 laptop chips usually isn't worth the additional cost.  If we were talking about desktop processors, I'd suggest quad core Core i7, but we're not.   In these low wattage Intel Core processors (i7 4500U / i5 4200U for example), the biggest difference between the i5 and i7 is in 3D performance for gaming.  In productivity applications, you'll see about a 4-7% difference in performance.

  1.) Not many. But, if you want a mac and you want to run windows software, i guess you learn.  They make it easy with Boot Camp. 2.) I guess my advice is to do a little research before any major purchase.  I'm one of those people who agonizes over every detail before finally making a decision like that.     I would have removed Windows from all of my computers and moved them to Linux if it weren't for Adobe Photoshop.  There's nothing really special or superior about Windows itself.  Like Apple and iOS, they're successful mostly because of the software availability, not because of quality of the operating system (although apple fans may disagree).

If I may geek out about computer hardware for a minute...   There are a couple ways to run Windows software on a Mac.  You can run a Windows virtual machine on top of OS X, or you can dual boot, and run actual Windows, no virtualization required, which is what I would recommend.  This is possible these days because the hardware is identical to PC hardware (same off-the-shelf Intel CPUs).  The only possible issues I can think of that you might run into is adjusting to a Mac keyboard layout.  (Command vs Control button, and all that)   Apple products aren't necessarily superior, but they do make some nice stuff. They just don't make any low-end cheap plastic crap to compete with the cheap plastic crap available running Windows, which is why people say they're overpriced.  If you're going to compare apples to apples, say a Macbook Pro to a Windows laptop of the same build quality and comparable specs (Thinkpad Carbon X1, Asus Zenbook, Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus) it costs just as much for the Windows machine.   I bought my Macbook Pro because: 16x10 aspect ratio screen is superior to the 16x9 screen you find on every Windows laptop.  The extra height is nice to have for everything except watching movies. Better support for High DPI screens.  Retina displays aren't just marketing fluff.  They are absolutely beautiful to look at and super crisp.  There are plenty of Windows laptops available with even higher pixel density, but while Windows 8 provides OS support for these high resolution displays, a lot of windows software still lags behind.  The result is ugly pixelated application windows, or applications with user interfaces that are too small to use.   Battery life.  I get 9 hours of use on a charge.  This is uncommon among thin/light laptops because batteries are heavy. Excellent keyboard and trackpad.  If you can type worth a damn, then keyboard feel/decent key travel is important.  The trackpad is awesome too, very responsive, and I actually use the gestures.  Things I don't like about my Macbook Pro: Keyboard layout.  Windows Keyboard layout is better.  I hate having so many key combinations to remember for things I can to do with a single key on a Windows keyboard. Fixability.  They try to keep you out of the machine by using weird pentalobe screws to hold it together, and even when you do get in, you can't replace anything because the battery is glued in and the connections are weird and proprietary.  I fixed a friend's 2011 Macbook Pro two weeks ago.  The hard drive cable cost more than the hard drive. Certain things about OS X drives me nuts.  You can't sort file lists so that folders are grouped together and listed first.  That's dumb. I would personally never buy a Mac desktop because I believe they are overpriced.  I can buy a high quality anodized CNC laser cut aluminum case for $150, and fill it with ridiculously powerful components for half the price of of of those trash can looking Mac Pro machines.   And that's the end of my nerd rant.  Sorry about that.

cbslee: You are correct.  Google wasn't hacked, these passwords were collected as a result of people's own carelessness--victims of phishing or malware.   If you use a web mail service that supports 2 factor authentication, you should definitely enable that feature if you can endure the short term inconvenience of setting it up.   It's a bit of a pain because you have to put in a secret code and authenticate every device/computer you check the email from (usually a one-time thing per device) either by getting a text message or an automated voice message to your phone, but it's a HUGE improvement over simple username/password authentication.    https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/180744?hl=en   Even if you get malware or fall for a phishing scheme and someone gets your password, they still can't get into your account without having access to your phone too.