Eric

I am always open to creating new vendor-specific areas. I worry about creating a vendor-specific forum without enough users to keep the forum moving a long, however. I'll start one for TaxSlayer and see how it goes, but if it stagnates, I may end up removing it, but no harm done in trying it out. I've got some other forum management stuff to take care of (have to get rid of the Software Issues forum too) so I'll take care of it all at the same time.

If the weather cooperates this week, I think I'll give that a try. Sounds tasty

I know there would be some grey area. I wouldn't enjoy having to judge the posts to determine what stays and what goes. I guess I would decide based on the tone of the post, and how relevant it is to the thread. We've made it 6 years without having any issues like this. Here's hoping the changes don't become necessary.

I know that not everyone is keen on things changing, especially with technology. I've heard the next version, codenamed "Blue" will allow you to skip the whole new Start screen, and give you a classic start menu, which should alleviate most of the complaints, if true.

I probably shouldn't have mentioned religion, because it's never been a problem here. I just threw it in there because it's another subject that people tend to feel very strongly about.

1. Tax season has ended, and the software issues are no longer so numerous that they need their own forum. I'm going to remove the Software Issues forum, and bring the threads back into General Chat now that things have calmed down. 2. If you people can't keep your political zealotry to your own threads, I'm going to make some changes to the forums. I'll create a new Politics forum, where anyone who wants to can go bananas. We'll keep it out of General Chat entirely if on-topic threads continue to get derailed. It shouldn't be necessary, but discussing things like politics and religion make people lose their minds. It's usually hilarious to watch, but not when you're trying to keep a friendly atmosphere on an internet forum. Then it's just obnoxious. I'll also write a script that filters every post in General Chat for political terms, and hold those threads in a moderation queue where I'll either publish if it's not a political rant, or delete it before it can go public. If that doesn't work, I'll start with the warnings and removing post rights for periods of time. I don't care if people want to discuss politics, but you guys are destroying on-topic threads with your lunacy and risk alienating politically moderate members, which is likely most of them. Cut it out.

Idunno what all the fuss is about. I think Windows 8 is fine for whatever use... unless you want to use Metro apps with a trackpad, then it'll drive you nuts. I don't use the Metro apps. And if you don't use the Metro apps, the only thing you really have to get used to is the new Start screen, which is just like a full-screen version of the Start Menu, with way better keyboard input optimization. Example, you can hit the Widnows key on your keyboard to bring up the Start screen, and then just start typing the name of a software application or document, and Windows will find it. Hit Enter (or if there are multiple results, use arrow keys and hit Enter) to launch the application or open the document. Being a big fan of keyboard shortcuts, I think it's quite nice.

Yes, it does sound like a calibration issue. Like Jack says, reset the monitor to default, and see how it looks. If that doesn't fix it, look for software installed for calibration. nVidia, ATI, and Intel (graphics card/chip manufacturers) all have software applications that can run in your system tray, and can be used to calibrate the video output before it even gets to your monitor. One of them is likely installed, and that's where I'd start tinkering. I believe those applications also always have a reset-to-default feature in case you mess it up too badly. If you want to get a little more scientific about it, I can give you some calibration pointers. What initially looks good to your eye can often be too bright, too color saturated, and the result is losing details in the darks and highlights.

It's hard to say what you should be adjusting without knowing what exactly you don't like the look of. Is it a problem in software applications that looked fine before, or just general Windows stuff, like the text under shortcuts, and in title bars? If you've got an LCD monitor of any kind, you should always run it at the "native resolution" for the best clarity. LCD screens have a specific resolution, and using anything else distorts everything and makes it impossible to display crisp edges on anything, especially text. If you find that running at the native resolution makes everything look too small, then it's time to upgrade to a larger monitor. MAS' video explains how to change your screen resolution. 23" Dell monitors at Sams Club for $169. If it's the colors causing the problems, you can turn off all of the fancy translucent effects in Windows 7. Removing the effects will tax your computer a little less too http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39tBDjJl5uM With more information about the problem and specifically where you notice it, I might be able to give better advice.

None of the on-topic threads should turn into a political debate.

I'm inclined to agree with Judy. This is getting ridiculous. Injecting political debate and passive aggressive barbs into every possible conversation is really starting to take its toll on the atmosphere of this community.

On SSDs: I've got SSDs (Samsung seems to be the top rated brand) in three of our desktop computers. The boot time is amazing, which is further improved by Windows 8. It's less than 8 seconds from the time I push the power button to the desktop, cold boot. I've installed all of my heavy software on it--I love not hearing the hard drive churn away to load large applications. I use Acronis utilities for all of my data migration / cloning / backup / partition editing, but EaseUs is great software for simple drive migration. On Routers: The consumer grade routers sold at Walmart are garbage. There's a lady I work with who pays me to help her with their computer/network issues, and they've gone through two Linksys routers from Walmart and a Netgear router from Staples in less than a year. That's not to say that those companies don't make decent hardware -- they do, they just don't sell it super cheap at retail stores. I gave her my 4 year old Linksys WRT54GL router, and so far it's been the longest running, most stable router she's had so far. Figure on a new router costing between $90 and $160. If you've got a geek you can count on, have them find a Linux-based router with a thriving development community behind it, distributing third party open source firmware. The Asus RT-N16 is a pretty popular choice right now. This brings me to my next point: Update your routers. Routers run on software just like your computer does. People often neglect updating it because a router is one of those set-and-forget devices, but security vulnerabilities are found in router firmware, and updates are released to patch them. An advantage of the third party router firmware (DD-WRT and Tomato USB are popular choices) is that these projects release updates long after the device manufacturer abandons them to support the latest models they release every year. Not only that, but the features in this 3rd party firmware can rival what you find in $600 commercial routers. Still, it's pretty unlikely for someone to target security vulnerabilities in your router's firmware in order to watch your network traffic, but why not apply the updates anyway? I buckle my seatbelt regardless of the probability of getting into a car accident, computer security should be looked at the same way.

I know people feel strongly about their political beliefs, but you guys have to have some tact. Apparently it's impossible for Americans to have a political discussion on the internet without it turning into either a circlejerk of like-minded individuals ranting about the other party, or childish name calling. Neither situation is of any value to anyone. Thread Locked.

I also have not deleted anything. I see lots of your posts from yesterday, and from the 18th, but nothing in between. If you posted in between, I have no explanation of what could have happened to them.

Haha, consider it an end of tax season gift!

I don't have much of an opinion on that myself. I own and will continue to own the atxcommunity.com domain. If, at some point it's decided that it makes sense to change the name and we get a new URL to match, atxcommunity.com will always continue to get you here. This forum software has so many features, it borders on insanity. I'm sure there are quite a few features that even I don't know about.

There is an option to preview the content of a thread without loading the whole thing. It requires a click instead of a hover, but I think it does the trick. When you hover over a thread in the forum, you'll see a little down arrow icon appear just to the left of the column that shows how many views and replies that thread has. If you click that, it expands to give you a little peek inside.

I haven't deleted any of your posts, only consolidated them. I didn't do it because I found them offensive. People were reporting your new threads as spam because there were so many posts made so frequently that were all quite similar in theme. In other words, my goal was to improve the signal to noise ratio in the forum--something that's even more important when so many people are having trouble with their software and trying to find solutions. There's nothing wrong with sharing your feelings about ATX/CCH. Just don't all over the place while you're doing it. EDIT: New emoticon added!

Yep, sometimes it pays to be.. uhh.. proactive.

To reduce clutter, I have consolidated a number of these threads into a one-stop-shop for bold kimmie posts and related outbursts. No hard feelings.

It depends on the printer. Some printers have a little window in the toner cart so that the printer can "visually" inspect the toner level. Other printers actually count prints and tell you the toner is low based entirely on that number. Either way, there is almost always lots of toner left in the cartridge when your printer tells you otherwise. And because there's lots of money in consumables, printer manufacturers are making it harder and harder to fool the printers into printing anyway. Sometimes you can place a little bit of electrical tape over the window, but I think newer Canon printers even encrypt information on a small chip built into the toner cartridge to make it more difficult to do refills. Many refill kits now come with replacement chips to hack the cartridge with. My mom's Brother has a specific song and dance you have to do to reset the counter.. open the tray, hold down some buttons, stand on one foot, hop up and down, etc. Your best bet is to Google your specific printer model to find out what kind of ritual needs to be performed.

Wow, my inbox is flooded with Donations this morning. I'm sorry that I can't connect all of them with the names on the forum, but please know that I'm very grateful.

You have to wonder what "in progress" means. Does just talking about it needing to be done count? I've heard that most of the actual development (code) was done in a year. I just can't see how it's possible that some working version was available for testing for any significant length of time, considering the quality of the initial release.

This Tom Cruise quote from Top Gun might fit too: Eject eject eject eject! http://www.hark.com/clips/smqwrkjbxn-i-cant-reach-the-ejection-handle