Eric

About the arbitration clause, there was quite an uproar about it, and they have since come out saying that it doesn't apply to this security breach. 

This update was added today on https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/

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2). NO WAIVER OF RIGHTS FOR THIS CYBER SECURITY INCIDENT
In response to consumer inquiries, we have made it clear that the arbitration clause and class action waiver included in the Equifax and TrustedID Premier terms of use does not apply to this cybersecurity incident.

I had a security patch to apply, and rather than just do the patch I went (somewhat hastily, I admit) with an upgrade to the latest version of the forum software without realizing that it was a medium sized upgrade to 4.2 instead of a small incremental update to 4.1.x.  

Then the whole forum broke for about 45 minutes while I scrambled around like an idiot fixing issues that cropped up.  Sorry about that!

I do remember the last time I did a major update there were some complaints about the low-contrast between certain visual elements in the new design.  Many(all?) of my customizations are still in place to fix those issues, but if anyone has any trouble with this new design, please speak up and I'll do what I can to tweak it.

It sounds like technobabble from star trek.  It's easy to solve if you disconnect the photonic tetryon coupling and reroute though the trans-warp wavefront matrix.

Three guys are hiking through the woods, when they find a magic lamp.

One of them picks it up, rubs it, and out pops a Genie.

It booms "You have finally freed me after all these years, so I'll grant each one of you 3 wishes." The first guy immediately blurts out "I want a billion dollars." POOF, he's holding a printout that shows his account balance is now in fact 1,000,000,003.50

The second man thinks for a bit, then says "I want to be the richest man alive." POOF, he's holding papers showing his net worth is now well over 100 billion.

The third guy thinks even longer about his wish, then says "I want my left arm to rotate clockwise for the rest of my life." POOF, his arm starts rotating.

The Genie tells them it's time for their second wish.

First guy says: "I want to be married to the most beautiful woman on earth." POOF, a stunning beauty wraps herself around his arm.

Second guy says "I want to be good-looking and charismatic, so I can have every girl I want." POOF, his looks change and the first guy's wife immediately starts flirting with him.

Third guy says "I want my right arm to rotate counter-clockwise until I die." POOF, now both his arms are rotating, in opposite directions.

The genie tells them to think very carefully about their third wish.

First guy does, and after a while says "I never want to become sick or injured, I want to stay healthy until I die." POOF, his complexion improves, his acne is gone and his knees don't bother him any more.

Second guy says "I never want to grow old. I want to stay 29 forever." POOF, he looks younger already.

Third guy smiles triumphantly and says "My last wish is for my head to nod back and forth." POOF, he's now nodding his head and still flailing his arms around.

The genie wishes them good luck, disappears, and the men soon go their separate ways.

Many years later they meet again and chat about how things have been going. First guy is ecstatic: "I've invested the money and multiplied it many times over, so me and my family will be among the richest of the rich pretty much forever. My wife is a freak in the sheets, and I've never gotten so much as a cold in all these years."

Second guy smiles and says "Well, I built charities worldwide with a fraction of my wealth, I'm still the richest guy alive and also revered for my good deeds. I haven't aged a day since we last met, and yes, your wife is pretty wild in bed."

Third guy walks in, flailing his arms around and nodding his head, and says:

"Guys, I think I screwed up."

It's better as a physical joke, giving the punchline with your arms and head going.

3 hours ago, BulldogTom said:

OK, so I try really hard to keep my political opinions out of the posts (well not really, but I try to disguise them).  Sometimes though, the motives of upcoming tax law are topics of discussions that can provide insight on what is coming down the pipe from the IRS.  Just look at the ACA to understand my point.  The IRS enforcement and rules were very much politically motivated, and the recent change in the White House has more political motivations in what the IRS may or may not due in regards to the ACA.  If there is even going to be an ACA in the future.

I love this board and I don't want to get kicked out for my political views, but I think there are some times where the politics of the tax laws does bear on our practice of tax preparation and we need to have the freedom to bring the political motivations into the topic discussion. 

However, there is no place for the extremes that we have seen before on this board and the items we have all seen in other forums.  I get that and I don't want to be part of anything like that on this forum.

So, am I being a little to sensitive to the tone of Eric's post, or can we slip in a little bit of the politics behind the actual tax laws?

Tom
Newark, CA

The ACA is a great example--we have an entire forum dedicated to it.  Those threads might not be as exciting as the poor excuse for a sporting event / distraction we've got going on in the media, but what's here is real, and impacts you as a tax preparer right now.

I think it comes down to whether the discussion is about the law itself and what actually affects you as a tax preparer.  If you can't separate that from the people and parties involved, then leave it alone.  

We're not going down that road again.  It didn't work before, and it's not going to suddenly work now--nothing has changed since then.  Anyone who feels strongly about politics isn't being honest with themselves if they think political discussion here won't become combative and antagonistic.  The thing is, some people enjoy that kind of argument, but that's not the atmosphere we're going for here.

Nobody is getting kicked out for their political views.  We don't care about anybody's political views.   We take not caring so seriously that we don't even want to know about anybody's political views.  I guess you could call it the "don't ask, don't tell" approach.

PS: Borg got his balls removed yesterday, poor bugger.

They're still thinking about the name.  They might keep the name  he came with from the shelter, Moses, or Mo for short, but Borg fits better than any I've heard so far 

4 hours ago, NECPA in NEBRASKA said:

Eric,

As a life-long cat owner and lover, I hope that the cat behaves better after he is neutered. I'm really surprised that the shelter let him go before he was neutered, unless he was too young. I hope that you learn to love or at least tolerate him. My husband and my son's fiancee were 100% dog people until they were around my cats and now they both love them. 

Good luck!

Prepare for thread derailment!

I have cats and dogs and don't have a strong preference either way.  

Soon after I moved into my first apartment, my girlfriend (now, wife) brought me a cat that we named Jack--black and white like the label on a bottle of Jack Daniels.  She smuggled him across the Canadian border with her friend 16 years ago.  He never did learn to bury his poop in the litter box, and we always joked that it must be an American cat custom.  Jack was a naughty cat, constantly eating ribbon and plastic and either barfing it up or pooping it out, and had a serious addiction to carbs.  We couldn't leave out a loaf of bread or a box of donut holes in the open without him tearing into it--he once ate a good portion of my roomate's banana bread, baked with love by his mother.  Anyway, Jack passed away this past spring.  He used to sleep in the bed with my son, who took his passing especially hard.

We have another cat, Marty, and he's a great hunter, but he's never been comfortable around our kids (6 year old twins).  He'll spend all day sleeping in our bedroom closet, and only comes downstairs to eat and visit with my wife and I after the kids are in bed. 

Anyway, my wife will sometimes take the kids to the local "petting zoo" (animal shelter) just to see and play with the animals, and make a donation... but the last trip was different.  There was a cat there that looked very Maine Coon-ish, and he loved the kids.  He was happy to let them pick him up.  He was very playful yet gentle.  I got about a dozen texts with photos of kids, bottom lips protruding while they took turns holding this cat.  I refused all day long, trying to explain the beautiful mathematical symmetry of being a 2 adult, 2 kid, 2 pet household, but eventually gave in to the pressure the next morning.  

My wife and kids picked him up early that same morning as soon as the shelter opened.  He'd only been there about a week, and hadn't been neutered yet.  At this particular shelter, they handle these situations by requesting a check for $100 that they will hold on to, and won't cash unless the pet isn't spayed/neutered within a certain period of time. We figured we could get him into the vet quickly, but unfortunately it's going to be about a month.  We called every vet in the area, and nobody can do any better, so we put ourselves on the cancellation list at our regular vet and will hope for an opening soon.

We set up an unused dog crate in our sun room, with a littler box, food, and water, and we let him out when we can pay very close attention to him, to make sure he doesn't spray.  It's not ideal, but the crate does give our other cat and dog some time to slowly get used to the new arrival on their own terms as well. Hopefully we'll get a call from the vet soon, and he can finally make himself at home.

2 minutes ago, jklcpa said:

Eric, I thought your tone was fine and was amused at your descriptions of interactions on Facebook.  It's funny because it's true a lot of the time. 

Upon re-reading it this morning, I felt like it came off a little angrier than I meant at the time.  And I know it's true--My wife has family who are quite outspoken on the left and the right. It's a real show.

11 minutes ago, Abby Normal said:

But Catherine seems to like spanking.

Even so, that might be considered obscene, haha

I should apologize for the tone of my initial post. I was in a bad mood yesterday after finally giving in and allowing my kids to bring home a cat from the shelter.  He hasn't been neutered yet, and I have been regretting my decision ever since.

13 hours ago, Catherine said:

I was gonna add a snarky comment about the new rule being "deplorable" but now am afraid it will get banned and the moderators will spank me...  but it was *just* going to be for snark value, I promise!

Spanking as a form of punishment on the forum might also be against the rules?  I'm not sure, I'll have to give that some thought.

21 minutes ago, jklcpa said:

Eric, I do have a question about the TOU page.  Will it be possible to view that page again after acceptance, or could that text also be posted in the help section?

I've added links in the first post to the terms.  You can also use this URL to link directly to the page without the popup: http://www.atxcommunity.com/terms/

33 minutes ago, Evan S. Golar said:

What specific discussion thread prompted you to update the board rules?

Was there a poster who violated the rules?

It's a recurring thing, but the posts are hidden from view.  Judy is an efficient mod, so it's likely that she hid the posts before many (if any) members saw them.

It happens often enough that it has become tiring to have to keep explaining the rules to people who disagree with them.

As you no doubt have noticed, I've updated the forum rules to include a couple lines about political discussions.  Agreeing to the updated terms is necessary to continue participating on the forum.

The internet is a big place, and there are endless forums and message boards to discuss politics.  If you are interested in having a good argument over these things, please seek those places out.  Or just continue to make family and friends uncomfortable with unending rants on Facebook.  If you're no longer getting the response you crave on Facebook (perhaps you've finally alienated everyone who disagrees with you), this forum will not be a new audience for you to antagonize.  All political posts will be hidden, no exceptions, so do the mods a favor and don't waste your time or theirs.

To those who disagree with my assertion that it's possible to separate the discussion of tax law itself from the political ideals/ideologies that surround the implementation of those laws, then this thread is for you. Let's talk about it.

Quote

If you don't talk to your kids about quantum computing... someone else will.

That's right, kids. Don't learn about science and technology from Buzzfeed articles. Any media outlet that relies on ad revenue and clickbait headlines will gloss over the science (because it's boring for the non-nerds, I guess) and sensationalize it to the point where it's got no substance, but guaranteed to be shared 10 million times on Facebook.

On 5/17/2017 at 7:52 AM, JohnH said:

I decided to limit my work day on Monday by using only my Mac, mainly doing work in Excel and any online stuff such as checking email, web browsing, etc.  I wanted to see how things developed with the virus issues before even switching on the PC.  (I turn the computers off each night at my office)

But that still brings on an interesting issue.  Are Macs less vulnerable to viruses overall, or is it just that there are so few of them compared to PC's that hackers haven't yet taken a keen interest in them?  Is there really a reliable answer to this question?

I don't think you'll find a really satisfactory answer to that question anywhere, the two platforms are very different, and both are relatively secure.

Like you say, Windows is a more appealing target due to numbers alone... so a better return on investment for people looking to spread malware.

Apple does have one benefit though -- by default, macOS is configured to only accept software installs that are from apple-signed developers, which provides an additional layer of trust when installing new software.  So, if you attempt to install some application on your mac from a developer that isn't approved/signed by apple, you get a worrying message about it.  The software isn't necessarily bad, but the message that you're given is strongly worded to make you think twice about whether you trust that developer.

On the other hand, when you install Windows software, you get the same generic UAC dialog box no matter who provides the software.  People are trained to click YES without giving it much of a thought because it comes up every single time you install a program on Windows.

So, that's one way that the average user is slightly more protected from themselves when using a Mac.  It's not bullet-proof, though.  Bad things can happen to good software.  

Example: I use a well-known video transcoding application called Handbrake on both Windows and Mac.  It's legit software, and well-respected for the quality of the audio/video it produces when converting between formats.  Somewhere along the line, the latest version was replaced (on Handbrake's download site) with a copy that included malicious code.  Anyone who downloaded and installed it on their mac are infected with some nasty malware.

Thankfully, I didn't download a new version recently, so I'm unaffected.  However, I just read an article today that the developer (Panic Inc.) for another piece of software, Transmission (in my opinion, the best FTP Client available for macOS) did get infected by that malware-laced Handbrake download, and as a result a good portion of the soruce code for Transmission has been stolen.  Is there a chance that vulnerabilities will be uncovered in Transmission when the source code is examined? Idunno. I'm considering using a free open-source alternative on my Mac for a while, though.

If that wasn't a long enough post, here's some additional details about the two recent hacks in case you find these things interesting (ha)

https://blog.malwarebytes.com/threat-analysis/mac-threat-analysis/2017/05/handbrake-hacked-to-drop-new-variant-of-proton-malware/

https://panic.com/blog/stolen-source-code/

16 minutes ago, JohnH said:

That "eye of Sauron" gadget sound pretty intense.

It's certainly not for everyone. 

On 4/27/2017 at 11:55 PM, Jack from Ohio said:

Tell me how to separate tax LAW being changed can be separated form Politics?  Has everyone become the ultra-sensitive snowflake?

Politicians are the ones to make the tax law changes.

It's very simple.  Focus on the law itself, and do your best not to make it about the people who are making the law.  This has nothing to do with sensitivity, and everything to do with staying on topic.

If you are unable to tell the difference between bean-counter law discussion, and snowflake libtards vs the evil cheese doodle president, for example, then I don't know what to tell you.

Of course, if you have money to burn, there's this ugly thing.  

https://www.amazon.com/RT-AC5300-Wireless-Tri-Band-AiProtection-Complete/dp/B0167HG1V6

$300 for a wireless router might sound like a lot, but it's quite a deal if you take into account that when you turn it on, the eye of Sauron will appear in flames between the antennas.

If you spend about $120 (give or take) on a new router, chances are it'll be good quality, and do what you need.  This isn't scientific, but if you head to amazon and search for router, generally you'll have pretty good luck with whatever model tons of people are buying.

https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Nighthawk-AC1750-Smart-Router/dp/B00R2AZLD2

EDIT: As far as getting better signal outside, simultaneous dual band routers support both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands.  5GHz will get you better speed/bwndwidth, and 2.4GHz is slower and more prone to trouble with interference, but is better at penetrating walls... You can have two active networks (one for each frequency) so if you're outside and 5GHz isn't cutting it, you can switch to 2.4 easily.

Personally, if the situation were reversed and I were about to receive a pain-in-the-ass client, I would appreciate knowing the history up front.  I work in a different field, of course, but dealing with people is dealing with people.  And I prefer not to deal with the ones who don't value my time.

A manual refresh is required.  You are correct that you only get a live notification if someone replies while you are typing a response.

My server (it's a virtual server) has been migrated to a new facility.  They took care of the process at 4am this morning.  If anyone sees anything missing, I would appreciate a heads up as soon as possible.

Thanks,
Eric

If your computer guy hasn't tried it yet, I would suggest going to the Microsoft website and downloading the Anniversary Update update disc image, and installing it offline instead of letting Windows Update do it.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki/windows_10-windows_install/how-to-upgrade-to-windows-10-anniversary-update/fab99802-4358-49d9-8278-e9664cd56311

Holy smokes! I was on the road all day, got a flat tire on the way back, had to change it in the mud/ice/slush, and when I got home my email had blown up with paypal notifications. 

Thank you!

Haha thanks for the kind words   

I had already increased the monthly bandwidth allocation for the site in anticipation of the growth we've seen in traffic since last year, but apparently I didn't boost it enough!  All better now, I'll be sure to keep a better eye on that.