Eric

I definitely wasn't fishing for donations, but thank you

Good news! Nothing blew up!

Just a quick heads up -- I'll be upgrading my server to PHP 7 this evening, which will require a little bit of downtime.  I'll be performing the work in the evening to reduce the burden on the bulk of my clients, so some time after 10pm Eastern Time (probably closer to 11pm).

And then tomorrow there will be some additional downtime, although very short, when I upgrade to the latest version of the forum software.

Sorry for the inconvenience!

EDIT: It's a relatively minor forum upgrade.  Mostly performance enhancements and bug fixes, but also some (very) minor new features that I doubt anyone will notice.  After the upgrade:

• Ctrl+ENTER keyboard shortcut to submit a reply
• Some additional logic to help reduce double-posting
• If you're using multiple devices to browse the forum, you'll now be less likely to be logged out

42 minutes ago, Medlin Software said:

Only YOU can prevent data loss...

...and forest fires.

On 11/28/2016 at 1:30 PM, Don in Upstate NY said:

I use an ATX sister product (TaxWise from a third-party reseller)  We were instructed NOT to download the software from the CCH site because the security signing was incorrect and installation would not go smoothly.  Signing to be corrected in next revision.  Sounds consistent and maybe even true.

 

Don in Upstate NY

I'd like to know how something like that gets by QA.  How is it the software isn't installed by someone on a freshly imaged machine to verify it installs and runs at the very least before making it available to the public?  That's incredible.

https://xkcd.com/936/

Yup, gonna have to agree with that.  Buy whatever your software requires.

The software I use on a daily basis is available for both MacOS and Windows, and I have both, and don't feel strongly about either of them--they've both got their pros and cons.

Apple hardware is well-built and has a price to match the fit and finish.  You'll find that most Windows computers of similar quality come at a similar price--the only difference is that Apple doesn't compete in the low-end of the market.

Lets say for the sake of argument that MacOS is inherently more secure than Windows.  It's not going to matter, because you'll be using Windows to run your tax software whether that's in a VM on top of MacOS, or running natively with BootCamp.

I will say that it's more common for Apple users to evangelize for them, and I think that mostly has to do with Apple not playing nicely with others.  You can't use Facetime or iMessage on Windows or Android, for example, because part of Apple's business model is to keep their users trapped within their ecosystem.

On 7/18/2016 at 1:46 PM, FDNY said:

Herein lies the problem with most "just little"  jobs whether it be a tax return or a home improvement job.  Today, after last week I wired up an under the cabinet over the kitchen sink LED light, should last my lifetime.  But the wire connecter that goes behind the fixture will not fit into the wall due to a 2x4 in the way. 

This describes every single home improvement project we've taken on in our house.  Every step of the way.  My dream is to one day live in a house where the walls are mostly square and plumb, with studs that are 16" on center.

So now, we start every room with the nuclear option, and it goes like this: Step 1: Rent a roll-off dumpster.  Step 2: Get the big hammer and gut the room down to the studs and joists.  Step 2b: Try not to entertain the idea of arson.  Step 3: new sub floor, wiring, insulation, drywall, floor, trim.  Step 4: Live in relative relative comfort for a few months, and then repeat.  

Internet Explorer 11 is there, but they don't make it easy to find.  Hit the Start Button (or wherever the search box is now), and in the search box, type "Internet Explorer"

When you see the familiar blue 'e' icon in the results, right click it, and pin it to your Task Bar and/or Start Menu

I was tempted to suggest fixing it by upgrading to Windows 10, just to see the reaction.

I asked for an upgrade to Windows 95 for Christmas 1995, and my mom got it for me... And even though we had a CD-ROM drive, she got it on floppy.  It came on 26 disks, I believe, and took FOREVER to install.

Unfortunately for my mom and her Quickbooks files, I was never happy just to USE a computer, I had to tinker with it.  So over the next few years, I did the DOS 6.22 installation (6 floppies) followed by the 26-disk upgrade to 95 roughly a dozen times after screwing up the system so bad I couldn't fix it without formatting the drive.

I learned a lot from that tinkering, and my mom learned the importance of regular backups.

Flash has been slowly dying for years.  Adobe is pushing developers away from it in favor of other tools that accomplish the same things with open standards, that don't contain security vulnerabilities, that won't eat your laptop's battery.  

Large companies (CBS, for example) are slow to change, however. Google knows this, and worked with Adobe in 2010 to build a sandboxed version of flash into Chrome.  It's robust enough to display most flash content like streaming video, and doesn't require that Adobe Flash is actually installed.  Even when Adobe Flash is installed, I don't believe it's used by Chrome unless you force it.  With all of the recent Flash vulnerabilities that were actively exploited, the information that Adobe released about the issues always mentioned IE an Firefox by name, but not Chrome.

So even if you don't want to use Chrome, my suggestion would be to uninstall Flash and continue using your favorite browser.  For occasionally viewing content that requires Flash, use Chrome.

There's a gotcha though.  Flash really is on its last legs.  Google has helped people view Flash content in the most secure way possible for the past 6 years while developers transition away from Flash at a glacial pace, but they've said recently that they're going to start phasing it out.  Apparently, Chrome will start blocking all flash content except for on the top 10 websites that require it, and allow people to manually whitelist additional sites.  Eventually, all sites will have flash blocked by default, but I assume they'll make it fairly easy to unblock for a particular site or your current session.

http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/15/11679394/chrome-to-block-flash-later-2016

EDIT: As for PDF content, I believe Firefox, Chrome, and IE all now are able to render most PDF files in-browser without a plugin.

A family friend (lawyer) came to me with a laptop a couple weeks ago.  She has all Macs in her office, except for one Windows laptop that she uses for a specific piece of software.  

After refusing Windows 10 updates for ages, it finally decided it was time to upgrade itself, and it went badly.  It got stuck in a boot loop with the Windows 10 update only half baked, and I couldn't find any information about reverting to the previous system without actually being able to boot into Windows 10.

I worked on that stupid laptop for hours trying half a dozen of the least destructive solutions first, but finally I had no choice but to put the laptop back to factory settings.  Thankfully her software vendor had excellent support and was able to tell me exactly what needed to be backed up before wiping the system.

I don't see how Microsoft can, in good conscience, be so heavy handed about an OS upgrade, especially without some method to revert to the previous system if the upgrade goes badly which is not an uncommon occurrence. 

18 hours ago, Abby Normal said:

Where did you get a 'hacked Adobe Flash update'?

I'm going to guess that he got Flash Player from Adobe, and that it was the vector for the hack.  Adobe Flash and Adobe Reader seem to be in constant need of updating because of an endless supply of security vulnerabilities.  Same goes for Java.  

Popular browsers can render most common Flash and PDF content without the Adobe plugins installed, so I removed them from my system long ago.  There are times when I wish I had Java installed, but not badly enough to put up with updating every time I turn around.

There are probably tons of people who have Quicktime installed and don't realize it because it was installed along with iTunes so they could manage their iDevices.  

If anyone actually used Quicktime and are looking for a replacement, here are two options that are free and open source, and will play almost any format:

Media Player Classic: https://mpc-hc.org/

VLC: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html

Anyone taking out their frustration on office equipment with guns might consider adding quarter to half a pound of tannerite for some extra boom.

Serious talk: You should be 100 yards from the target.  Wear ear and eye protection.  Don't sue me if your blow yourself up.

You people should send me emails when bad stuff happens.  I was telling Judy that if it's a hosting/server issue, I get emails and text messages, but if it's site/software related, someone has to let me know it's broke!

[email protected]

Sorry about the downtime.  A MySQL database table crashed, and had to be repaired.  Should be all good now.

I've cleaned dozens family and friends' computers all running a wide array of antivirus/antimalware/security software.  I have yet to find a any security software that could protect people from downloading and installing random wallpaper applications, or weather alert applications, or free solitaire and pinball games.  Usually it's not viruses, it's just adware on top of webpage redirects and fake "you have a virus" popups compounded until the computer becomes unusable.

I guess what I'm saying is... if you just do work on your computer and you don't fart around looking for free time wasters to install, then you're doing better than about 85% of the population.

Please, do not try to cover my entire hosting bill, that's crazy.

This site uses 10-12% of the server's CPU, and a smaller fraction of the bandwidth/RAM/disk space.  It's not the only website on my server--it shares resources with a couple dozen other websites that I'm paid to host and maintain.

I'm coming out ahead, and this forum pays for the resources it uses and then some. 

If anyone donates twice, I'll issue a refund.

You folks are way too generous.  

The site consumes about 10-12% of the CPU on my server, and donations generally cover about 1/3 of my annual hosting bill. 

I think I may use part of the donations to buy a model rocket for my kids for Easter, along with electronics bits and pieces to build a fancy launch controller.  4 years old might be a little too young to learn the basics of microcontroller programming, but we can start with circuits, switches, and lighting up LEDs

Thank you all very much!

Even if someone is completely honest, it seems like there are so many weird issues that are entirely situational.  Claim the stairs if you use them to get to your office, for example.  The Chimney is probably okay if it's attached to the furnace to heat the whole home.  These aren't details that your average taxpayer is going to think about bringing up.

Is it even worth tracking the improvements, though?  I mean, lets say for the sake of argument (and because it's true) that I really don't care for keeping track of this stuff, and the only way I would ever do it is for some substantial financial benefit... and even substantial financial benefit is really just barely enough to get me to keep track of the money I blow on this money pit of a house.

As far as I can tell, there isn't much reason to, unless as Terry D pointed out, the IRS changes the 121 exclusion rules.

EDIT: And do you folks have lengthy interviews with your clients about these things?  I imagine it's necessary.  Of all the people I've talked to who have a Home Office, none of them seem to care about whether the expenses they're claiming are valid, and most of them are not.

Alright, I'm feeling better about this now, thank you for the clarification. 

Still gonna drink though.

10 minutes ago, Terry D said:

Eric,

I would be careful here. Pub 587 is pretty straight forward on the repair expenses for the room used for business are direct expenses. I do agree with Judy that some of those she mentions you may be able to use. Again the chimney maybe because the furnace is used to heat the entire house. Same with the electrical. But... repairs to the other rooms don't qualify.

And things like the roof/siding are not considered repairs, correct? These are home improvements?  Meaning depreciable, and not expenses?