Mel in Hawaii

Unless it was a feature added after I left, there are none.

I have seen many blue screens of death in my years of computer usage, most in a 'support' possition and they are one of the things that really can drive you nuts. There have been some that I was never able to solve and ended up just replacing the hardware. Memory issues abound with the creation of them yes. But the fact that the installation started the problem and the uninstallation resolved it, I would look more towards issues regarding software. The "driver" message is more generic and not much of a use with trying to find the answer. Personally, I would look at the CD and see if there is dirt/scratches. Try downloading the web install and going from there rather than the CD as that will tell you if there is a file that is not reading correctly off the cd. If the problems come back after a web install then you have some software installed on teh machine that is incompatible with the software and you may need to reinstall the other software AFTER installing ATX (to put back the DLL's that came with the other software). One of the biggest headaches with windows is getting the right combination of versions of shared files loaded at the same time. Some earlier files can't work with the newer ones, others can't have the old ones, etc. Don't forget that Microsoft just released a PILE of updates to XP this weekend that most machines are auto-installing that might change the mix.

I don't remember anyone ever asking for that back when I was still working there, but definately a good idea and one that would not be all that hard to implement from the UI standpoint, but the backend damage that a knowlegeable user could do would not be stopable from within the software.

Well if you don't prepare the personal return, then what would you be worried about being transferred? I doubt it will automatically make lots of individual returns without you asking. More than likely just pulling off the SSN when you enter that in the new return and checking if there is a K1 in the database somewhere. The list of gotcha's that I have been thinking through since I read this is quite large just in a one person shop, for a multi-user shop whoa.. To properly account for each one the recalc routine is going to have to have a lot of database lookups so each recalc is going to be slower.

Not to knock ATX, but I bet that feature if it works at all will have some serious performance hits to it. I can just see the people with their 'what if' duplicated returns having some really wierd results. But if they have thought of all the gotcha's then it would be a really nice feature.

Well, if you check out the name servers, there is a big problem with ns712.websitewelcome.com and ns711.websitewelcome.com as if you try to switch servers during an nslookup between the two, they can't properly resolve each other and from then on you can't resolve anything. *** ns711.websitewelcome.com can't find www.atxcommunity.com: No response from server *** ns712.websitewelcome.com can't find www.atxcommunity.com: No response from server Yes, I thought initially it was a typo when people were going to the site, but now I am leaning more with Erc that there is a problem with the name servers. Exactly what that problem is and how to fix it, I don't know, I just know I have never seen that behavior from a DNS server before.

People know better than sending me an e-greeting card as I always 'blow up at them' as my mom puts it.

My one suggestion is to ALWAYS use the WWW in front of the domain name if you are having problems 'remaining' logged in as if you go to the atxcommunity.com domain instead of www.atxcommunity.com it will 'forget' your credentials even if you close and go to the correct domain.

Be VERY careful when you are modifying a PDF to 'black out' confidential data, as you can UNDO the blacking out with the correct software. It's best to black it out and then scan it back in. There was a very high profile lawyer firm that got in trouble for releasing redacted documents that were all too easy to revert to the orriginal documents.

Jainen I think you misinterpreted my comment. I was more than willing to provide full details, documentation, etc on the system we were selling. My discomfort came when asked to evaluate the other system and make a choice between them. Do you go to a car salesman and expect him to have him choose which car for you to buy, one on their lot or one at another dealer? Obviously in the car salesman example, you would be expecting them to choose theirs and knowing they would choose that regardless. But if that car salesman has done consulting work for you, and you asked him as a consultant to do the comparison, theres where the problem is.

Also make sure you are going to www.atxcommunity.com instead of atxcommunity.com, as leaving the www. off makes you have to sign in every time...

The company I have worked for is shutting down (yes, I know I have been talking about that for 2 years) and we are finally down to the wire that I thought I would never see. Anyways, we have a nice phone system and were looking to sell it. A company that I have done work for comes to me and wants me to make the decision on if they are going to buy this one or go for an 'outsourced' PBX instead that they gave me the proposal for. Ok, here's the rub... Would any of you feel in a wierd spot to be working for the company selling the system (and actively looking for someone to buy it) and being asked by the other company to be paid to make the evaluation on which is the better solution? Anyways, what I ended up doing was that I informed the company that I had a conflict of interest in selling the system and as such my oppinion could be affected by it. They seemed really annoyed that I didn't give them a straight Yes or No, but instead only wanted to discuss the relative technical merits of each system in general terms (giving them a lead on where to do their research). Afterwards I feel that I shouldn't have even gone that far as they still are upset that I haven't given them a Yes or No. I also didn't charge them for my time as I can't see myself charging for something that I don't feel comfortable about doing. Normally I really really like to help people, but in this case I fear that not helping at all would have been a better answer as they seem to be treating me as if I am hiding something when in fact I was straight up and told them of my conflict even before we started talking about it. So, where do you draw the line?

Not to knock my old company, but I have never understood why they can't keep the efiling system up and running for getting acks long past the end of the season. Change the server port that you are communicating to, year identifier, etc, if you need to differentiate from one year to the next. It has always seemed like such a simple 'fix' to me.

I say push it up the ladder. Ask to speak the supervisor, remind them that they OFFERED you the discount based on your prompt payment that YOU did do. They had the use of YOUR money during this time period and never once was having to 'collect' on the payment as you are just forwarding them a check and asking for the excess balance to be reimbursed. I am sure there is a consumer advocacy group that works with your local paper/tv station, mention that you will be getting them involved. It's your money, push it as far as it needs to go.

Julie, to be honest, I haven't worked for ATX since February 3, 1999. I don't know the latest version of any year anymore, nor if they have maintained the servers to allow updates on old programs. I bet that someone here could look at their 2004 and tell you if they have a later version than you do. Myself, I don't think I have the 2004 version and was just thinking about the probable cause. If we could find WT around, he would know for sure. Do you have a full backup of the old hard drive? You could restore the old 2004 program directory to an alternate location and look at the version numbers to compare against your currently installed version. There used to be an *.INI file inside that directory that listed the version information as one of the variables. It's just a text file, so you could open it and take a look as long as you didn't change the file (don't save when exiting). If I remember correctly (off the top of my head) there was a variable called CD Date or something similar to that. It probably got changed with later versions of the software, but somewhere in there you should find the version information.

I don't know about patriotism, but I tried to give a school 10 cases of Legal size paper and they refused it because they wouldn't be able to use it since they never use legal size paper. (As if the teachers couldn't find a use for it.) A few weeks later I was sitting waiting for my son, only to see a delivery driver dropping of a load of paper, including several cases of legal size. Government waste is all around us at every level of government, cleverly hidden as an 'economic stimulus' by buying and spending more than they ever needed to.

My guess is that she updated her 2004 program on the old computer over the internet. Then you reinstalled using a not so final 2004 CD, so the version number is less than what saved the return. But this is a guess.

So far it looks like they have created 51 users so they can come back and post whenever they want. This is DEFINATELY a script doing the posting, not a human.

Also, if you want to give me delete privs, I will only use mod powers to delete spam, up to you of course.

Moderators get the 'delete' option, we don't unfortunately. Yup, it was bound to happen that the slimballs would find the forum, but also note that deleting an occasional post is not going to do you any good as they have loaded the board into a database of forums most likely, so you can delete all you want, they will come back. That's the bad thing about automated posting scripts, once you are in one of the databases, forget trying to get rid of them. Some ideas to slow them down. Change the URL of the signup page once a week. Capcha works a bit, but once again is easily defeatable. If the forum software allows, disallow attachments/HTML for members with less than a week/10 posts.

Well I actually found the post. Had to look at my profile to find it though as only 3 pages of topics show in the index, so the index doesn't go back that far. With this recession coming on, I may have all the time in the world to get the program running unfortunately. Just as long as I can keep a roof over my head and the electricity on, I should be ok though. So, I am not asking for investments at this time. The capital requiements would really come when it's time to do advertising and setting up the sales teams as word of mouth only goes so far and once sales start happening, it basically will drive and determine the size of the tech teams required. I don't know about the rest of you, but I like to have a finished (or nearly) product to show before asking people to put up their money. I just don't feel right otherwise as I want a reasonable level of certainty of success before asking people to take on risk.

I tried to go back and find the post where I basically said I would NOT be ready for this tax season, but it seems that I can't find it. How long do posts last on this board before they are deleted anyways?

I suspect that a memory issue was the culpret. When things start to act wierd, I always reboot my computer.

Haha.. Well, that guy has a lot more hair than I have... Add a few pounds, shave the top portion of his head bald, leave the hair around the fringe and the 4-5 day beard and he might pass for me. I have a shirt that closely resembles that one but the print isn't quite so large. Just about every shirt I wear is an aloha shirt, but most are not so loud. It's great that the companies now are putting out commercials we actually enjoy going back to watch.

Well, I haven't ever seen the commercial so I can't compare myself. But, I am not on the beach as that's for people with $$$. I do have a beautiful view at the moment, looking out over Pearl Harbor, Diamond Head and all the way down Ewa since I am up about 875 feet elevation in the center of the island of Oahu. Now, I do go to the beach a bit with the kids, but usually one to two days a week only when the weather is nice (aka summer).