Mel in Hawaii

Yes, actually that does make sense. If there are a lot of folders/files in the Program Files folder, it will take longer to open the folder, but this will affect most programs, not just the ATX program. Unfortunately, each company creating their own root folder c:\ATX C:\Intuit c:\Yahoo c:\Google c:\blahblahblah would have the same effect. Remember that the root folder is limited in the number of files/folders it can contain before the file system can not store anymore (even if you have more hard disk space free). The number is not absolute since it's limited to 512 entries, but a long file name can be numerous entries (100 14 character folders would use 200 entries, 100 22 character folders would use 300 entries). Subfolders can have unlimited number of entries (limited by hard disk space of course).

I would check how much memory the machine that is slow has. Compare to 'fast' machine and I bet you will find that free memory is much lower.

I don't really agree with any of the argument. What about the large number of people who have taken on a second job to pay off their now reset mortgage payment? They have filled jobs that other people would have been able to take which would have allowed them not to be considered 'unemployed'. It's pretty bad when I know people who were in my office with Master's degrees, taking jobs on the side that literally a HS graduate could get. When money gets tight, you do what you have to do, and that usually means work more and spend less. Unfortunately the spending less causes there to be less jobs available, which makes it hard to work more. While I am not advocating going on a spending spree, it seems as if the economy may need it.

Even I wouldn't put that date into a contract. There are forms that don't come out by that date and if ONE form wasn't available, then they would be required to give you a refund, even if they are being held hostage by the IRS. I can remember years ago that we hoped to get the FIRST edition (with only partial forms available) by that date. Yes, times have changed and ATX has been able to get the program out earlier and earlier every year, but there is ALWAYS a fight to get the programs out as soon as the customers want it. And then the state programs are always later than the federal, as everyone needs the federal.

Take a wild guess and I bet 95% chance you will have your answer.

What doesn't make any sense to me is that I thought long ago, ATX had spun off a different operation in that building. Guess I must have misunderstood GW when he was telling me about that. I also don't like how the article was written as the company was already known as ATX when it moved to Caribou from Washburn, LONG before it moved to Caribou. It did change from ATX to ATX II or something like that. They didn't even spell his name correctly either.

Zeke, even I have hit that limitation. It's an unfortunate reality that things must be done to prevent the slime of the earth from destroying the few good things left in this world. There are actual spam bot programs out there, where their whole purpose for being is to signup to a board as fast as possible, spam their message (usually porn related) as much as possible before getting the account shut down. Most of the time it's not even meant for the people on the board to read, just to give them more incoming links so that Google ranks their websites higher.

The tax program is a bit different I believe. There are no pre-programmed 'timer' routines in it that makes it shut off after your subscription expires. I don't know much about the accounting program, but you need to keep the installation codes from the tax package so you could reinstall if necessary. There is no economic reason to 'expire' a tax program since you need to buy a new one every year for the updates anyways. Still, I can't see why the accounting package won't allow you to go back and look at your old data. Bad design I guess.

My personal oppinion of their "Run Windows at native speed." is so what? Basically they are saying that they have made their 'apple' equipment so 'compatible' with normal PC's that they just developed Windows drivers for their hardware (or did they? I bet they just went back to the chip designers and got them) so you can dual boot your computer. I have been dual booting my PC for ages so I can have multiple operating systems on it... I wonder if this is why that Mac 'Clone' company was able to make a go of it so easily. So, if you want to run a Mac and live with shutting your computer down and restarting every time you want to use your tax program, it's available. But I am quite sure you wouldn't like doing it beyond the fascination of the first few tries. I remember the day that they had the emulators that actually ran inside the Apple OS, they were slow but they did work until you got to printing (sometimes would, sometimes wouldn't, and just 1 page at a time), I have this nagging feeling that printing to OLD apple printers will still be a problem, but do these even work under the new OS? Might not, so that might not be a problem. Hmm... Seems Don beat me to answering while I was composing my response.

If you go there, you also lose anyone who switched to another software package as you can't get there unless you are a customer. So, if your question doesn't involve the actual software, you have a much more limited audience.

Actually, I never thought about it, but the Efiling module would be a dead giveaway for an illegal installation. So I guess changing the installation module wouldn't really matter now.

Well, I could always make up my own installation codes as I knew how they are constructed. I wasn't suggesting that you install something that wasn't purchased, I was basically saying that some person's mistake gave out a lot of information. It was something that I orriginally pointed out when the installation routine was written years ago, but it wasn't considered an important issue back then as GW was a trusting and honest person. I also advocated for changing the install routine yearly to avoid problems with piracy. Granted, the current installation codes are easily traced back to the person who purchased them, so people 'posting' installation codes could easily be prosecuted if need be. But, if someone posted a routine for generating codes, that wouldn't be easily traceable, except for going to the place that it was posted and backtracking. I am not advocating that either, I can easily see CCH sicking many lawyers on that. Now, I don't know what security measures were undertaken in the last few years, so there may be more ways of tracking illegal installations too, but I don't know them.

Remember that the orriginal 'back year CD's' was started by an EMPLOYEE of ATX that was doing it on his own to avoid harassing technical support calls. He made up one CD that had multiple years on that CD. Of course it was for people who had valid installation codes for the prior years. I do believe that the $100 price was right for people who hadn't purchased the prior years (unless they were getting a deal for considering switching to ATX), but just the CD was $20. I know ethics is a problem with this approach, but even back years ago when I worked there, there were people who would call and say they were considering switching and ask for the prior years program as a demo. Generally the sales person would send it for free to get you to switch. I knew it was happening as the names or home addresses would already be in our database and when we would do a database sort for direct mail it would show up. It didn't take me long to figure out what these people were doing.

Seems as if something like a database import/update basically showed you how they make up their activation code and where the random/check digits are. But of course that really is only good for one year, a smart person would change the activation algorithm every year to avoid piracy.

I doubt that my program will be up to snuff this season, which is one reason I am happy to see the 'good news' about ATX that KC posted. I had high hopes of being able to get it done, but I am missing my own self-imposed deadlines left and right.

I also got that call probably a week ago. I have several plausable explainations for why they might be calling... First, don't they make more money on each copy of the other software? Wouldn't it make sense to convert some people? Wouldn't one conversion probably pay for all the telephone calls? Second, there was a lot of unrest about the transition last year, so if people are going to leave their old program anyways, they want to TRY to convince you to look at the other program. Some may not realize that they are the same company, others may think that support will be better for their own version of the program and thus be willing to switch. Third, of course the name and number could be coming from another list that has enough differences that it doesn't match up to their existing customer base and thus hasn't been purged. I doubt this option though as I have never given my cell phone number to any software company other than the guys at ATX. Telemarketing using automated message devices to cell phones is illegal unless you have an existing business relationship with that customer. Telemarketers are supposed to purge cell phones from their databases based on national lists of cell phone subscribers, so the numbers should have been purged from the companies selling the lists anyways. Lastly, if they can convince enough people to switch, their development costs will go down while profits per sale up. Now, some of you may discount my comments based on a perceived hatred for ATX. Quite the contrary, I hold a lot of 'nostalgia' for the company even if bad things had happened. I would be very happy to see them continue if they can hold onto the core values that I believe built the company (I don't see that happening though).

Hmm... I haven't experienced that problem, the volume for me seems normal. Have you just tried a different phone connected to the device? It might just be the handset.

I think you have the price wrong, it's $20 for the first year. AT least the last 4 that I bought were that much. Biggest pain is that your computer must be on and the program must be running on your computer to use it. I don't know how it interacts with your tax programs though. Usually once I get on the phone I drag the application off the screen so it doesn't bug me. Very limited number of area codes/exchanges available, none in Hawaii yet. I can't get their 911 feature to accept that I am living where I am living, it just doesn't like my address. Having the computer on all the time does run up your electric bill though, but for me that is not a problem as I leave my machine on all the time so I can access it remotely. I could NOT get the unit to work under Win2003 Server, which I would have liked to do as I was going to connect it to our PBX as a backup line. BUT, as far as voice quality, it seems great, although it really does depend on the quality of the phone you plug into it. Cheapo $9.95 phone from Walmart seemed to cause an 'echo' effect, but once I replaced it with a better quality phone it was nice. My kids use the cordless phone I have plugged into it now as if it was a standard line. I like the voicemail messages getting sent to my email address. That's like the best feature for me as I can get my messages when I am working.

Personally I like Magic-Jack... except of course tht it doesn't have a stand-alone unit.

Things aren't progressing as fast as I would like unfortunately. As for having to be in Hawaii, I figured people would chime in an answer no matter where you are, but I do know a couple people from Hawaii are on here, just as I know there are ATX people in Hawaii as I have run into a few of you. But if you do run into me in the store while I am wearing my ATX polo shirt, please don't rag on me... It just happens to be my favorite shirt, I haven't worked for them since 1999.

I may be in Hawaii, but I do NOT do tax preparation. My history and reason for being on the board is due to the fact that I USED to work for ATX back in the wee early years (till 1999) and that I am working on a tax program of my own. There is a big difference in being able to program a program to carry numbers and follow directions rather than knowing court cases. Sorry I can't be of any help, although there ARE other people from Hawaii on the board.

Most likely he was only acting on the instructions from the marketing department that want you to pay for service.

I have a question, has CCH sanctioned you going on the board?

Pacun beat me to it... Hot key combination to flip monitor.

Didn't someone already post a mention about this board and it already disappeared? Or was I imagining that?