Category: Computers

Tax Act

Since 2001 I’ve been using Tax Act software to do my taxes. They let you download free software that will do all of your forms and then charge you $7.95 to e-file, but you can always print everything out and mail in your forms at no charge. For the first two years I took advantage of the free software and paid for the e-file. The last couple of years I’ve sprung for the deluxe version for $12.95 that includes a free e-file. The free version of the software constantly bugs you about upgrading to the deluxe version. Also it doesn’t pull your information from W-2’s, 1098’s, and 1099’s from the previous year. So for $5 more I get a better product plus I feel like they deserve something for the efforts anyway, though why the IRS doesn’t write their own software and give it away I have no idea.

It’s nice because I can download the software and file my taxes without going to the store, without rebates, and without having books and CD’s to keep up with afterward. They also have an online version that is a couple of dollars cheaper and still includes the e-file, but I would rather have the software on my computer (not that I’ve ever used it again; I print my forms to Adobe Acrobat files when I’m done). You can pay another $10 and get the state version, but I do the state forms by hand since they just use the federal adjusted income and deductions anyway and are very easy.

I just downloaded it tonight and did a rough draft of my taxes. Looks like I owe a little bit this year.

Wireless Network in a Snap

Susan’s new office gave her a laptop as her primary computer. So she was wanting a way to hook it up to her high speed internet service when she “works from home”. I told her she would need a router and they would be $20-40. But I recommended she spend a little more and get a router that would support wireless for her laptop. Since a wireless router (802.11g) was $60 (after rebates) and the wired router was $40 and the wireless router still had 4 wired ports she agreed to get it and then possibly get a wireless card for the laptop later on. “But you could watch TV and be on the internet at the same time if you had wireless,” I said. She said “That may be a dream of yours, but not me.” But before we checked out she decided it would be nice to work while in bed, so she bought the card for $40 (after rebates; each item had two $10 rebates so the cash register printed out nearly a whole roll of receipts).

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A problem bigger than me

The last two Sundays I’ve worked a total of 10 hours on a co-worker’s home computer trying to get rid of a virus she picked up. The virus doesn’t destroy files but it wreaks havoc with Internet Explorer, replacing your bookmarks and installing toolbars with links to gambling and pornography sites. The toolbars are very difficult to remove and hidden programs go behind you after you delete files and replace them with new versions so that when you start Internet Explorer the toolbars return.

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Playing an MP3 from Access

I have a database of all my CD’s in Access. I’ve included lyrics and some reviews but one thing I always wanted to do was be able to play a selected song at the click of a button. Once I started ripping all my CD’s this became possible even though it wouldn’t be practical to store all the files in the database itself.

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