Pem’s Tech Blog

I noticed this on TurboTax 2010’s web site:

[BEGIN QUOTE]
Completing your return
* Online – Step-by-step Interview questions make tax preparation simple.
* Desktop – Step-by-step Interview questions and the ability to view and complete tax forms just as they appear on paper.
http://turbotax.intuit.com/support/iq/TurboTax/Buyer-s-Guide—Should-I-use-TurboTax-Online-or-Desktop-/GEN12410.html
[END QUOTE]

In other words, the desktop version is more full-featured and lets you interact more with the actual tax forms.  I think this would make it a lot easier to understand what’s going on, such as to google IRS info (or read info at irs.gov).  Or, to do comparisons if you have different options (such as standard deduction vs. itemized, or married filing jointly vs. filing separate).

If the desktop version has more functionality, then this is really not surprising, because with the online version, they let you answer their tax questions before you pay.  So if they showed you the 1040 etc docs that it creates before you paid, then it would be very convenient to use the software without paying for it.

Also, as a general rule, web apps are inherently limited compared to native apps.  Web apps run on a generic platform that works inside a web browser.  Native apps are integrated into the OS and the OS GUI.  This is basically the same argument that Apple uses for not allowing Adobe Flash on iOS – because they want to encourage the development of more native apps.  Even if an app uses the cloud, a native app typically has more potential for power, higher performance, OS integration (including OS GUI integration).

Of course the downside is that you don’t get automatic cloud storage and convenient access from anywhere.  This is why many cloud services offer both.  For example, access to email (or cloud services, such as EverNote) via web pages, desktop apps, and mobile apps.  Maybe TurboTax 2010 should offer this.  Then, again, it’s just a *.tax2010 file that you could backup however you want.

The other thing about TurboTax 2010 desktop is that it’s priced differently.  For the online version they sell you the efile.  For the desktop version, they sell you the software (with up to 5 free files).  If you’re only doing one efile, then it costs more:

TurboTax 2010 desktop editions pricing: 1040EZ is free.  Deluxe says "own a home, made donations or have medical expenses" and costs $60.  Premier says "own stocks, bonds, mutual funds or rental properties" and costs $90.  officemax.com currently sells them in a box on CD for $10 off.

I just installed TurboTax 2010 on a Windows 7 (AMD64 / x64) computer, and here’s my first impressions.  The first thing that killed me is that you can’t press Alt+F to go to the file menu (or Alt+E for Edit, etc).  This is a very basic violation of Windows HIG (btw, it’s called mnemonics).  This is a very minor thing, but I’m kind a nut about standardized shortcuts and good HIG-based OS GUI integration, so a detail like this does really bothers me.  It would be such a tiny GUI code fix.  I had a similar reaction when I first tried p4v.exe (Perfoce’s GUI) on Win7, and noticed that it didn’t use the taskbar jump lists (instead, I wrote cmd.exe batch files, and put those on a jump list, which is kludge).

On the other hand, I was at least glad to see the box that toggles between Step-by-Step and Forms view.  Unfortunately, it takes a few seconds to switch between them, which really doesn’t make sense, but I guess that’s not a big deal.  And I guess a performance bug in the GUI is not a big deal as long as all the actual functionality (ie, does taxes) is good.

Other than those comments, my overall initial impression is very positive.  But keep in mind, I’m writing this post before I’ve actually started using it.

I’ll close with a brief (and btw, uneducated) initial impression of H&R Block vs. TurboTax.  Intuit is a financial and tax software company (products include TurboTax, Quicken / Mint.com, QuickBooks, Billing Manager, Intuit Eclipse), so you might expect their software to be good.  H&R Block is a tax preparation company, so you might expect them to know about taxes.  Of course there are some others, such as TaxACT, which sounds similar but costs less.

Update 2011/02/12: A link from Bank of America also gives you a 35% discount, such as TurboTax 2010 Deluxe desktop edition discounted from $59.95 to $44.96.

Pem (Admin) :: 2011/02/11 (Friday, February 11, 2011) :: Financial :: No Comments »

There’s a 40 min video of Jeff Bezos (amazon.com CEO / founder) with Charlie Rose (talk show) talking about the release of the Kindle 3.  I found the last 10 min (the part which isn’t about the Kindle 3) especially interesting:

1) Quote: We make it easy to try stuff on.  How do you make it easy to try stuff on?  By making it easy to return.  Oh, I see, yea.  And we try to make people not feel guilty about it.  You know, buy 3 pairs of jeans, and return 2 of them – it’s ok, don’t worry about it.  It’s okay with you?  Yea, it’s okay with us.  Keep the one that fits. End Quote.  So, there it is, from the horse’s mouth…  They want you to order 3 pairs of clothes, keep the one that fits, and mail the other 2 back.  Hmm, guess that attitude will keep both (mail package delivery) and (returns processing) busy <:-p

2) Talks about Bill Gates’s business vs. philanthropy theories (the basic idea is that business tends to be more productive, but philanthropy can address specific areas that the free market neglects) (and by people with excess savings).  Mentions experiment where they gave a random population of poor fruit farmers in India “the equivalent of winning the lottery” (uh, I guess $500 must have been worth a lot more in that specific part of India?), and it didn’t significantly affect their likelihood of getting out of poverty.

3) Often, people in our society love to argue about things before there is any data, or where they might be basing their ideas more on some arbitrary morality than on actual data and specific well-defined goals.

4) The internet and mass communication is shifting the amount of money that business spends to be a higher ratio of (actual value creation) vs. (excessive marketing fluff).

http://www.charlierose.com/guest/view/2618
-> It’s the 40 min video dated 2010 Jul 28

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/12/10 (Friday, December 10, 2010) :: Philosophy / Opinions :: No Comments »

Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky,
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same.
There’s a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

And the people in the houses
All went to the university,
Where they were put in boxes
And they came out all the same,
And there’s doctors and lawyers,
And business executives,
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

And they all play on the golf course
And drink their martinis dry,
And they all have pretty children
And the children go to school,
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university,
Where they are put in boxes
And they come out all the same.

And the boys go into business
And marry and raise a family
In boxes made of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
There’s a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

…

Rambling Comments:

It’s worth the disclaimer that this kind of environment / scenario probably at least deserves some amount of credit.  To grow up in a pleasant safe stable suburban environment, get into a university, graduate and start a well-paid stable career (such as doctor, lawyer, business executive) and lead a conservative non-controversial non-creative non-expressive conformist lifestyle, with a mortgage and a family, and hopes to repeat the same cycle with your offspring…  It’s better than a lot of the alternatives, both historically, and in today’s environment.

But it’s far from ideal – especially for people with a certain personality.

And obviously the emphasis on sameness and boxes and dull non-diverse repetition, is less about criticizing specific activities…  And more about criticizing things like conformity, constraints, one-size-fits-all lifestyles, living a banal existence, thinking we should all live a certain way just because our neighbors and/or previous generation did, putting a particular arbitrary non-controversial lifestyle as an ideal, aiming to only maintain the status quo without real change and growth, etc.

Anyway, this is one of those (I’m mostly just posting the lyrics quote) posts – so I didn’t spend much (time and thought) on my comments.

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/06/06 (Sunday, June 6, 2010) :: Philosophy / Opinions :: 4 Comments »

The biggest let-down is the “use less than 100KB/user/month" part, because Kindle doesn’t have WiFi – at least not yet.  Two applications I would most imagine myself using on a Kindle are read it later (or instapaper) and EverNote (or something that can import my OneNote notes), but 100 KB/user/month wouldn’t be enough.  Hopefully the next version of the Kindle will have WiFi, and allow applications that use unlimited data over WiFi.

Since it’s short, I’ll just quote the entire thing from:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/?ie=UTF8&docId=1000476231

KDK Limited Beta Coming Next Month

Submit your e-mail address to get notified when the limited beta starts next month. Participants in the limited beta will be able to download the Kindle Development Kit, access developer support, test content on Kindle, and submit finished content. Those wait-listed will be invited to participate at a later date as space becomes available. The Kindle Development Kit includes sample code, documentation, and the Kindle Simulator, which helps developers build and test their content by simulating the 6-inch Kindle and 9.7-inch Kindle DX on Mac, PC, and Linux desktops. We are excited to see what you invent for Kindle.

Revenue Share

User revenue will be split 70% to the developer and 30% to Amazon net of delivery fees of $0.15 / MB. Remember that unlike smart phones, the Kindle user does not pay a monthly wireless fee or enter into an annual wireless contract. Kindle active content must be priced to cover the costs of downloads and on-going usage.

Pricing Options

Active content will be available to customers in the Kindle Store later this year. Your active content can be priced three ways:

• Free – Active content applications that are smaller than 1MB and use less than 100KB/user/month of wireless data may be offered at no charge to customers. Amazon will pay the wireless costs associated with delivery and maintenance.
• One-time Purchase – Customers will be charged once when purchasing active content. Content must have nominal (less than 100KB/user/month) ongoing wireless usage.
• Monthly Subscription – Customers will be charged once per month for active content.

Active content applications have an upper size limit of 100MB. Applications larger than 10MB will not be delivered wirelessly but can be downloaded from the Kindle Store to a computer and transferred to the user’s Kindle via USB.

Developer Guidelines

Voice over IP functionality, advertising, offensive materials, collection of customer information without express customer knowledge and consent, or usage of the Amazon or Kindle brand in any way are not allowed. In addition, active content must meet all Amazon technical requirements, not be a generic reader, and not contain malicious code.

We will work to refine the above guidelines throughout the beta.

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/01/21 (Thursday, January 21, 2010) :: Misc, Mobility, Notetaking :: No Comments »

Fun magnet shapes on my office cube

Top is Ball of Whacks: 1 piece, 2 piece, 3 piece, then two 5 piece (the star and the bow tie)

Bottom is X-Ball: 1 piece, 2 piece, 3 piece, 4 piece

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/01/10 (Sunday, January 10, 2010) :: Personal :: No Comments »

I watched the presentation video here:
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/livingproofproject/Pages/impatient-optimists-speech.aspx

> Gates said the generosity of the United States “has helped improve health and save lives and bring down population growth, so that money can be spent on all the other things that need investment – economic growth, jobs, and so on.”
– http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28794.html

Here is an embedded link:

The rest of this post is my notes while watching the video:

Child Deaths: Bill Gates said this chart is the most beautiful picture he has ever seen.  A chart shows that the number of children dying went down from 20 million children in 1960 to under 9 million in 2008.  This is less deaths, despite the 25% increase in number of births.  One of the great accomplishments of the last 100 years.  Bill claims two reasons: one is increase in standard of living and food / sanitation, the other is smart spending on global health.

2010 Federal Budget is $3.6 trillion, ~1% is foreign aid, and ~0.22% is for global health at $8 billion.  The Gate’s foundation puts in $1.8 billion per year, over half the foundation’s spending.

Small Pox: by 1977, small pox was eradicated: $130 million for US over 10 year period saved $17 billion (and also “untold human misery”).

Polio: has been eliminated in the US, and reduced by 99%, but still not completed eradicated.  It is still endemic in 4 countries: Nigeria, India (specifically Uttar Pradesh and Bihar), Pakistan, and Afghanistan.

Rotavirus: kills 500,000 per year.  In 1998 a rotavirus vaccine (RotaShield, by Wyeth) was licensed for use in the United States, but the manufacturer of the vaccine, however, withdrew it from the market in 1999, after it was discovered that the vaccine may have contributed to an increased risk for intussusception, or bowel obstruction, in one of every 12,000 vaccinated infants.  In 2006, two vaccines against Rotavirus A infection were shown to be safe and effective in children: Rotarix by GlaxoSmithKline and RotaTeq by Merck.  Paul Offit is credited as an inventor of RotaTeq.

They also mentioned how you have to invent, then manufacture, then transport (which requires refrigeration over plane, truck, then at the hospital / facility), then deliver to patients.

Many big diseases have gone down:

Cost of drugs: has gone down, which is a strong example of how economic development and increased standard of living can reduce cost of drugs, which is how they become available:

HIV/AIDS: since it has no vaccine yet, we need to focus on available treatment, and especially on prevention.  One thing that surprised me is the comment / claim that (male circumcision can reduce AIDS during sex with a partner by 60%) (this surprised me because in the developing world, we don’t have this issue, and circumcision is controversial and sometimes even compared to female genital mutilation).  And there are treatments such as retrovirus.  And alleged progress towards a vaccine.

Malaria: worldwide in 1900, eradicated from US / Canada and Europe in 1970, today in 2009 there is a plan to continue this progress:
  

Here’s a summary:

The US is the biggest contributor, but Europe is also big.

At 40 min, addressing some arguments about global health aid:

Corruption? accountability, auditing, measuring

Does aid discourage developing countries from developing?  Some countries like Brazil and Thailand used to be receivers of aid but are now givers of aid.  Tanzania doubled its health budget since 1990.

Improving health causes overpopulation, and thus actually makes global problems worse?  This one Bill and Melinda worried about a lot, which is why they started with a focus on family planning health issues.  But they referenced a TED talk from Hans Rosling:

  
Formerly poor countries like India in 1960 used to have Poor Health Large Families, and the worry was that giving them aid would just encourage them have larger families, and increase their need for aid.  But according to the data, between 1960 and 2007, the countries actually went up-left rather than just straight up.  Allegedly, because women choose to have smaller families, when they are to choose, and there’s a higher chance of their children surviving into adult years.
This is important, since small families means more resources (time, effort, money, education, health, freedom, etc) to focus on fewer children.  When people have smaller families: it’s easier to feed the kids, to protect their health, to have better nutrition, to send them to school and college or graduate college, to earn more income, to lead more productive lives, to lead less stressful lives, to keep the family life healthier and happier and less stressful and more civil, to better focus and enable the family (both children and parents) to continue to develop grow…  And the economy and standard of living in the country improves and life by every single measure gets better.
One unstated philosophy ethics premise I really liked in this presentation, is how they talked about deaths per year.  Not deaths per year per population.  This is important, and it’s definitely the right way to present it.  If the population triples, and the deaths triples, then the deaths still tripled.

Infant mortality and death of mother during childbirth: One are they said there has not been much progress until very recently.  4 million babies still die within the first 30 days, and 0.5 million mothers that die in childbirth – which of course can affect the entire family.

Pem (Admin) :: 2009/10/28 (Wednesday, October 28, 2009) :: Philosophy / Opinions :: No Comments »

Quote: You know, it’s such a peculiar thing – our idea of mankind in general. We all have a sort of vague, glowing picture when we say that, something solemn, big and important. But actually all we know of it is the people we meet in our lifetime. Look at them. Do you know any you’d feel big and solemn about? There’s nothing but housewives haggling at pushcarts, drooling brats who write dirty words on the sidewalks, and drunken debutantes. Or their spiritual equivalent. As a matter of fact, one can feel some respect for people when they suffer. They have a certain dignity. But have you ever looked at them when they’re enjoying themselves? That’s when you see the truth. Look at those who spend the money they’ve slaved for – at amusement parks and side shows. Look at those who’re rich and have the whole world open to them. Observe what they pick out for enjoyment. Watch them in the smarter speak-easies. That’s your mankind in general. I don’t want to touch it. — Dominique Francon, the Fountainhead, Page 143

Disclaimer: I’d say the same thing here as I would about Christ’s Sermon on the Mount.  If you get caught up in some unimportant detail.  Like asking “are Ayn Rand’s political philosophy ideas too extreme?”, or “is theism and biblical dogma rationally defensible?”.  Like asking “is there something inherently low-class about an amusement park or a housewife?”, or “is it inherently bad to have a sexual fantasy outside of a legal marriage agreement?”.  Or even “isn’t this just negativity based on non-realistic overly idealistic expectations?”.  Then I think you’d be missing the point, or at least getting side-tracked on what I might argue is a bunch of almost-unrelated tangents.  With that in mind, I’d encourage you to read the quote again.

Disclaimer #2: I’m not against people having “well-balanced lives” or multiple interests, or enjoying more than one type of thing.  Maybe a person can be genuine and still enjoy both things that are “solemn, big and important” and things that are (shallow or inane or fleeting or comic relief or just senseless fun), or even a mix (such as a bad joke that tries to encourage thought about an underlying message or topic).  But I love the quote, and I think it can encourage a person to evaluate topics like: how you live your life, what you really care about, what things you focus on, how you spend your time and resources, what is genuine…  How rare is true passion? (What do people really enjoy and value?)

Pem (Admin) :: 2009/10/23 (Friday, October 23, 2009) :: Personal, Philosophy / Opinions :: No Comments »

*** text from the magazine print ad, 1982:

Can a Computer Make You Cry?

Right now, no one knows. This is partly because many would consider the very idea frivolous. But it’s also because whoever successfully answers this question must first have answered several others.

Why do we cry? Why do we laugh, or love, or smile? What are the touchstones of our emotions?

Until now, the people who asked such questions tended not to be the same people who ran software companies. Instead, they were writers, filmmakers, painters, musicians. They were, in the traditional sense, artists.

We’re about to change that tradition. The name of our company is Electronic Arts.

Software worthy of the minds that use it.

We are a new association of electronic artists united by a common goal—to fulfill the enormous potential of the personal computer.

In the short term, this means transcending its present use as a facilitator of unimaginative tasks and a medium for blasting aliens. In the long term, however, we can expect a great deal more.

These are wondrous machines we have created, and in them can be seen a bit of their makers. It is as if we had invested them with the image of our minds. And through them, we are learning more and more about ourselves.

We learn, for instance, that we are more entertained by the involvement of our imaginations than by passive viewing and listening. We learn that we are better taught by experiences than by memorization. And we learn that the traditional distinctions—the ones that are made between art and entertainment and education—don’t always apply.

Towards a language of dreams.

In short, we are finding that the computer can be more than just a processor of data.

It is a communications medium: an interactive tool that can bring people’s thoughts and feelings closer together, perhaps closer than ever before. And while fifty years from now, its creation may seem no more important than the advent of motion pictures or television, there is a chance it will mean something more.

Something along the lines of a universal language of ideas and emotions. Something like a smile.

The first publications of Electronic Arts are now available. We suspect you’ll be hearing a lot about them. Some of them are games like you’ve never seen before, that get more out of your computer than other games ever have. Others are harder to categorize—and we like that.

Watch us.

We’re providing a special environment for talented, independent software artists. It’s a supportive environment, in which big ideas are given room to grow. And some of America’s most respected software artists are beginning to take notice.

We think our current work reflects this very special commitment. And though we are few in number today and apart from the mainstream of the mass software marketplace, we are confident that both time and vision are on our side.

Join us. We see farther.

…

*** text from the picture caption:

Software artists?

"I’m not so sure there are any software artists yet," says Bill Budge. "We’ve got to earn that title." Pictured here are a few people who have come as close to earning it as anyone we know.

That’s Mr. Budge himself, creator of Pinball Construction Set, at the upper right. To his left are Anne Westfall and Jon Freeman who, along with their colleagues at Free Fall Associates, created Archon and Murder on the Zinderneuf.

Left of them is Dan Bunten of Ozark Softscape, the firm that wrote M.U.L.E. To Dan’s left are Mike Abbot (top) and Matt Alexander (bottom), authors of Hard Hat Mack. In the center is John Field, creator of Axis Assassin and The Last Gladiator. David Maynard, lower right, is the man responsible for Worms?

When you see what they’ve accomplished, we think you’ll agree with us that they can call themselves whatever they want.

…

*** Notes:

In 1982, the newly formed company EA (Electronic Arts) released this magazine print ad.  This was referenced in the movie “Into the Night with Jason Rohrer and Chris Crawford”.

I copied it from here ( http://chrishecker.com/Can_a_Computer_Make_You_Cry%3F )

Pem (Admin) :: 2009/10/12 (Monday, October 12, 2009) :: Personal, Philosophy / Opinions :: No Comments »

> Recent studies find significantly higher risks for brain and salivary gland tumors among people using cell phones for 10 years or longer. The state of the science is provocative and troubling, and much more research is essential.

> We at Environmental Working Group are still using our cell phones, but we also believe that until scientists know much more about cell phone radiation, it’s smart for consumers to buy phones with the lowest emissions.

– http://www.ewg.org/cellphone-radiation

* phones go as low as 0.35 W/kg, the Verizon BlackBerry Storm is 0.57 W/kg
* my Samsung Saga is very low at 0.69 W/kg
* the AT&T iPhone 3G says (0.52 – 1.19 W/kg) (the 0.52 is WiFi only mode?)
* the LG env3 is 1.31 W/kg and the LG env2 is 1.34 W/kg
* the worst phone on the list is the T-Mobile myTouch 3G, one of the Google Android phones, 1.55 W/kg
http://www.ewg.org/cellphoneradiation/Get-a-Safer-Phone?allavailable=1

Supposedly bluetooth headsets are much lower, such as:
> Bluetooth radio module generates an SAR of just 0.001 watts per kilogram
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2005/tc20050427_5651.htm

Besides getting a high radiation cell phone, the main concern is if you are holding the phone next to your head/ear (touching your head, near your brain) having a voice conversation (emitting high radiation).

I carry my Samsung Saga around all day, but hopefully I’m safe since I mostly use it for texting and data, and even when I take phone calls I almost always use a headset (and it’s a wired headset).

http://www.ewg.org/cellphoneradiation/8-Safety-Tips

Maybe something I should be more concerned about is to check whether it’s smart that I sleep right next to my computer (in a small apartment), including a WiFi router right next to my head!

Pem (Admin) :: 2009/09/26 (Saturday, September 26, 2009) :: Health / Food, Mobility :: No Comments »

Deaf Hear: cochlear implants
* wikipedia today says: It was estimated in 2002 that around 10,000 children in the US and an additional 49,000 people worldwide had received Cochlear implants. By the end of 2008, the total number of cochlear implant recipients has grown to an estimated 150,000 worldwide.

Blind See: put a tooth in your eye

* http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/09/16/tooth.eye.vision/
* http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Technology/woman-regains-vision-tooth-implanted-eye/story?id=8595589
* http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/22/video-doctors-implant-tooth-into-eye-restore-sight-creep-ever/
* Martin Jones of Great Britain
* Mary Shelley of Florida

Blind See: bionic eye
* recent project at MIT, prototype / research
* The eye implant is designed for people who have lost their vision from retinitis pigmentosa or age-related macular degeneration, two of the leading causes of blindness. — http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/microchip-blind-092309.html
* it wouldn’t restore complete sight, but could let them see enough to find their way through a room or walk down a sidewalk (which is certainly no small feat). They’ll also have to wear a special set of glasses (or visor, if you prefer), which will not only wirelessly send images to the implant, but keep it powered wirelessly through a set of coils. — http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/24/mit-researchers-tout-progress-with-retinal-implant-yes-it-com/

This is my first post in (Health, Safety, Food, Drinks, Exercise).

Pem (Admin) :: 2009/09/26 (Saturday, September 26, 2009) :: Health / Food :: No Comments »