I was at Barns & Noble today.  I wanted to buy Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed.  But I couldn't, I couldn't justify buying a 50 dollar book that is already out of date.  I suppose I am some what spoiled with my whole library access to Safari Tech Books Online.  But there is so much more power in this format, its highly portable, simple to copy a code snippet.  It just like a book except its stuck on the screen.  Which means for ever in the office or listening to the hum of my laptop.  But still a much better cost proposition then buying a printed book.  Its more like a lease and in the Tech book market with the rapid pace of change, a lease is so much more compelling.  So while prose may not be dead printed Tech books will soon become a thing of the past a  relic of college life.  In our future books will be defined as

published work: a published work of literature, science, or reference, or a work intended for publication(encarta.com)

No more paper.

Carlo Has posted an extensive list of Microsoft Posters, take a look.

"Point is a bicycle

Encompass is a Cadillac"

Is this a complement or an insult.  Maybe I just like my bike to much.

We had a nice little earthquake this evening which will led to a long night of after shocks.  5.6 centered about Aum Rock. not so far from home.

http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40204628.html

Things I learned today.

• Google wrote Google maps with asp.net and SQL.
• adding AJAX roll over data to a web client helps to increase scalability.
• Although you don't need any software to run a web client some how you still need a SQL server on the client.
• websites can be ergonomically designed!

Pinnacle Web does not require any software installation, local client, special downloads, or plug-ins, saving districts time and money in initial purchase costs and maintenance. Built using the same AJAX technologies employed by Google Maps, the gradebook provides users smooth scrolling, instant response rollover information, smart menus with drop-down options, and immediate, real-time information.
 
+ A new ergonomically designed interface, which reduces training requirements

+ Expanded mobility for educators, requiring access to only the Web and a SQL server

If your a lender and you tell the Press/Public that Foreclosures are bad and that your doing every thing you can not to foreclose, follow through.  The Truth about Mortgage reports a survey by California Reinvestment Collation "survey says few lenders making loan modifications".  The survey finds that while lenders have the intent to avoid foreclosure they are none the less avoiding loan modifications and foreclosing.  

BlownMortgage offered up a depressing story about life during the peak of the mortgage boom, presented by TheTruthAboutMortgage.com

It turned out the borrower was actually employed as a loan processor, undoubtedly making less than $240,000 a year (sure some may have been making that during the boom, but that was not the case here).

In any event, you would think the loan would be dead, considering the borrower lied about their income and employment on a legal document.

Well, not the case in the mortgage industry. Instead of the file being declined, it was uplined to the VP of Underwiting who massaged the loan, probing and searching for some way to make sense of a lie. After all, the loan was worth $1.5 million, so clearly the company had no intention of throwing it away. And if it could be cleaned up a bit and sold to the investor, no one would be the wiser.

After some research, it came to the VP’s attention that the borrower was a licensed real estate agent, and just like that the 1003 was miraculously changed to state that the applicant was a loan processor and a real estate agent, earning the originally stated $20,000 a month.

It would seem money was growing on trees.

The BBC announced The Apollo Image Archive today but did not provide a link so here is the Arizona State University and  NASA's Johnson Space Center's scanning of Apollo mission photos that have never been released to the public before. 

Here are a few other nice Galleries I have found over time.

Apollo Image Gallery

NASA Gallery

Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive

I leave work and Godaddy fubars my websites.  What a fun week.  I would appear updating to the new dasBlog corrected some issues and reuploading the entire websites corrected the other issue.  I Basically started over with Godaddy today.  I tried CrystalTech but can't host the subdomains and other sites how I would like, I will miss them.  I am not sure why I couldn't explain that if my blog engine worked fine Saturday and Sunday then it should still work fine on Monday!  And if it does not work I should see asp.net errors not server was reset...  I don't think a basic page like microfisch.com should take 30 seconds to load.  This makes nonsense to me.  I don't like the level of support I received from Godaddy so I will be looking for a new host.  If you have suggestions please let me know.

Did you miss me?? 

I am now running windows vista 64.  Which has been surprisingly simple how ever I have run into a few issues.  Windows Explorer went insane and ignored the open in same window setting (note open in new process option was set to false.) resulting in a new window pre directory.  I find life impossible in that situation.  After numerous attempts to correct this via registry edits, I failed.  Having given up I installed xpore2 as a replacement. ( great program I always wanted to filter my directory to only one file type) I now find after a reboot Windows Explorer works correctly and recycles the the window when displaying a new directory.

I have also found that you cannot just install sql management studio 64bit.  you need to run(as admin) dvd drive:\Tools\Setup\SqlRun_Tools.msi otherwise you go through all the motions but nothing gets installed.

Extortion in the 21th century.  Pay me if you want to use that computer of yours.

Is Micro Bill Systems legit or Ransomware - Hosts News

At least they have the money to litigate any company that thinks their software should be removed.

Mithun reports that Apple has licensed Exchange ActiveSync for the I phone.

Apple licensing Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSync protocol for the iPhone...

Visit Photojojo for a  11 tips to better fireworks photos

Today we find Jeff trying to spend his ad revenue Supporting Open Source Projects in the Microsoft Ecosystem perhaps the most interesting comment was not a suggestion for which lowly OSS to toss money at and make dance but a far more serious question:

So here you have all of these people raving about the OSS projects/products that are making their lives easier and I just have to wonder how many of them have contributed anything at all to these projects themselves?

Do we need Jeff to go out and get a list so that HE can contribute something on our behalf? How many of you who raved about Paint.NET actually clicked on the "donate" link and sent in a few dollars? BTW, I have.

Get off of your lazy butts and do this yourself instead of bashing Microsoft for not contributing to the tools that YOU say are helping YOU save time and money!

"I find Paint.NET useful and think it's a great program. Why isn't Microsoft paying them money so that I can continue to use it for free?". Sheesh!

-Matt on June 27, 2007 07:45 AM

But OSS isn't about money at least not on the DotNet side, its about passion, shared owner ship and community(Money has its perks just look at Mono, FireFox and Community Server.).  But the failure of the OSS communities, the difficult times they living is by no means caused by MS or a lack thereof. Rather this failure rests souly on the PM's shoulder.  The arrogant and elite leadership of the OSS project. The very leader ship that tells all willing to help "your not trust worthy" go do our dirty work and write documentation, file a bug report, donate your money.  Yes life can be difficult when one builds them selves up into the Ivory tower. 

To be sure this does not describe all projects but look in to a failing OSS project and you will find a broken leader. 

 Found this in the new MSDN help.  Pretty nice feature this rebuild after an assembly change has driven us nuts for years. 

Managed Incremental Build Support

The compiler supports managed incremental builds

When you specify this option, the compiler will not recompile code when a referenced assembly changes. Instead it will perform an incremental build. Files are recompiled only if the changes affect the dependent code. For more information, see General Property Page (Project).

What's New in Visual C++ Codename "Orcas"

I have notice the online MSDN is much better now.  Slow but I do like the article version specific note along with links to newer and older versions.

Title:

Coffee vending machine filter paper support

Document Type and Number:

United States Patent 6401597

Link to this page:

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6401597.html

Abstract:

A filter paper roll support apparatus for a coffee vending machine, having a fixed arm and a pivotable arm spaced from the fixed arm for supporting opposite ends of a support roll on which the paper roll is mounted for rotation. The pivotable arm is hinged and spring biased towards the fixed arm. A spacing element is formed in each of the arms to engage the opposite sides of a roll of filter paper to keep it from rubbing on the main bodies of the arms.

This old code is now back up and running on thisoldcode.microfisch.com its old home where 99% of the perma links exist.  It turns out I had tried redirecting with a CName and this caused an issue with the forwarding.  If the Godaddy tech that I waited on for 5 hours bothered to look at the site settings rather then telling me to wait 48 hours I would have been up faster.  Why offer support if you just brush people off.  You only anger your customers that know it doesn't really take 48 hours to update DNS and if you ping the site and it resolves something is not right.  What ever happened to customer service?  I will be calling support from now on.

How nice Donny@nilsabbas DotCom sent me malware

To view your eCard, choose from the options below.

Click on the following link.

http://www.americangreetingsDoTcom/ecards/view.pd?i=439899392&m=2157&rr=y&source=ag999 <http://americangreetingscDoTnet/en/viewcard.html>

Or copy and paste the above link into your web browser's "address" window.

If you have any comments or questions, please visit

http://www.americangreetingsDoTcom/help/index.pd?source=ag999 <http://americangreetingscDoTnet/en/viewcard.html>

Thanks for using AmericanGreetings

So sweet.

Even though a call to tech support should take 5 minutes of wait time i chose email with a 5 hour wait time.

My Question: 

Over the weekend I removed my subdomain and created a new one for forwarding so thisoldcode.microfisch.com would forward to thisoldcode.net
If i ping thisolcode.microfisch.com it resolves to thisoldcode.net however if I try to browse the site in the webbrowser I receive Bad Request (Invalid Hostname). I am not sure if the DNS still needs time to propagate through your servers or, I have an incorrect setting

Godaddy Reply:

Dear Aaron Fischer,
Thank you for contacting Online Support. Changes to the settings of a domain take up to 48 hours to become effective because of the number of networks involved, and because these networks are controlled by several different agencies. This delay applies to all domains with any Registrar, not just Go Daddy. Please allow for this delay when planning web sites or configuring a domain to work with your services.
If, after 48 hours has passed, you still receive the same issue please contact us so that we can further investigate. I apologize for any inconvenience.

This is my blog the most outward facing site I have, its partially(Perma links are dead for all intents and purposes) down for any one that uses the old link so I am a little nervous about down time.  Would it have been to much for the tech to look at my settings and reassure me its just a mater of time for the DNS to resolve properly?

O'Reilly announced they are now selling one chapter of a book very similar to the buying songs online

(Buy O'Reilly Books by the Chapter) I am not sure how usefully this is typically songs stand quite nicely by them selves but a single chapter in a book?  For 3.99 a chapter it only takes about 3-4 chapters to justify buying the whole book.  I will admit I do have a few books where a few chapters were a waste of my time, sadly you have to read said chapter before you make that evaluation.  In music you hear the song on MTV, Radio, or Sirius.  How do I preview the chapter before I buy? 

I never new there was a debate.

Today Phil announced Subkisment ( Introducing Subkismet-The Cure For Comment Spam).  I believe this will prove quite beneficial to many  a project.  Be they open or closed source.  What's more interesting, later on today  Mads published Think twice before using any third-party assemblies were he emphasis the exact opposite approach to development.  There is little debate that taking on a third party dependency is not to be taken lightly.  However the benefits can and typically do out weigh the doing it in house.  Lets take a blog engine as an example.  If you roll your own text editor, is that really a core goal of your product?  Do you always want to add improvements and features to your text editor?  Why not pick up a dependency on FreeTextBox or FCKeditor and periodically merge their changes, reap the hard work of another project focused on creating a great text editor?  dependencies are not always about control especially when they are open source. dependencies are a statement, we choose to let a focused community work on this feature.  It is an important feature that needs to evolve but its not our focus. 

Mads maybe correct in his assertion

CAPTCHA controls
There exists hundreds of CAPTCHA control libraries for ASP.NET both visible and invisible ones. However, a CAPTCHA is one of the simplest things to write – it takes only 20 lines of code to create a rock solid invisible one – so that’s what we did.

But does your project want to pick up this torch and stay at least one step ahead of the hoard of SPAM developers?  Or would you rather trust a community dedicated to this goal such as Subkisment?

In an open source project it should be a no brainier, take on as many other open source dependencies.  Run your community with unwavering focus on your core goals.  Besides you have the source if you ever need it.

 This is priceless

SAN FRANCISCO -- Internet search leader Google Inc. is trying to convince federal and state authorities that Microsoft Corp.'s Vista operating system is stifling competition as the high-tech heavyweights wrestle for the allegiance of personal computer users.

In a 49-page document filed April 18 with the U.S. Justice Department and state attorneys general, Google alleged that the latest version of Microsoft's Windows operating system impairs the performance of "desktop search" programs that find data stored on a computer's hard drive.

Google Complains About Microsoft's Vista - washingtonpost.com

I tend to think of this as the best way to stifle innovation.  I really feel sorry for Microsoft.  That company is held to a crazy standard.  Imagine if Apple was held to that same standard.  What would happen if Microsoft released the next windows mobile and would not let third party code execute on it?  What if Microsoft had an Ilife they bundled on Vista?  The irony is that windows is such an open platform that its almost its own worst enemy.

I have set the blog address to thisoldcode.net with some luck it will make this blog searchable.  I also added windows live search :( no Google search.  Why because I could not get Google form based search to work on this blog, live on the other hand uses some nifty java script and worked with out a problem. ( maybe the search box should resize with the page.)

I look forward to seeing a nice search from Google that rival the look of live search and ease of setup.

courant.com | Amero Granted New Trial

Go figure Computer experts know more then a police stations self proclaimed computer expert.

The judge cited a forensic computer analysis conducted by the state police crime lab - conducted after the guilty verdict - to support the argument that the verdict should be set aside. She said the lab report "contradicts testimony of the state's computer witness."

It doesn't look like there will be a new trial thankfully.

Prosecutor Smith said state would take no position on Dow's motion for a new trial, making it unlikely she will be tried again. Smith also acknowledged that erroneous information about the computer was presented during trial.

Evidently if people opine it is an attempt to improperly influence the court.

Judge Strackbein criticized the bloggers today, saying they tried to "improperly influence" the court.

I think Strackbein should lose her job over that comment.  Its a free country and an open court. the trial was over for the criminal conviction.  The one thing that is clear to me, Amero was jury was her peers the held a very naive view about what unscrupulous people can do with modern technology.

Jeff likes this comparison of Background compilation to background spell checking(Background Compilation and Background Spell Checking).

Perhaps the my issue is not with the concept of background compilation but its current implementation. Background compilation is some what slow process on my machines.  If I trigger it, I will be forced to wait 15-20 seconds before I can do any thing in that IDE.
I remember a time when the red squiggly first appeared in Word and I turned it off because it was to slow.  Unlike Jeff and Ian my spelling and grammar are atrocious.  back ground spell check is now at the point where it really is seamless.   And a great benefit to my written communication.  I find its most beneficial feature is that it offers practical suggestions to my mistake as apposed to just flagging the word.  Grammar check on the other hand, well we just don't get along

I guess I don't get this Google Gears thing.  This morning Scott posted Google Gears - Maybe all Rich Internet Applications needed was Local Storage and an Offline Mode

RIA I see but for offline storage?

My response was Cookies 2.0 to which Carlos  reply's

Cookies 2.0?
Have you even looked at SQLite? You can stuff all sorts of things in the database and get it back out via SQL.
You can build a synchronizing n-tier web app on the desktop. If the thought of that doesn't make you drool, nothing will.

I actually use SQLite a lot, there are things I like and things I don't but as a local data store for RIA its a fine choice.  Google providing a simple framework for access via JavaScript is great.  But unless my app is written in 90% JavaScript client side what good is this Gears thing in the offline world?  I perused the frame work and I don't see any Synchronization.  So yes Cookies 2.0 I can store much more rich information on your computer and I will be able to deliver some very compelling user experience, all with a relatively speaking easy API.  I am just not seeing what this has to do with an offline environment.

legible

p

{

line-height: 150%;

}

p.dropCap:first-letter

{

font: bold 700% 'party let', 'comic sans MS', fantasy; margin-right: 12px; color: red; float:  left;

}

not legible

p { line-height: 150%; }
p.dropCap:first-letter { font: bold 700% 'party let', 'comic sans MS', fantasy; margin-right: 12px; color: red; float: left; }

Resales Fall; Unsold Homes Hit 15-Year High

Single-family existing-home sales fell 2.4% in April, and the supply of unsold homes on the market shot up to the highest level in 15 years, according to the National Association of Realtors. The NAR reported that sales of previously owned single-family homes fell from a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.35 million in March to 5.22 million in April. Compared with the level recorded in April 2006, sales were down 11.2%. NAR senior economist Lawrence Yun said the April sales continued to be affected by weather issues and the problems in the subprime market. However, he said he is seeing data that show improved sales in early May. And he said it may indicate that the subprime problem will turn out to be a "short-term disruption to the homebuying process" as buyers find other mortgage products. Meanwhile, the supply of unsold single-family homes jumped by 11.5% to 3.6 million in April, which represents an 8.3-month supply at the current sales pace and the highest monthly supply since 1992. Sales of condominiums and co-ops fell 3.8% in April, but inventories rose by only 4.1%. The NAR economist said the condo market has strengthened thanks to "bottom fishing" by investors.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Success as a Mortgage Broker

In the inbox today.  Notice the use of BOA actual images.  FireFox and IE did recognize this as a phishing site.  It might be good for email to start checking links against known Phishers.  It never hurts to be more preemptive.

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Yesterday and today I have seen this search come through from yahoo. "what does this quote mean "There are 10 kinds of people in this world - those who understand binary and those who don’t"" 

I am not sure why my site pulls up but its funny since who ever is running this search falls in toe the latter half of people.  If you don't know Binary 10 is two.

If you blog, you should probably read this.   50% of US adults have an eight-grade reading level.  If the article is correct that most web content is written at a 12 grade reading level, forget the Digital divide we still have a core Literacy issue that we need to address.  Although I do wonder if the medium is somewhat responsible for this.  When i read content on the web its very much word by word( this is how we are now taught to read in the US education system.) but when i read print i can speed read.  its much more difficult to read fast with comprehension on the monitor.  I think it may be the font and leading.

More interesting statistics

Correctional Education Facts

Reading Facts

Via Broker Universe

American Express has announced a new program enabling members to make monthly home mortgage payments on the American Express card. American Home Mortgage Corp. will be the first lender to offer the Express Rewards Mortgage program for eligible prime loans, AmEx said. Cardmembers with qualifying loans with American Home will pay a one-time fee of $395 to the lender for enrollment in the program at closing. American Express said its research had indicated that members "overwhelmingly cited" monthly mortgage payments as "an ideal opportunity" to use the American Express card. The company can be found online at http://www.americanexpress.com.

I quite like the idea of collecting bonus points and cash back awards off of my mortgage payment.  It is after all the largest bill most of us get every month.  Sadly for those who get mortgages to reduce credit card debt, this would be like giving enabling a heroin addict...

This is how Microsoft packages a product.

Now see how Microsoft names their products.

I just purchased a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 

I paid 52.69(sticker 66.00 then 15% off) I see Amazon.com has it

for 49.99  I guess I didn't do so good.  Even as they go out of business they still manage to rip me off.  However all hope is not lost during my Amazon prize search I noticed Microsoft has a rebate, turns out buying it from CompUSA keeps me qualified for a 20 dollar rebate. so I end up paying a little more for having it today.

I have always been a fan of Microsoft's Natural Elite keyboards and this one does not disappoint.  The F Lock is enabled by default and will remember its state between reboots its USB ( my computers don't have ps2 anymore).  Best of all the home keys are not all jacked up.( I have to get used to a small delete key again).

As a side note the drivers that come in the box's cd will not install under Windows Vista but you can install IntelliType Pro 6.1 to get it to work. 

I have been reading about this case, and some of the comments bug me ( if you don't know about the 40 year old substitute teacher that has been convicted of displaying porn to minors and now faces up a 40 jail sentience. read more here and here and here).  Mainly there are a lot of people that think she should have turned off the computer.  Now even if she had been told not to turn off the computer we would have to take into account how long it would take to get over the initial shock of porn popup's filling the window.  Now if you wanted to turn the computer off hitting the power button does nothing its not like ten years ago when you could just flip the switch. You either hold the power button for 10-15 seconds or you use windows to shut things down.  depending on the spyware/viruses on the computer the latter may not have even been possible.  I also doubt that very unsavy computer users know they can hold down the power button to turn the system off.  Some said that she could have pulled the plug, which would probably have involved unblocking the monitor with her body ( only 10 of the 40 students in the class room saw any thing on the monitor.) which would let the masses see the screen.  Also if this was a laptop ( its not clear what kind of PC this was.) pulling the plug would do nothing its battery would keep it on.  Finally this never would have happened if the school had their filtering software up to date.  let alone some type of active spyware prevention on the PC.

 I believe in finding one absurd thing a week, I think  Mr. Liston has the next couple covered.

Nine Rules for Selecting a Future-Proof LOS take a read.

Point 1 is stupid.

Point 2 has some merit but you buy for the environment you have or want.  And the environment your vendor tests against.

Point 3 should you be responsible for dealing with business rule changes or your vendor?  what exactly are they selling you?

Point 4 I agree you should know what your dependency will be.  But conversely once your up and running it doesn't matter very much.

Besides we all know all you need is Point and PDS.

I suppose Jeff is remorse about his life in C# much the same way I am towards VB.NET

If you come from c, c++ or Java there can be no other way but C#. 

Jeff:

The so-called choice between the two most popular languages, C# and VB.NET, is no more meaningful than the choice between Coke and Pepsi. Yes, IronPython and IronRuby are meaningfully different dynamic languages, but they're somewhere on the horizon and far from first-class IDE citizens.

Wow Pepsi Is different the choice of the next generation, how can anyone trivialize that.

I see Ian has a nice counter response which I agree with.  Case sensitivity is important. Its these little things that make it so easy to switch between the c languages, Its quite frustrating to know what and how to write the code and then come to realize you are writing in the wrong language syntax.

In summary of the debate for back ground compilation

Ian:

I hate VB.NET’s continuous bloody interference. I HADN’T FINISHED TYPING YET YOU STUPID COMPILER! CAN’T YOU SEE THAT? DOES IT LOOK TO YOU LIKE I’M DONE TYPING? DID IT NOT OCCUR TO YOU THAT THE REASON YOU’VE FOUND ALL THOSE ERRORS IS BECAUSE I’M NOT FINISHED YET?!! I’LL TELL YOU WHEN I WANT YOU TO CHECK MY WORK, AND NOT BEFORE!

Brilliant!

Previously I installed an Internet Explorer cumulative update KB931768 and ran in to a little problem with IE7 no longer working

I see that Spyware Suckes has a post describing the solution to this issue:

You have installed the Internet Explorer cumulative update KB931768 and have previously moved your temporary internet file folder from it's default location.

You see an error like this one:

File Download - Security Warning
Do you want to save this file?
Name: navcancl
Type: Unknown File Type, 2.64KB
From: ieframe.dll
Save Cancel

FIX:

If your temporary internet files folder has been moved from its default location, move it back.

An alternative is to run IE as an Administrator (right click the IE icon, select "Run as Administrator", but I *strongly* advise against this.

***DO NOT*** uninstall the cumulative update.

While I am puzzled how I am supposed to surf the web to fine a fix to this issue with out uninstalling the patch.  I also do not recall ever changing the path for IE.  Since this is XP sp2 its clearly not a rights issue since I have admin rights.  But I am game to try any thing once, well see how it works out.

-Update 05/14/2007-

I double checked the Temporay Internet Files location and it is infact using the default C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files.  I also tried disabling Phishing which some people reported success with on the IE Team Bog

-Update 05/29/2007-

I have a new post detailing how i resolved this issue by truning off Internet Explorers Phishing Filter.

Coding Horror presents

Phishing: The Forever Hack

Which was interesting but the only conclusion that can be drawn is that web browsers must protect the sheep.  I personally would like to see it easier to report Phishing sites the last one was quite the chore.  Years ago and probably still today there were people that would call house randomly and ask for personal information under the guise of some legitimate company.  Fortunately most companies had a public out cry "We will never call you and ask for information." To their credit most did not.  Here in lies the problem with Phishing sites common typos we cannot prevent ( unless we have address books, your favorites may be good only on the second visit. ) But Companies could stick to not sending emails asking users to log in.  As long as you legitimate companies come along and publish links and encourage users to login we will have this problem.  You further make the problem worse when you find ways to display the full html message circumventing any built in browser/email security.   Forget the convinence of email links and error on the side of teaching users one good standard.  Never click on links from an email.   

"Life is an open-book test."

Alfred Thompson

 Charles does not seem to be taking Jeff's recent analysis of his WPF book VS Adam Nathan's Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed to well. Petzold deemed prose to be dead and Power Point to be the new king of publishing.  I think Jeff is wrong.  First color is I a good thing we don't program with note pad any more, we have notepad++ or a nice IDE that offer us rich color coded goodness for fast digestion of information, and its difficult to go back.  To contrast Nathan's and Petzold's books is the difference between a Nutshell book and an instructional documentation.  For those of us whom have been reading the WPF blogs and bits for over a year now we may find it usefully to have a reference of the current WPF state of affairs rather then a book that takes you from the start.  When you pick your reference, it needs to be based on what you already know and your programing level.  Jeff is comparing Oranges to Grape Fruit, they have a lot incommon but their target audience is fundamentally different.  In summation Please Add color to your publications we are a pack of spoiled developers that demand no less!  Further more I certainly hope prose  is not dead I for one stopped picking out books based on the number of pretty pictures they contained in Junior High.

Best Brains published an article on why bugs should not be tracked.

Why Bugs should not be Tracked

I don't think they are joking but I think Lars rational is definitely a consultants overly simplistic/marcom spin.

What do you think?

Cool add a 32 GB Solid State Drive to your Dell Latitude for around $550.  I would love to see windows and Visual studio running off of this little guy.

Link to Posts tagged Ssd at Engadget

If I knew enough I wouldn't trust my CPA, but I would like to highlight the fact that we do sometimes play Russian roulette with our money. 

Say you are an intuit Turbo Tax users just look at the mess that awaited you if you filed last minute.

Why you build for peak load,

Last-minute payers using Intuit software swamp e-filing servers,

TurboTax e-filing woes draw customer ire

Intuit Response #1- Not so good

I think Intuits vp is a little snippy when commenting on Dennis's Blog:

You are correct in that if you have zero capital gain/loss from the ESPP transaction, it is not showing on Schedule D. Although the calculations and tax liability are correctly computed, the fact that transaction is not reported on Schedule D may cause a reconciliation error at the IRS (difference between sales reported by broker and sales reported on Sch D). We believe this error crept in during one of our updates this season and we are tracking it down.

We will be providing an update as soon as possible to correct the reporting issue. I don’t have a specific date, but I know the team is working on it now.

Additionally, I’m skeptical that you would have no gain or loss on the sale of ESPP stock. In all the company plans that I’ve seen, employees normally have a nominal fee on the sale (something like a $5 fee). If you really don’t have any fees either on the sale or purchase, here is how I would suggest you workaround the issue. Simply enter sales proceeds $0.01 less than the actual amount(for example, enter $9,999.99 instead of $10,000). Or simply enter $0.01 in the box for purchase commissions/costs. This one cent difference will trigger the reporting and not have any impact on your tax liability.

I hope this information helps and I appreciate your bringing this issue to our attention.

Bob Meighan
VP, TurboTax

 

Now I have to admit at least you could file,  If you had chosen Tango from H&R Block they have a minor bug, you cannot efile.  At least they offer a simple workaround, print out your tax return and mail it( how old school).

 Known bug: HRblock.com’s Tango cannot actually e-file my taxes!

albeit it this error message may have been the bug according to one commenter

Hi Mark…thanks for checking out Tango! This is – I’m the Tango product manager, and I wanted to follow up with you about your account. Your account, along with 6 others, experienced a hic-up in the e-file messaging that we communicated- basically the reject message you saw wasn’t the right message. I assure you that the file submitted to the IRS was exactly what you entered in the product, and the reject message was related to something else on your return. (So everyone knows…Tango is setup to e-file and just like most tax products almost all returns filed are accepted when e-filed…)

We recognized this issue and contacted all users who experienced this…unfortunately you beat us to the punch and called us first. My apologies that we weren’t better equipped to handle the case when you called in. This issue has been resolved. Since I’m sure you don’t want the details of your situation outlined here, I’ll contact you separately to walk through the specifics of your return.

I did want you to know that we saw your post and we really do take these issues to heart—everything you mentioned has either already been addressed or is in the pipeline for the next release. At H&R Block we’re passionate about our customers, what you have to say, and the experience you have! This is just the beginning for Tango—we’re already well underway on version 2. I promise that next year we’ll knock your socks off!

 Much more friendly then Intuits VP go figure. 

I don't see any thing for TaxCut but I just take that to mean they are over do for a nasty error report.  Seriously some times we expect far to much from our software.  100%accurate 100% of the time.  Keep in mind that these are an ever changing set of requirements so no two years are the same which so helps your bug regression.

Utah, They have a brilliant legislature.  Utah recently banned Keyword advertising on trademarked terms.  I am sure Microsoft and Google look forward to dealing with this.  The full stories are here and here.