Our funny country

5 February 2010, 6:58 am · 4 comments

Back to back stories on NPR this morning:

  • People are upset about Toyota’s recall, and want their cars fixed. Thank goodness government regulators finally forced the carmarker into action!
  • Teabaggers attracting young voters by warning them of the dangers of government regulators interfering with their lives.

We hate government regulation. Almost as much as we hate the lack of it.

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A Little Bit of Evil from TurboTax

2 February 2010, 4:55 am · 8 comments

Like many other people, I use TurboTax to do my taxes, because it’s horrible, but better than everything else. While completing my 2009 return with the online edition, I came across a bit of extra evil they’ve added.

By law, tax preparers and makers of tax software cannot use your personal information for anything other than completing your return. They cannot use it to sell you things. They cannot sell it to other people for marketing purposes. This is a little bit of consumer protection that’s necessary because under standard U.S. privacy laws, you don’t actually have any privacy.

However, they can ask for permission to do these things. Recognizing that most people will sensibly decline to offer such permission, some companies – like Intuit – will attempt to trick you into it. As below:

turbotax-is-evil

It’s phrased so that if you are not reading carefully (and please, always read things like this carefully) you will think that by declining to fill out the form that’s just below the screen image above, you are going to miss out on some fabulous options to get your tax refund.

You’re not. There is one option, more fabulous than all the rest, that you should pick: having the IRS transfer your refund into your bank account. What you are really doing by giving your consent to “see all your options” is giving Intuit consent to use your personal information.

You don’t have to do it. If you select the unappealing-sounding “Don’t show me any options” (hey, who doesn’t like options, right?") you proceed to the next screen, where you can file or print your return. Which is really what you want.

It’s slick and kind of evil. One of the key considerations in selecting software for something like tax preparation is trust. Will it be right? Will your information be safe? Will the company stand behind their product and help you if they’ve made an error that results in an error on your taxes?

That’s why most of us select a well-known product like TurboTax rather than Bob’s Amazing Tax Return Maker. Except that you actually have to be careful, because Intuit is trying to trick you into giving them consent to use your information in ways that you probably don’t want. I suppose this creates some revenue for Intuit, but at the expense of trust, which may not be a good trade-off for them in the long term. 

What I would really like to see: an online tax preparation created by the IRS that connects directly to their systems, with no shady middleman like Intuit.

Anyway, if you use TurboTax, read everything carefully, and don’t become an Intuit marketing victim.

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Facebook

30 January 2010, 4:52 pm · 4 comments

I have mixed feelings about Facebook and this comic from The Oatmeal pretty much explains why.

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Great moments in usability failure

30 January 2010, 8:13 am · 7 comments

Error messages like this (from our corporate travel booking system) make me think, “But why? Why can’t I pick the options that actually describe what I need?” (What I really wanted is in the drop-downs.)

Didn’t someone designing this stop and think, “What will users needs to do while interacting with this application?” It’s a small thing but reveals such a user-oblivious mindset.

pick-one

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A brief note on Facebook

24 January 2010, 8:05 pm · 2 comments

I have mixed feelings about Facebook, but I must admit that it is interesting: apparently my entire high school was gay. I’ve gone past the “Oh, I knew it!” group to the “Really?” discoveries. If only we’d all figured it out then…

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There is a light and it never goes out

17 January 2010

Friday night: a break from routine. We went to 80s Night at Numbers in Montrose. I thought it would be reasonably fun and something different; there were about six of us, and as MWK and I drove there about about 10 I thought, “Gosh, usually I’m ready for bed now.” We parked, walked through the [...]

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Death of English Double Feature

10 January 2010

I get lots of invitations to webinars. “Webinar” is a word that used to make me cringe but through sheer repetition I’ve come to accept it as useful contraction of “web seminar.”
But the online event being promoted in this invitation… that, I cannot accept.

I checked, in case this was some obscure usage with [...]

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Oh, the weather outside is frightful

9 January 2010

It feels just like winter in Washington here. Which obviously is something I have experienced many times before. But not here.
Yesterday was the worst day, according to the forecasts; it was barely over freezing all day. We’re in for a slightly milder weekend, but into the twenties tonight and Sunday night.
I do [...]

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D’oh! in two acts

6 January 2010

ACT ONE
Last weekend I commented to MWK, “You know, I haven’t gotten a water bill since I moved in here.” (That was July.) MWK said, “You signed up for water service, right?”
Signed up? I was supposed to sign up?
Okay, this isn’t quite as idiotic as it sounds. This is the second house I’ve owned; the [...]

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Happy First Monday of the New Year

4 January 2010

No, really. Isn’t it exciting!
I am thrilled to be starting the year with the remnants of a cold and what feels like the start of a sinus infection. It rocks.
Anyway here’s a tired Teddy with his new toy from last night:

Whoever coined the phrase “It’s a dog’s life” really missed the point.

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From the “My imaginary super-friend can beat up your imaginary super-friend” department…

2 January 2010

The San Francisco Chronicle profiles a guy who mocks the silliness of thinking that world will end in 2012, when Mayan prophesy predicts. It’s irrational! He’s right about that. But why is it irrational? Because, well…
Harold Camping lets out a hearty chuckle when he considers the people who believe the world will end in 2012.
“That [...]

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Recap

30 December 2009

So, as I poured my coffee this morning, I thought, “OMG! Don’t I have a blog or something?” Oh yeah, that’s right.
Well, it hasn’t been that bad. I have meant to blog. I just haven’t done it.
Let’s see… when we last left our canine hero, Teddy, he was getting over his mystery bug [...]

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Fa la la la la. Urgh.

24 December 2009

Merry Christmas!
It’s been a week.
Teddy has not had a fabulous week. Last Saturday he woke me up at 5:30 AM. This is rare and usually means, “OMG daddy, I need to poop/pee.” I heard a thud next to the bed (he’d gone to sleep on the foot of the bed, as usual) and opened [...]

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The Magical Dog Whispering Powers of R.

21 December 2009

Last night MWK and I had pre-Christmas with friends. MWK’s fabulous spaghetti sauce! Wine! Marzipan! Wine! Lebkuchen! Wine!
Teddy is a wonderful dog but “mellow” and “lapdog” are not words that come to mind. He’s still young, energetic, and sassy. In fact in the afternoon he and Bucky were doing a little “Hi I am going [...]

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Meet Joe Lieberman

15 December 2009

Okay, if you’ve watched Lieberman’s career, there’s nothing surprising about this week, but in case you haven’t been paying attention, a useful summary of the career of the Senator from Connecticut from Dickipedia:
Lieberman’s strongest dick quality is his propensity to betray those who have been loyal to him. Whether it’s trading in his kind-of-Jewish first [...]

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