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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Could Be Worse…

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Could Be Worse…

by Anne Laurie|  April 15, 20146:21 am| 51 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Television, Clown Shoes

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Still trying to figure out what level of TurboTax you have to buy to get asked about deducting your kidnapped child. pic.twitter.com/NouAAZlk1J

— Noah Veltman (@veltman) April 15, 2014

This gave me a chuckle, possibly because I’m actually enjoying Crisis, despite a million plot loopholes including the biggest one of all: Twenty-six teenagers on an overnight field trip with only two male chaperones?
************
Apart from the predictable slew of Tax Day stories, what’s on the agenda?

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51Comments

  1. 1.

    Rafer Janders

    April 15, 2014 at 6:26 am

    I like how the school bus was kidnapped on the deserted rural dirt road that runs directly between Washington, D.C. and New York City….Because when you’re transporting the children of the nation’s power brokers, why would you hop straight on I-95?

  2. 2.

    Schlemizel

    April 15, 2014 at 6:35 am

    Tried to file electronically & discovered someone got there before me. Because of the tiny amount of data needed tax fraud is a popular attack now. My belief from what investigating I have done is that it is TurboTax itself that provided the hacker with enough of my data to file ahead of me.

    It appears this may be a larger problem than anyone is talking about and the government just loses the money if it can’t recover from the fake.

  3. 3.

    bago

    April 15, 2014 at 6:35 am

    I’m documenting the precise way in which Comcast sucks ass. Like how their modem takes 4 minutes and 16 seconds to reply when addressed by HTTP over IP, with no headers in the response. How outages in port 80 traffic occur for hours on end, but proxy over 443 scoot right on by.

  4. 4.

    danielx

    April 15, 2014 at 6:40 am

    Snow. More snow. I just cut the grass for the first time this weekend, for chrissakes.

  5. 5.

    Mustang Bobby

    April 15, 2014 at 6:50 am

    I’m in Miami, which has a pretty large Jewish population, and I work for the public schools at their office downtown. It’s the first day of Passover, so guess what the office cafeteria has on the menu for lunch today: your choice of baked pork chunks or shrimp pasta.

    Oy.

  6. 6.

    dmsilev

    April 15, 2014 at 6:52 am

    How about a nice story about how Intuit is running an astroturf campaign against making tax returns easier to fill out and file.

  7. 7.

    Schlemizel

    April 15, 2014 at 6:53 am

    @Mustang Bobby:
    I imagine each comes with some sort of dairy based sauce or cheese. As you say, OY!

  8. 8.

    BruceFromOhio

    April 15, 2014 at 6:55 am

    Woke up yesterday, heard the happy birds.
    Woke up today, and hear the angry birds.

    Yes it is snowing, though it looks like the snow shovel is going to stay out in the garage for now.

    65 and sunny on Thursday, maybe the happy birds will be back.

  9. 9.

    Schlemizel

    April 15, 2014 at 6:56 am

    @bago:
    We have long DNS outages here with Comcast, I replaced their DNS with google’s (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 – ask if you need instructions) and have had a lot fewer problems with them since. There support desk is useless and you often just have to find your own fixes.

  10. 10.

    Mustang Bobby

    April 15, 2014 at 7:00 am

    @bago: Don’t get me started on Comcast. I pay out the ass for cable TV with one premium channel, but because I have TiVo and a cable card, I can’t get any On-Demand programming, and they charge me for the cable card.

    Every so often the HD channels will drop out and sending a “refresh” signal does no good, then an hour later it’s back like nothing happened. I was once told by “Jason” in customer service that I was not authorized to receive HD channels even though I have had them for longer than I’ve had an HD receiver. A chat with his supervisor cleared that up. (Hint: don’t call Comcast customer service on a weekend.)

    I live in rental property and the landlord doesn’t want a satellite dish, and the other alternative is AT&T U-verse, which I hear is even worse.

  11. 11.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 15, 2014 at 7:04 am

    @Schlemizel: Sucks to be you. From what I’ve read it takes a minimum of 6 months to convince them that you are indeed the one, the only, the original, Schlemizel. Good luck.

  12. 12.

    Poopyman

    April 15, 2014 at 7:04 am

    @danielx: Yeah, we have freeze warnings in the DC area, but no snow predicted. And the grass is begging to be cut.

    I wandered over to the NOAA climate data page for DC to see what the record temps were for April around here. That was 15F on April 1 back in 1978, so not even close. I did see, however, that 9 of the 30 daily record lows were in 1874-75. A quick Google on “volcano 1874” shows that, yup, there was a series of eruptions in northern Iceland over the period. Bet they had really red lunar eclipses, too.

  13. 13.

    Schlemizel

    April 15, 2014 at 7:06 am

    @Mustang Bobby:
    Cable/dish etc is exactly like the cell phone model for business. “Yes our service sucks, we won’t really help you but we will over charge you badly because every other service you can get is just as bad so shut up and take it.”

  14. 14.

    Schlemizel

    April 15, 2014 at 7:09 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Bet they cash my check right away. Not sure if I mentioned this but the county is taking a very tiny bit of my lot & wrote me a check for it – $86 of which they decided was for ‘rent’ so tax complexity went up plus I ended up owing instead of getting money.

    Thanks though, I really needed that cheering up today. My left eye is still like looking through saran-wrap and work is has become a downward spiral of torment as management has decided to make my screw up of a boss pay for all his past screw ups. He is handling it like the immature guy he is.

  15. 15.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 15, 2014 at 7:14 am

    @Schlemizel: What do you wanna bet he just screws it up?

  16. 16.

    Mustang Bobby

    April 15, 2014 at 7:17 am

    @Schlemizel: In my experience with a boss like that, you’ll end up being the one taking the hit, proving the axiom that excrement runs downhill and gravity is a heartless bitch.

  17. 17.

    Matt McIrvin

    April 15, 2014 at 7:24 am

    @Schlemizel: My wife’s database prof has a virtual machine with an encrypted volume that he spins up for the sole purpose of filing with TurboTax, for that reason.

  18. 18.

    Baud

    April 15, 2014 at 7:30 am

    @Rafer Janders:

    Because when you’re transporting the children of the nation’s power brokers, why would you hop straight on I-95?

    Traffic.

  19. 19.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 15, 2014 at 7:30 am

    Telling it like it is: Messenger: What Frazier Glenn Miller tells us about ourselves, our state (caution, auto play, the c-suckers weren’t content with only one on this page)

    In the tapestry of American political discussion about matters of race and public policy, there is a ragged red thread that connects those at the extreme end like Mr. Miller, with those who stay in the margins, and those in the public spotlight, who would pass legislation that is meant mostly to rally a fervent base of older, white voters who are often motivated by fear.
    Let’s be crystal clear: Miller is an outlier. He is representative of no political party. Nor is he representative of people in southwest Missouri.
    But when Missouri lawmakers pass bills to outlaw Sharia Law, as they did last year, they pull ever so slightly at that thread, knowing they accomplished nothing but to stir up a sense of phony patriotism among those members of their party who dislike Muslims. When they make it more expensive for high school students in this state to attend college because their parents brought them to this country without waiting for proper paperwork from a broken immigration system, they send a message to people of a certain skin color that, frankly, isn’t very subtle.
    There’s a reason why Frazier Glenn Miller decided to spend the past couple of decades spewing his brand of hate in Missouri. Too many people made it comfortable for him.

    As we mourn his victims, let’s reflect on that.

    Welcome to Missouri, where getting your hate on is a Patriotic duty.

  20. 20.

    Baud

    April 15, 2014 at 7:39 am

    @Mustang Bobby:

    I live in rental property and the landlord doesn’t want a satellite dish

    You’re entitled to install a dish in your space under federal law, if that is feasible.

  21. 21.

    Baud

    April 15, 2014 at 7:45 am

    @bago:

    I’m documenting the precise way in which Comcast sucks ass

    I await the publication of your 3-volume treatise.

  22. 22.

    Mustang Bobby

    April 15, 2014 at 7:47 am

    @Baud: Hmm, didn’t know that.

  23. 23.

    Baud

    April 15, 2014 at 7:51 am

    @Mustang Bobby:

    For more info: http://www.fcc.gov/guides/over-air-reception-devices-rule

  24. 24.

    John S.

    April 15, 2014 at 8:00 am

    @Mustang Bobby: Uverse is great – when it works. Last week, my service was out for 4 days straight, with no explanation. Which is awesome when you’re a consultant who works from home.

  25. 25.

    eric

    April 15, 2014 at 8:10 am

    @John S.: ha…loser…my internet service never goes o……

  26. 26.

    Suffern ACE

    April 15, 2014 at 8:11 am

    @Baud: we don’t invest in infrastructure. That dirt road was indeed I-95 in Delaware.

  27. 27.

    Mustang Bobby

    April 15, 2014 at 8:11 am

    @John S.: I use AT&T for DSL and landline service (yeah, still have landline for my car club work). Last fall AT&T told me I had to get a new modem because they weren’t supporting the one I got in 2006 anymore. Okay, I said, so they switched it out… and then told me I had to go to VOIP. Don’t worry, they said, it will cost even less, but you need your own battery back-up. I had that already, but one of the “advantages” of VOIP is that it doesn’t support pulse dialing… and the phone in my living room is a 1927 candlestick restored at great expense to full working condition.

    To quote the immortal 1967 film “The President’s Analyst”: Everyone hates the phone company.

  28. 28.

    Poopyman

    April 15, 2014 at 8:13 am

    @Baud: Encyclopaedia Comcastsuckia.

  29. 29.

    randomworker

    April 15, 2014 at 8:18 am

    I know that show is horrible…but I watch it anyway! At least it’s not as knee-slappingly outrageous as Hostages. That was so awful I couldn’t stop watching that one either.

  30. 30.

    Schlemizel

    April 15, 2014 at 8:23 am

    @Matt McIrvin:
    Between the fraud & their program to make it more difficult to file I will be looking for alternatives next year.

    I keep my files encrypted but who knows what all goes on behind the scenes?

  31. 31.

    Schlemizel

    April 15, 2014 at 8:29 am

    @Mustang Bobby:
    I live in a house built in 1936. On the landing of the stairs is an little arched niche that was designed specifically to hold a candlestick phone. The jack is in the bottom. I refused to put in one of those cheap plastic knock-offs with the touchtone buttons but was never able to find a real one. I would love to have had one there when I had a land line. That would have been very cool.

  32. 32.

    RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual

    April 15, 2014 at 8:35 am

    I forgot which front pager suggested MyFreeTaxes dot com, but I used that this year and didn’t have any issues. The website is connected to H & R Block’s online service. As I was a prior customer of H & R Block, I found some comfort in that.

    I filed through the website and got my refund promptly. In February.

  33. 33.

    Mustang Bobby

    April 15, 2014 at 8:46 am

    @Schlemizel: I’ve lived in two houses that had the phone nooks complete with jacks and I put the phone there. As you say, it was very cool.

    Check out this site if you get a hankering (and the money) to find one to put in the nook.

  34. 34.

    bago

    April 15, 2014 at 8:53 am

    @Schlemizel:
    I know DNS. Worked on Azure DNS for a year. It’s weird. Tunnels and non port 80 traffic gets through fine, but anything over port 80 would deliver the first k of the response fine, leaving 200 ok just fine and the keep-alive header intact, and then just hang. Sporadic. Suspect a memory leak in the router.

  35. 35.

    Schlemizel

    April 15, 2014 at 8:56 am

    @Mustang Bobby:
    YIKES! $500 is a bit steep for my blood. I notice you have to buy an additional piece if you want the phone to ring. My little nook has a sound box built in under it that I am sure used to hold that sort of device. I am not old enough to have seen them work but assume they all had external ringers.

  36. 36.

    PaulW

    April 15, 2014 at 8:58 am

    I work at a library: we are expecting the usual last-minute rush of people desperate for tax forms.

  37. 37.

    Schlemizel

    April 15, 2014 at 9:00 am

    @bago:
    Memory leak or a bad config trying to throttle throughput. I would guess it is local to you though as I have not seen that though my Clowncast connection. I have done some traceroutes when there have been issues & found that response times can be really inconsistent and that paths jump all over the country at times. Some of that could be normal but my guess is they have lost control of their network & are flying on a wing and a prayer.

  38. 38.

    jibeaux

    April 15, 2014 at 9:07 am

    @bago: My dad tried to sign up for Comcast. He was working at a new job he’d just moved to, and living in a townhouse community in Jersey. He scheduled installation 3 times and told them 3 times that he wasn’t going to be able to take a half day off work to meet them, but that the installer should go to the main office, where the management was expecting him and would take him to the unit and let him in for the installation. 3 times they left little notes on the door saying “we knocked and you weren’t home, so we left.”

  39. 39.

    rikyrah

    April 15, 2014 at 9:07 am

    I enjoy Crisis too. I was happy that the FBI agents found that picture and are beginning to ask the right questions.

  40. 40.

    Yatsuno

    April 15, 2014 at 10:00 am

    @rikyrah: There is also a deduction possible for Killed in Terrorist Action. Plus the military gets nifty perks if they’re serving in a combat zone.

  41. 41.

    WaterGirl

    April 15, 2014 at 10:16 am

    @Mustang Bobby: I was in the same boat (almost). It made me really cranky to pay the same rate for comcast even though I didn’t have access to on demand. A couple of weeks ago I got a notice that they had added on demand in a bunch of areas. So I finally have On Demand with Tivo! You don’t get it through the on demand channel, you get it in the same way you access netflix, etc.

    As far as I know, you do not need to pay for the cable card, as long as you don’t have a comcast box and you only have one cable card.

    Did you get that message? Let me know if you don’t know where to look on tivo.com to find out if on demand was added to your area.

  42. 42.

    WaterGirl

    April 15, 2014 at 10:22 am

    @Mustang Bobby: I think Tivo only works with cable these days. That’s why I have comcast. Well, that and a lot of trees.

    My hate for comcast is surpassed only by my love of Tivo.

  43. 43.

    Schlemizel

    April 15, 2014 at 10:26 am

    @WaterGirl:
    This is a surprise to be because I have always gotten OnDemand with my Clowncast cable & DVR. How is it they can have such a variation in service?

  44. 44.

    WaterGirl

    April 15, 2014 at 10:31 am

    @Schlemizel: You must live in one of the lucky few areas that has had OnDemand for a long time!

    Comcast and Tivo struck a deal a few years ago (don’t know exactly when) that Comcast would do who-knows-what to allow access to OnDemand through Tivo. They just added a bunch of places.

    TiVo Roamio and Premiere DVRs work with Comcast in all regions. Access to XFINITY On Demand exists in*:

    Arkansas
    California
    Colorado
    Florida
    Georgia
    Illinois
    Indiana
    Kentucky
    Maryland
    Massachusetts
    Michigan
    Missouri
    New Jersey
    Oregon
    Pennsylvania
    Virgina
    Washington
    Washington DC
    West Virgina

    * XFINITY On Demand may not be available in all areas of each state. Please enter your zip code in the zip code look up tool to confirm if it is available in your specific area.

    https://www.tivo.com/discover/cable#xfinity

  45. 45.

    Mustang Bobby

    April 15, 2014 at 10:47 am

    @Schlemizel: I paid $75 for mine, but that was in 1973. It was fully reconditioned and converted to a modular plug a few years later, and they added an internal “bell,” more like a clicker.

    @WaterGirl: I have a plain old TiVo, not Premiere, so when I go to On-Demand I get the Gray Screen of Death. I asked Comcast about not charging me for the cable card and no dice, at least in South Florida. They pretty much told me to be glad they’re not charging me extra for the little digital converter boxes on my analog (CRT) TV’s that I still have in the bedroom and study. Lucky me.

  46. 46.

    WaterGirl

    April 15, 2014 at 10:51 am

    @Mustang Bobby: I had a Premier XL4 in the living room and a Premier XL in the sunroom. I just replaced the XL in the sunroom with a Tivo mini (love it!) so let me know you are interested in the Premier XL. It’s sitting, unplugged, just waiting for me to do something with it. It needs a new life!

  47. 47.

    Origuy

    April 15, 2014 at 10:56 am

    I had Comcast for cable and internet and AT&T for landline. Last year an AT&T contractor came around and promised better internet speed, so I signed the contract to switch. Turned out he was blowing smoke and the line to the central office from my house was copper, not fiberoptic, and too long to get the speed he’d claimed. My housemates discovered that almost immediately. Also the programs available on demand were a lot better with Comcast. So I decided to switch everything back to Comcast, including the landline. I had heard that you should switch the phone number over first or AT&T would drag their feet and I’d be without a landline for a while. What a mess.

  48. 48.

    Mustang Bobby

    April 15, 2014 at 11:03 am

    @WaterGirl: Hm, something to think about…

  49. 49.

    WaterGirl

    April 15, 2014 at 11:11 am

    @Mustang Bobby: I really suck at trying to sell stuff on ebay or craiglist; I just never make it happen.

    You would have to pay for shipping. Other than that, if you wanted to thank me, you could donate a few bucks to a good political cause.

  50. 50.

    Infinitefreetime

    April 15, 2014 at 2:36 pm

    For whatever it’s worth, I just got back from a three-day Washington DC trip with 23 7th and 8th graders. Three adult chaperones, all male.

  51. 51.

    Captain C

    April 15, 2014 at 2:37 pm

    @PaulW: I do too, and it’s actually kind of quiet here so far. We’re open ’til 8, though, so it may get nuts later.

    I always like the ones that want actual tax help and think that their friendly librarian is also a tax accountant willing to work at that profession for free. Without a signed waiver stating the patron understands that I don’t know bleep about it and therefore they take all responsibility for my mistakes , as well as a large fee for me, there’s just no way…

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