I think charging Windows users was a dick move, and their excuse for doing so rather flimsy.

Being an aspie, as I suspect both of them are to a certain extent, is not a get-out-jail-free-card for asshattery and not learning social niceties.

Gotta have gaps for that God to fill.

Yep, if you need batteries/SD cards/cables/mice in an emergency, walgreens is good. Especially if you have a 24hr one. Usually that stuff is near the front too, unlike wal-mart.

Even CEO Can't Figure Out How RadioShack Still In Business

Nor, to be fair, is it often called upon to do so.

You raise an important difference between computing teachers and other school teachers. Your friend can legitimately teach the same course every year, because the (say) mathematics syllabus only marginally changes from year to year. A computer teacher teaching the same course for 10 years would be teaching far out-of-date software, languages etc.

The IRS is actually forbidden by law from doing so. They have to, by law, hand you over to Intuit/HRblock/etc. (The IRS free file site is basically just a gateway to the preparers)

However, Intuit/HRblock/etc weren't quite able to prevent some states from doing so.

That's where they charge you if you don't live in a state that has it's own system bypassing the tax preparers, like Illinois does.

So I free-file the federal, and go to Illinois own website to do the state, and I don't pay a thing.

Good to hear that GNUCash has improved so much over the years.

Thought that sounded familiar so I looked it up...Sneakers.. Though the quote I remember most is: "My name is Werner Brandes, my voice is my passport."

What? hrblock.com gives you the federal PDF for free! Not only that but my state (Illinois) has it's own website, bypassing the tax preparer industry entirely, and they also hand over a PDF.

 

AFAIK, they didn't sue, but were part of a consortium of tax preparers who sucessfully lobbied Congress to limit the IRS's ability to make filing easier.

The IRS had wanted people to file electronically for years. The original plan was for the IRS to produce software and just give it away for free and have everyone, and I do mean "everyone" file for free.

  But when they set up their original e-file program, it was limited as to WHO could access it, meaning it was limited to tax professionals, who charged a pretty penny for the service. Eventually the IRS had just enough clout to get free e-filing for lower income taxpayers, in exchange for essentially handing them off to Intuit/HRBlock/etc for an upsell of services they don't really need.

However, the states aren't limited in that way, and some states were able to implement their own systems independently without Intuit/HRblock/etc interference. This is why, for example, no tax filing company offers free-filing of state returns in Illinois, it's essentially revenge for Illinois having it's own system...which works very well.

It's a matter of personal taste, but the BMW i8 is at least in the same ballpark as the Tesla for desirability, and to my eyes it's much prettier.

Ironically for cars that don't run on gas, this and the Tesla model E are both just vapourware.

Music Radio WLS Chicago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...