Make The Tax Deadline With FreeFile

IRS Program Lets Taxpayers Use Tax Preparation Software and e-File For Free

I am like many Americans in that I have become somewhat reliant on my computer to help me do my Federal taxes. It all started with a CD I received in the mail — a free copy of H&R Block’s TaxCut. I tried it. And I found it just a wee bit easier to use and figure out than the 1040A user manual our government provides.

The following year, I received a CD, and the year after that.. and sure enough, I became “hooked” on TaxCut. (I understand that the other tax prep software player(s) did the same in other locations.)

This year, however, H&R Block neglected to send me a free TaxCut CD.

Well, NBD, I figured. I’ll just go to the H&R Block website and download a copy.
Wrong.
On the site, H&R Block wants to sell me a copy.

By now, I was “jonesing” for my TaxCut “fix”… I almost paid. But with a little further research I found out that to access the free version of TaxCut, I had to first go to to the IRS website.

On the IRS site, there is a page called “FreeFile”, and here you will find the “partnership links” to the free versions of 19 accepted tax prep programs — of which TaxCut (and also TurboTax) is one.
To qualify, you must have an Adjusted Gross Income of $56,000 or less.

Today’s free link: FreeFile at the IRS
Note: there’s two buttons on the page; “I will choose” and “help me choose”. Though all of the programs there are accepted by the IRS, I would recommend clicking the “I will choose”, and then selecting either TaxCut or TurboTax.

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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Vista's Photo Gallery Feature

Quick & Easy Photo Editing Tool Also A Free Download

Do you like one-click simple? Do you like free? Are you tired of Mac fanatics smugly telling you how great iLife is? Do you ever e-mail photos, and need to do a little touching-up (cropping, maybe) first?

If you answered "yes" to one of these questions, you might find the "Media Center" program Photo Gallery to be just the ticket, and if you have a Vista machine or XP Media Center Edition, you already have this neat little app at the click of your Start button -- it's built-in.
(I use the crop, and 1-click red-eye removal the most..)

• Enhance your photos

  Enhance your photos by adjusting things like color and exposure. Improve your photos with simple crop and red-eye fixes. Create a panoramic view by combining multiple photos. Capture the moment by adding captions.

• Easily share your photos

  The "Publish" button makes it simple to share your photos and videos online. Or you can easily e-mail as many photos as you’d like to friends and family. You can also display your photos with cool screensavers and slideshows.

• Quickly find and organize your photos and videos

  Import your photos from your digital camera; the Windows Live Photo Gallery will automatically organize them based on date and time. Keep your images organized by name, date, rating, and type. Locate similar photos with tags you add.

• Download photo albums

  Photo Gallery allows you to download entire albums from Windows Live Spaces at high resolution.

If you aren't using one of those two OS's, you can download the program. It is one part of Microsoft's line of "Live" services. I wrote about Microsoft "Live" previously, to read that article click here. Also, if you're curious about what else is offered (free) as part of "Live", please read fellow Tech blogger Rick Robinette's vignette, Windows Live…

This screenshot shows the photo editing mode. You can see that there's a 1-click "auto-adjust", and a 1-click red-eye removal, as well as a 1-click Undo. There are more 'advanced' color and contrast adjustments as well.
The bottom controls are for the built-in slideshow feature.

This program is one of the 'enhancements' in Vista that most everyone can appreciate and make use of. And, I think that it's fairly decent of Microsoft to make it freely available for download.

Today's free download: Windows Photo Gallery. Simplify the way you work with photos.  Windows Live Photo Gallery makes it easy to import, organize, edit, and share your digital memories.

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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Enable Shadow Copy On Home Editions / XP

From time to time Vista creates ’snapshot’ copies of your files with a service called “Shadow Copy”.  This allows you to retrieve older versions of files you accidentally delete or alter.

To go back to a prior version of your file/document, you simply right-click on the file and select “Restore previous versions”, which can get you out of some nasty jams. (For more on recovering deleted files, click here.)

Shadow Copy is enabled on all versions  of Vista, but Microsoft grants user access to these copies only in the Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise editions. (Clearly as a method to try to sell more copies of the pricier Ultimate Edition.)

Tip of the day: Users of the “Home” editions of Vista can use Shadow Copy too.
The odds are pretty good that if you bought a new computer, and it came with Vista, it came with Vista Home Premium. I say that because if you walk into a store selling computers, I dare you to find the one that has Ultimate Edition on it. It seems to me that they all come with Home Premium!

Remember how I said Shadow Copy was “enabled” on all versions? Yes? Well, for owners of Vista Home Premium and Vista Home Basic, the service is running, but you need a way to “interface” with it (sometimes called a “front end”). To do that, download and install ShadowExplorer, and gain some of Ultimate Edition’s functionality. This cool piece of software is free, but donations are accepted.

Today’s free link: People who are using Windows 2000 or XP can get an almost identical file functionality with FileHamster from Mogware. This program is designed for people whose talents lie in the Creative Arts, so you don’t ave to be a geek to use it. There’s helpful user forums, too.

Please note: This ability is by no means a substitute for regular system backups. This is for small “oopsies”, not recovery/restoration.

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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Save Thousands With a Free Tool (You Already Have)

Yesterday I struck up a conversation with a fellow "mature" student while waiting to take a Final at my local JC. He was taking a photography class and he had his gear bag with him, and I asked him about his digital equipment.
(In a former life, I was a photography student too.)

He was a friendly sort, and chatting with him was easy. He explained that he was a professional, and that he had been "all digital" for a while now. And when he discovered my line of work, he told me a very sad story.. and I felt bad for him.

The sad story: It seems this fella kept all his photography on a large portable drive, which he kept referring to as a "jump drive", and a few weeks ago he went to plug it in and, his words, "immediately I heard strange noises, and smelled a funny burning smell". And his computer did a BSOD.

Oops.

He told me he unplugged the drive, and rebooted his computer, which came back up fine, and when he tried to reconnect the jump drive, nothing bad happened (no shooting flames) -- but nothing good did either. His jump drive was dead.
He told me that - at this point - he wasn't worried because he had bought the "extended warranty" for the drive and he was still covered.

Oops.

So he told me how he contacted the drive's manufacturer, and reported his problem, and was told that- yes, they would send him a new drive. And they told him that for recovering the data from the old drive, he was on his own. And that if he did use a 3rd-party to try to recover the photos, they would have to open the hard drive's case, which voids their warranty.
This came as quite a shock to my new friend, and it clearly still upset him.

He went on to tell me that he had no choice in the matter, he had to get those pictures back (one set was a wedding) and so he sent the drive off to a data recovery service.. which was able to get back almost every single file and cost him a bit over $2,500.

I told him he'd got a bargain.. but he didn't seem much cheered. In fact he clearly still felt cheated. He really thought the warranty should have covered his pictures.
I believe a lot of people have this.. gross misconception.

The simple facts are these:
* hard drives die
* nobody is going to make backup copies of your stuff for you unless you pay them. Like you would pay a maid, or chauffeur.
* Windows comes with a copy-my-files-from-here-to-there tool called (can you guess?) Windows Backup; which can be set to run automatically. On Vista, it can now burn-to-disc, even.
* Professional data recovery is $$$$

Please read How To Use Windows Backup Tool and follow the steps outlined. Or run a data backup and recovery tool of you own choosing. And do so often-- a backup dated 12/20/04 is not going to do you any good!

It would have taken my new friend just a few minutes to make a 'sync' of his drive. But he never did, and he's out the drive and $2,500.
I really did feel bad for him.

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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