Elliott C. Back: Internet & Technology

TSA & Photography

Posted in Government, Homeland Security, Photo by Elliott Back on June 29th, 2007.

Live from the Honolulu International Airport, I bring you the following conversation I shared with the Transport Security Administration about the photography of their checkpoint.

Me: Is there any specific written tsa regulation prohibiting photography?

TSA Captain: Yes there is. Phography is not allowed.

Me: Can I see this in writing?

TSA Captain: I can’t let you see that.

Me: Then how do I know it exists?

TSA Captain: I just told you.

Obviously there is a problem here; I don’t mind not being able to take photos (national security, yada yada) but TSA as a government agency has to at least inform the public of its regulations. How can anyone be held responsible for violating a regulation they could not possibly know exists.

Tax Software: Taxcut v.s. TurboTax

Posted in Government, Life by Elliott Back on February 3rd, 2007.

I’ve got taxes to do, and I’m not exactly sure what the difference is between H&R’s Taxcut and Intuit’s Turbotax. As far as I can tell, they’re both roughly the same price, and allow you to electronically turn in your 2006 federal and state income taxes:

The confusion becomes worse when you realize that there are a number of “free filing” sites, as well:

All of this is confused by the large numbers of SEO spammers cluttering up search results in Google. I’ve done taxes before, but tax software should exist to make my life easier, not more difficult. Buying tax software should be like buying an operating system. Clearly, buying Vista is a bad idea. Buying Taxcut? We can’t be so sure.

Happy 4th Of July!

Posted in Family, Government, Photo by Elliott Back on July 3rd, 2006.

4th-july-fireworks.jpg

Photo of Fireworks by Ron Richardson. Learn how to take your own pictures of fireworks!

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