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I got TurboTax this tax season but was greeted with an error message before I could even get the install past the first step. TurboTax  reports an error

Turbotax installation has encountered an unrecoverable error. Would you like more information on this error?

Clicking on the more info button take you to  an Intuit knowledgebase, where they acknowledge that this error occurs sometimes and one can register to be informed when a a fix is posted.

I really needed to get a jump on my taxes this year. H&R Block Taxcut software did not contain the forms necessary for me to claim my Electric Vehicle credit, so I turned to TurboTax only to get this error. Rather than wait for Intuit to post a  fix, I overcame the error by installing the software instead onto a XPMode virtual machine. If you encounter the TurboTax error and have Windows 7 Professional or better then XP Mode is your workaround.

To install XP Mode visit the following Microsoft website using Internet Explorer. (Microsoft websites work better with internet explorer). The XP Mode download is over 500mb so make a coffee while it downloads. Follow the steps outined on the website, a reboot or two will be required. Once everything is installed click on the start menu, choose all programs and you will now see a new start menu entry called  ‘Windows Virtual PC’. Open that entry and click on Windows XP mode. This will launch a virtual windows XP computer. Once it is runnning insert your Turbotax disk and it should install in the XP computer without any issues.

To save having to spool up the virtual machine each time you want to launch Turbox Tax, visit the Windows Virtual PC entry on the start menu again and look for an entry called Windows XP Mode Applications. Inside this entry you will see Turbotax. Open Turbotax entry and copy/paste that shortcut to your Windows 7 desktop. Now you can launch TurboTax directly from your Windows 7 desktop.

Once you have prepared your taxes the turbotax file can be save to your Windows 7 computer, when saving don’t save to the C drive, look instead for a network drive called ‘C on xxxx” where xxxx is the name of your Windows 7 computer. A PDF copy of your return can be saved here also so that you can prnt your return from your Windows 7 computer.

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Car listed 5pm Saturday evening, sold 2pm Sunday afternoon!! Wow!!

Did I list it too cheap? Not according to Kelly Blue Book. I achieved very close to private party value inside a day.

When I purchased a new car, the dealer offered me $1,200, CarMax offered me $2,000. I knew my car was worth more. So I listed on Craigslist. I got a call the next morning and had cash in hand by 2pm the same day. Oh and I got a whole lot more than the measly dealers offered.

The purchaser said he didn’t even use craiglist to find it, he simply did a search on a 3rd party site and found it. There are several 3rd party search tools, such as SearchTempest that improve the search results.

I’ve never sold anything on CraigsList before, I’ve tried several items, but with very little interest. On eBay motors I would have had to pay all sorts of listing and selling fees. Craiglist just works, and for free :-)

Hotspot Dashboard - Click to Enlarge

Sprint offer a wireless hotspot device for their 3g and 4g networks. I took a device on evaluation from Sprint recently and tested how well it worked at my home. My address is not listed as supported for Clearwire wireless internet, which is the same network as the Sprint 4g devices use. So I was interested to see how well it would work.

AT&T DSL Speeds - Click to Enlarge

First I tested the speed of my AT&T DSL broadband as a comparison between wireless and land-line capability. My DSL is marginal where I live (which seems to apply to any service I have looked into). DSL Download/Upload speeds achieved were 2.35 Mb down and 0.32 Mb up. Pretty pedestrian by today’s broadband offerings and demands from services such as Netflix streaming.

Sprint 3g Speeds - Click to Enlarge

I then switched on the Sprint Hotspot device. It sync’d using 3g only. Power cycling didn’t encourage it to connect to 4g at all. Maybe my home is just too far out. The speeds I got with Sprint 3g are 0.33 Mb Down and 0.24 Mb Up. Very slow indeed. I got much better speeds using my Droid as a tethered modem using Verizon wireless 3g network.

Perturbed by the very slow speeds I decided read the manual and discovered where the factory reset button is. Being an eval unit someone ahead of me may have set some weird and wonderful setting. After a successful reset and reboot the device immediately connected to the 4G network. I checked the firmware, it is up to date, all it needed was a factory reset.

Sprint 4g - Click to Enlarge

The signal strength varied between 20% and 40%, so my address is clearly marginal for Sprint. I tested the performance and got 4.92 Mbs Down and 0.92 Mbs Up. Much better and superior to my AT&T DSL. This is fast enough to support HD quality movie streaming from Netflix and others. I am due to get uVerse installed in a few days so will update this post with those speeds as a direct comparison.

The hotspot device can be used as a Wifi hotspot supporting up to 5 clients, or as a tethered device. The management console is clear and easy to use. I was able to change from WEP encryption to WPA2 easily enough, the unit rebooted after this change and worked just fine.

I switched on GPS location to see how that would work. The unit consistently failed to get a GPS lock inside my home. My Motorola Droid never has issues, so the GPS sensitivity for this device seems poor.

The device looks like a hockey puck, is reasonably light and is easily thrown into a laptop bag. It uses a universal Micro USB charger, so you don’t need to carry its charging cable/wall plug if you already have one for your phone or other device(s). As standard the device comes with a quick start guide. To get the full manual, one needs to download this from Sprints support website.

Compared to Verizon wireless LTE, the Sprint network is a step behind in terms of raw speed. Reports of 10Mb down and 3 Mb up on Verizon LTE hotspots reveal that the Verizon 4g is a step above the older Sprint/Clearwire 4g. Speed isn’t everything though. Verizon put a 10GB monthly cap on their hotspot devices, Sprint’s claim to fame is that their unlimited means truly unlimited. So if you want to stream Netflix movies and therefore consume large amounts of bandwidth, the Spring hotspot device makes better financial sense.

If AT&T U-verse disappoints, I will seriously consider a Clearwire modem or this 4g hotspot from Sprint. As much as I like LTE from Verizon and already being  a Verizon customer, the 10GB cap would be way too restrictive for my home internet needs. Sprint have made the right choice in not placing caps on their wireless service, no one wants an unexpected bill at the end of the month because you used ‘too much’ bandwidth. 10GB is hardly classifiable as hogging bandwidth in this day and age. A 10GB cap on a individual smartphone sounds OK, but on a  hot spot, it’s outlandish. Congratulations to Sprint for getting this right, shame on Verizon.

Nissan LEAF during a test drive. Click to enlarge

On March 26th 2011 Nissan held a test drive event for their all electric car, the Nissan LEAF at Franklin TN.

The Event

This was a source of disappointment. Nissan set up a series of tents on the Parking lot of their Headquarters in Franklin TN. It was a cold and damp day and the tents had no form of heat. Punters had to be content wearing multiple layers of clothes as they listened to a sales pitch and lined up to drive the LEAF’s. I had a 1pm appointment time scheduled. Other than quick registration, the appointment didn’t assure you of a  place in line or any priority, one lined up with walk-ins. The ‘refreshment’ lounge consisted of a cup of instant coffee and a packet of cheez-its. It made me feel the event was done on a tight budget. The guy delivering information about the car and the logistics of the event was both upbeat and informative. He was the only spark of life I saw that day.

Nissan LEAF Battery Pack mockup - Click to enlarge

The LEAF reservation system

I am on the list of 20,000 people who have first refusal on a  new vehicle. I have not taken advantage of this since I would never buy a  vehicle without seeing it in person and have a test drive. I also found out I am in the first 1000 in the nation to qualify for a  free home charging station. All reservations and purchasing activities are conducted on line. Local dealers do not contact you until you indicate you want a quote.

Drivers Side - Nissan LEAF - Click to enlarge

The LEAF

I am pleasantly surprised by the vehicle. I expected a cramped compact car that would not appeal. The LEAF is both spacious and comfortable, especially for a  compact car. Ford have great technology in the vehicles that is more appealing to me than going all electric. However the technology in the LEAF is reasonably advanced, and the built in navigation has a large display compared to aftermarket GPS systems. The feature that caught my attention is the ability for the vehicle to adjust the cabin climate while it is charging, therefore you have a warm car to enter into in the winter or a cool car in the summer. While this goes against the grain of being green, it is one way Nissan have managed to squeeze every mile they can out of a charge. I like the idea of going to the grocery store, plugging in and when I return I’ve got a full charge and a cool car for the frozen goods, never mind the comfort of driving off cool on a hot summers day even is its left in hot sunlight. In most cases charging stations will be free to attract customers to stores, at least initially until the novelty wears off.

Nissan LEAF Engine Bay - Click to enlarge

The drive was impressive, the car is very quite under hard acceleration on the interstate. It handled well around curves and the steering gave a positive feel. The acceleration is smooth and powerful for a small vehicle, and of course no surge during gear change, as the electric motor doesn’t need gears.

I wish Nissan could have given test drivers more than 1/2 mile on the interstate. They had a representative in the passenger seat directing you round a predetermined 2 mile route in Franklin TN. My assigned representative did speak when asked a  question, but wasn’t easy to get information out of.

Nissan LEAF Main Dashboard - Click to enlarge

One thing that surprised me was setting off from rest. My expectation was that the car once energized would be stationary until your depressed the accelerator, just like a bumper car :-). This is not the case. Nissan have made the vehicle emulate how a conventional automatic works. In gear an automatic will creep forward while idling in gear, the LEAF behaves identically, as you release the brake with the gear selection in drive it starts forward gently.

A dislike of the car for me is the gear selector. It is very nice and compact, however I had to be coached how to put the car in gear, I accidentally put the car in Eco mode on my first attempt, had the representative reset it back to Neutral for me and I succeeded on my second attempt. It wasn’t obvious to me I had succeeded, but I took the representatives word for it.  The parking brake is an electronic button rather than mechanical. Clearly this is something an owner will learn after the first trip, however these factors mean that if you give someone your keys to go for a spin, they may struggle getting the car to engage gear and release the parking brake.

Nissan LEAF - Upper Dashboard - click to enlarge

Why couldn’t they have a miniature version of a standard automatic gear shift with P, R N and D that everyone is already accustomed to? I know they are looking to save weight where they can. and a conventional gear shifter wouldn’t be necessary or appropriate, but they could have made a facsimile electronic version.

Nissan LEAF - Nav, radio and Climate control - Click to enlarge

Another drawback of the LEAF is the lack of a 220V extension cord, it doesn’t appear to available even as an optional extra. The vehicle comes with a 110V extension cord one can use at a pinch if a charging station isn’t available. The 110V charging takes 16 hours for a full charge from empty. Home charging stations aren’t cheap, about $3,000 I understand. Why not provide the owner with a 220V extension cord/transformer and simply have the home owner get a standard 220 outlet installed in their garage by any qualified electrician? The Chevy Volt got this right.

Summary

I came away impressed and interested in getting a quote. Something I had not expected coming into the test drive event. A salesman did call the house within 12 hours of me requesting a  quote.

Electric Charging Stations - click to enlarge

I have done some initial financial analysis of gas vs electric and have come to the conclusion that gas  at 3.41 per gallon and electric at 0.9c per KW/h that it’s pretty much the same cost over the life of the vehicle (8 years or 1000,000 miles) . I’ll post a spreadsheet and a list of assumptions in a future blog post. I assume once the battery pack warranty runs out after the 8 years  the vehicle will be of little or no value on the open market. Nissan were not willing to release prices for the battery pack even though cars are on the road and being insured.

Nissan LEAF passenger seat, gearstick visible.

The decision to buy (or not) will be based around the advantages of being insulated from foreign oil price hikes and oil speculators versus losing the ability to travel long distances. The LEAF is a commuter car, not a touring car.  If oil goes up in price then the economic case for the LEAF gets stronger and stronger. Compared to the Chevy Volt, the LEAF makes much more economic sense, however the Volt can go much further thanks to its gas engine generator. The LEAF becomes a clear choice over gas cars when gas goes above $5.60 a gallon. The Volt breaks even at $8 gallon and is compelling at over $10. I believe Nissan have got the right balance between cost and convenience. The Volt is simply a bad buy due to its higher purchase price and higher running costs.

If anyone is successful with an electric car, it will most probably be Nissan. Without the government subsidies/credits, the case for electric is weak at best. With the government assistance, the jury is out.

Update 2011-03-30 – I’ve started a blog just for the LEAF. Click Here to view it.

On all my PC’s it failed after the initial download and install. Clicking on try again results in an additional download and the install then succeedes. It’s like the initial download forgets something.

So far so good after the upgrades. Other than the install glitch the upgrade works well.

Google Authenticator Logo

Google have introduced a new feature called 2-step verification. To learn the basics read the Google Guide.

Why you Need it

This feature is a must have security feature that should make it very difficult for anyone to hack into your Google account, which is much more than simply your email. Google has a slew of products that you maybe using that store detailed personal information about you. Protecting this information is important to prevent Identity Fraud

Using the 2-step verification ensures that only authorized computers/devices will accept your Google password therefore restricting access to your Google email and other data. If someone finds out what your Google password is, they will still be unable to access your information. If you lose a device or computer you can revoke access to your Google account from it with immediate effect, while retaining access to your account via authorized computers/devices you still trust.

Protecting your Gmail account is great but the danger extends well beyond email;  if someone does gain access to your email, they could then use the ‘forgot username/password’ on financial sites and have password resets emailed to your account, which the thief now has access to. Your email can easily become the keys to your financial kingdom. Protecting your email is therefore very important.

Quick Overview of how it works

Once your computer or device is registered, then access to your account works as normal just requiring you to enter your account name and password. For computers only, the registration  is good for 30 days, after which it expires and you have to re-register the computer. (If you don’t like the idea of it being good for 30 days, you can opt not to do this and enter an access code every-time you access you Google account).

You register computers by generating and entering a special one-time access code as you login into your Google account. This is achieved by either using a Google app on your smart phone, or via voice delivery to any phone you nominate at the time you turn on the service. Devices such as phones or custom applications that access your Google account can be allocated a unique password dedicated to that device/application only. The unique passwords can be revoked at anytime and do not automatically expire.

The Google 2-step verification feature is their implementation of the security industries Two Factor Authentication. Two Factor Authentication provides better security because it requires two very different things

• Something you know
• Something you have

The ‘Something you know’ is your Google account username and password.

The ‘Something you have’ is your smart phone or designated phone number that provides you with a one time access code.

Rigid Two Factor Authentication requires both of these *every* time you login. you may have seem some people with a device on a lanyard around their necks that they use to access their corporate VPN. For convenience sake, Google have relaxed the requirement to use the one time access code every time by registering computers you own or trust with this code for up to 30 days at a time before requiring re-entry of a new access code. Very handy if you are on your home computer downstairs and your smart phone is on charge upstairs. The reduction in security is slight, since to access your account a thief would need access to the registered computer.

Because of the way Google have implemented two factor authentication using the registration process, it is important that you don’t have your browser ‘remember’ your Google password, especially for laptops which could be lost or stolen. If you do chose to have your browser remember the password, be sure to protect the browser with a master password different to your Google account password. Mobile phones should also be protected by setting them up to require a code or swipe sequence to gain access to them.

What if both you computer and smart phone are stolen by the thief? How would you gain access to your account to revoke access, or even just to read email? Google have provided the ability to print one time access codes for you to print and store somewhere safe (like your wallet). One can also elect to have the code sent to a pre-nominated phone number, like you home phone or trusted partner.

Flaws in the Google implementation

If you lose your laptop, there is no easy way to revoke access to only that computer. Devices can be individually revoked if they use a unique password, but computers don’t use unique passwords, they are registered by use of a  special access code.

Application Specific Paswords, why can't this include all registered devices/computers - Click image to Enlarge

It is true that even if your laptop is stolen, the thief would need to know the password to login to the computer (you do have one – right?) *and* the thief would also need to know the password to your Google account (you don’t have the computer remember it – right?). But I would prefer that each computer be given a unique ID you choose at the time of registration so you can manage/cancel the registration without having to cancel registration to all of your computers.

For laptops an extra security precaution one could take is *not* chose to have the registration be good for 30 days and it only be good for the current session. Despite the extra security risk, my guess is almost everyone will opt for the 30 day registration period, reaching for your smart phone every-time you want to read email will become tiresome. One could argue that the registration process is likely to encourage more people to adopt two-factor authentication without taking on too much inconvenience. The extra protection Google 2-step verification provides is better than opting not to do it at all because of the hassle factor. I’m sure this is why Google decided to relax the rules slightly to ensure greater adoption. Either way security is greatly enhanced.

Attempts to gain access to Gmail accounts is often done abroad well away from your computer hardware. Google’s 2-step verification is a very strong protection against such attacks, without having access to something you have, the hacker is thwarted.

AT&T TL92370 Phone System

Lightening recently damaged my AT&T Home Telephone Answering system base station rendering the 3 cordless handsets useless. I purchased an identical Telephone system that comes with 3 handsets and hoped to reuse the handsets fom the old system on the new.

Problem

The AT&T TL92370 base station can support up to 12 handsets. However as I read through the instructions on registering and deregistering handsets, it became apparent that to deregister a handset from the base station one needed a working base station to do so. The handsets once registered to a base station cannot be registered to another until they have been released from the original base station. The orphaned handsets displayed the following message

Out of range OR No power at base

I searched in vain on the net looking for a way to remedy this. I diassembled one of the hansets hoping to find a reset switch. No such luck. I was now the proud owner of 3 orphaned handsets I could not use.

Resolution

I sent an email to AT&T asking how to accomplish this. I got a boilerplate response informing me that my problem was too complicated for email resolution and to call 1-888-883-2442 to speak to a tech. I called using Skype. It took about 8 minutes on hold before I got through to a live tech. He asked basic questions and did understand my problem first time. He put me on hold and came back with the folowing code to enter into the old handsets.

*331734# followed by menu/select

The phone beeps twice, reboots and then comes back up ready to register to a new base station.

Registering to the new base station is now easily accomplished using the standard instructions.

• Press and hold handset locator on base station until ‘in use’ light comes on.
• Press # on the handset and the phone registers itself to the base station.

I repeated the above procedure with my two remaining handsets and now I have a 6 handset cordless system for my home.

It’s important to note that if you have a working base station you should use the standard instructions for deregistering the handsets. Each handset gets allocated a handset number by the base station, if you deregister using the special code detailed in this post then the reserved handset number on the base station is consumed and cannot be reclaimed; thus reducing the number of handsets the base station can support by 1. The special code is only for use when you have a handset that is orphaned from a lost or  non-working base station.

iPads are quite notorious for having wireless issues, maybe this will be resolved with a future software upgrade for the iPad.

The symptoms I experienced are as follows. After clicking on play the Netflix app would say “Preparing to view….” and the bottom half of the screen was blank cutting off part of the movie cover graphic. Then the app would return to the movie browsing page without starting the movie.

Will Apple allow Tethering to the iPad?

To fix this issue go into the iPad settings menu for your WiFi  network and change the DNS entry to 208.67.222.222

Return to Netflix and the problem should be resolved.

The reason for the problem is that if your router utilizes DNSMasq the iPad/Netflix app misbehaves. By entering a manual DNS server address for OpenDNS service the iPad bypasses your routers DNS Cache which it is incompatible with.

In my case I use DD-WRT software in my router which by default utilizes DNSMasq to speed up your DNS queries. The problem could also be resolved by disabling DNSMasq on the router. Alternatively one could enter 8.8.8.8 into the DNS entry on the iPad wirelsss settings which would use Googles DNS service. Personally I prefer OpenDNS due to its richer feature set.

Many HP computers have a non-standard name for the administrator account. On many vintage HP computers the administrator account name is HP_ADMINISTRATOR

This becomes important when you try and use remote desktop to attach to a system, normally the username is administrator together with associated password give you remote access. For whatever reason HP changed the account name from administrator to hp_administrator. I had recollection of this but didn’t know the exact name. I searched in vain on the web looking for the default account name and only turned up articles on how to reset the administrator account password. I tried hpadministrator, hp-administrator, hpadmin etc never realizing they use the underline character to separate HP from administrator. When you are in a separate city to the computer it isn’t that easy to determine the account name :-)

Hope this quick post helps someone gain remote access to their HP computer.

I recently broke my belt clip and looked for a cheaper generic belt clip. I soon found they often use a magnet to hold them closed, which puts the Droid into driving or desktop modes. So I tried the local Verizon store only to be told I was out of luck, they no longer sell Droid accessories.

I was about to leave the store when I noticed a Droid 2 belt clip. I enquired if it would fit. ‘No’ was the answer, ‘the Droid 2 has buttons in a different location’. I asked if could try and soon discovered the holster fits the original Droid like a glove. It is the front and rear snap on components that don’t fit the original Droid. My belt clip was broken at the holster, the snap on components are just fine and match the new holster both in color and design.

Problem solved.

Don’t readily accept a no from a Verizon sales rep, they only want to sell new stuff. I won’t sign a two year contract again either. A one year contract is plenty long enough given the pace of change in the smart phone marketplace and the rapid abandonment of the products by all involved