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Tag Archives: software
Open source as alternative
Find open source software alternatives to well-known commercial software
Tax return
April is the time to file the tax return. This year’s tax return is a little difference than last year’s. My status in the file has changed from single to married. In the point of view of Revenue Canada, nothing much is changed. We still have to file two seperate tax return instead of a common couple return. The only benefits is I can transfer some unused tax credit from Pat under my return. I have a higher marginal tax rate so it is better to claim the credit under my name so we can get more refund.
Support in Quick Tax for marriage couple is pretty good. I can file two return under the same file and the software will take care of copying the required information between the two sets of forms. It also has some tips on how to optimize the refund between the couple. It is almost perfect except it is missing one feature. I can’t merge the data from last year’s tax return for both of us. I can only transfer last year’s data from one file and have to mannually enter the data for the other one.
Last year, my company changed the medical insurance coverage from 100% to 80%. I didn’t realize I can claim tax credit for the remaining 20%, so I didn’t keep the recipts. Damn… I could have get back ten or twenty bucks more from the government. Next year, I have to remind myself to file all my dental and drug recipts.
Firefox 3
Firefox 3 is released today! I have been a long time firefox fans, so naturally I downloaded the latest version at once. The installation went very smoothly, it only took a few minutes. Unlike the long and troublesome IE7 upgrade which took almost half an hour and rebooted my machine twice. On the surface, Firefox 3 is almost identical to the older version, except a few minor cosmetic update. Under the hook, it’s the new Gecko rendering engine. Firefox 3 seems running a lot faster than Firefox 2. However I don’t know it’s deal to the new engine or due to almost half of my add-ons are disabled for not compatible with the latest release. According to the latest number, Firefox 3 has over 500 millions download and counting. If you are still using IE7, it’s about time to switch. Come and join us in the bright side. Why surf the net on a 2nd rated browser?
Firefox add-on
Recently, I found my Firefox is crashing very often and take up lots of CPU time. At first, I thought there are some virus or Trojan horse hijacking my browser. After I run extensive anti-virus scan and found nothing. I am suspecting it is the fault of the add-on. I completely uninstall Firefox, deleted all the add-on I have downloaded over the years. I reinstall a clean copy of Firefox. Viola! It is running lighting fast and I have no more crashes.
I slowly adding back some useful add-on, trying to limit myself not to install add-on that I never use. Add-on that stays inactive until invoke by me are fine. Those are most productivity tools. I tends to stay away from any add-on that mess with the rendering engine or trying to modify the page on the fly. I found those add-on really slow down Firefox. In some cases when the connection is patchy, it may even stuck in an infinite loop and lock up the browser. Sometimes more is less, sure is in the case of installing add-on. Actually, it is true for all software project. Any feature you don’t need slows the software down. Load up the software with tons of useless feature make it crawl like a snail, Vista is a perfect example.