Tax day part N

Final day to refile previously rejected electronic files (if that makes any sense). In other words, after 11AM today 1040 efiling shuts down for the year, and testing begins in earnest next week. Also means that the next week or so will feature a lot of cleanup and data archiving on production and rolling QA code out to production after testing.

Efiling still continues for business systems of course, that never ends.

As with every year, we'll see how many people try to file returns after 11AM, thinking they have until midnight, even though it's been on the front page of every piece of information from us and the IRS for a month. Never fails.

Apple time capsule failure

From the Register:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/19/time_capsule_death/

Apparently Apple Time Capsules are failing far more quickly than would normally be expected. The culprit seems to be that they run way too hot and the capacitors inside die. What's worse is that Apple won't allow you to open the box up to recover data; doing so voids your warranty.

Comments on the story are largely along the line of: "It Just Works" (except when it doesn't)

Really it seems like Apple shot themselves in the foot with this one, trying more to make the thing look elegant than to make sure it worked properly and for a long time. Very much insufficient cooling, but cooling vents would have ruined its appearance.

HPV Vaccine graphic

If you have to talk with people who are afraid of the HPV vaccine, this graphic may be of some use to you:
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2009/how-safe-is-the-hpv-vaccine/

Some people will respond better to the graphics than the numbers, particularly the lifetimes odds of dying from the vaccine versus dying from cervical cancer.

Audiobook(s) finished

Eschaton trilogy, by Frederik Pohl
The Other End of Time
The Siege of Eternity
The Far Shore of Time

Good stuff. (slight spoiler) The weapon the aliens had prepped as a doomsday device was pretty obvious far before it was revealed, as was the countermeasure used against them. But even so, good story, well written. Too bad no more books will probably be written in this series, it's a good universe.