The Time Trap: What Price Perfection?

Computer Life column for February 20, 1999
by
Richard Gordon

This week's column was going to be about doing your income taxes with software like TurboTax or MacInTax. And certainly those packages, software from one of Intuit's competitors, or even some of the Web-based tax preparation programs are valuable for most of us to try.

As I've written in previous years, my experience using tax preparation software has been positive enough that I'll use it again next year.

So, yes, if you itemize deductions and have a computer, I'd recommend using tax preparation software. I happen to like the Intuit products; other people prefer different ones. Visit c|net's "Tax Time" reviews (www.cnet.com/Content/Reports/Special/Tax/) to decide which product fits your needs.

What's of greater interest to me is how computers have transformed a lot of the things we do into tasks as time-consuming as any allegedly-minor home repair.

You know what I'm talking about. The lock replacement that leads to three trips to Lyons Hardware--and you still end up having to bribe a neighbor to help. The slow leak from the shower that--even though it can probably be caulked--causes you to cut a hole in the ceiling in the room below so you can check to be sure the pipes are OK.

Our computer projects are beginning to devour time just like those little household chores can eat up an entire weekend.

Last year's gotcha was getting MacInTax to understand that I had a 1996 state tax refund to account for. This year, I knew how to include my 1997 state refund, but I hit a different problem: my printer ran out of ink.

Being the Netizen that I am, I grabbed my credit card and dialed into the Web to order a new ink cartridge from one of those "order tonight, get it tomorrow" catalog houses.

Never mind the details, but, just as that lock never quite sits right in the hole you've drilled in the door, it took 76 minutes of fiddling about at that catalog's Web site to wait for all the inane graphics to download, locate the right section of the Web site, figure out how the merchandise was organized, wait for some more inane graphics to download, find the right cartridge, and place my order.

Just as you start using your hammer to make that dang lock fit, I was going to place my order over the Web no matter how long it took. No badly-designed Web site is going to get the best of me, I growled to myself.

Sometimes the gotchas are more subtle: How many of us have reprinted a report's title page because we forgot to suppress the page number, reprinted a tax return to fix an extra capital letter, or stayed up past midnight getting the map for the party invitations just right?

Most of us have discovered that our computers are not always labor-saving devices. Instead, they have allowed us to raise our expectations for what we can accomplish. Unfortunately, each new expectation can lead to new obstacles to overcome.

Tip of the week

Case can matter

Why do some URLs not work when typed in capital letters?

The name of the computer where the information is stored can usually be typed in uppercase or lowercase letters. Both Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator will take you where you want to go regardless of case. That is, typing either "CNET" or "cnet" in the location window should take you to www.cnet.com.

But if you want to go directly to a specific document instead of stopping at a Web server's home page, case sometimes matters. If the information is stored on a UNIX server, like those run by many Universities and ISPs, typing "2ND.HTML" will not ordinarily take you to the file "2nd.html"--extra programming would be required to make those two names both point at the same file. However, if the information is stored on a Windows or Macintosh computer, then the case ordinarily doesn't matter.

So if a URL doesn't work, check the UpPeR AnD lOwEr CaSe letters you've typed.

Copyright © 1999, The News Journal Company

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