Now help me find my MySpace password!...

July 17, 2007 11:04 AM

Hay guyz, I wanna open a really sensitive document that I've been working on for the last few years. Not only do I not have any of the software I had been using, I don't really know what software it was! KTHXBUY
posted by unixrat to Etiquette/Policy at 11:04 AM (49 comments total)

Heheh, yeah.

He's in Quebec. I was hoping he'd be in Seattle. I would fix it for him for my standard consulting fee of $200/hr.
posted by jeffamaphone at 11:08 AM on July 17, 2007

DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION, CALLER???
posted by boo_radley at 11:09 AM on July 17, 2007

I don't think you can make an ellipsis like that.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 11:11 AM on July 17, 2007 [2 favorites]

This may not be overly relevant but I remember having a similar difficulty a few years ago with a tax file lodged electronically in Oz. It was done in an online form/program but there were components saved locally. I guess I'm just suggesting that the OP's question sounds a bit like the 'logic' I went through and is not necessarily indicative of spurious intentions.
posted by peacay at 11:12 AM on July 17, 2007

. . .
posted by majick at 11:12 AM on July 17, 2007

I think you're jumping the gun a bit here as the issue is specifically with online filing, which does in fact create files that can only be opened by time-pertinent software.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 11:13 AM on July 17, 2007

I don't see a problem here.
posted by Plutor at 11:22 AM on July 17, 2007

A scumbag would probably have heard of hex editors already, so, yeah.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:25 AM on July 17, 2007

That's not that weird a question. I've filed for years with QuickTaxWeb, the online version of QuickTax. At the end you're given a .tax file that you can't do anything with except upload the next year, unless you buy the desktop version of QuickTax.
posted by mendel at 11:36 AM on July 17, 2007

Your MySpace password is "P0!NTLE$$C@LL0UT"

HTH.
posted by dersins at 11:39 AM on July 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

(Er, my mistake. I looked into the files I had, and they're even less what everyone was guessing -- .tax files are the output of Canadian tax software used to file online via the government's NETFILE service. So if that's all you had then you certainly would be confused as to what you were supposed to do with them, since after you upload them to the NETFILE website they're useless to you.)
posted by mendel at 11:45 AM on July 17, 2007

aaaaaaaaaaand scene!
posted by shmegegge at 11:52 AM on July 17, 2007

Now I know what the "rat" means in "unixrat."
posted by vacapinta at 11:58 AM on July 17, 2007

I've been thinking a lot about this one file I have that's got a .bns extension...
posted by mr_crash_davis at 12:05 PM on July 17, 2007

did not take long to prove psmealey wrong.
posted by absalom at 12:08 PM on July 17, 2007

I'd like to open a bucket of really sensitive extensions.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:09 PM on July 17, 2007

Wow, this is a shitty callout.

You were really sitting there thinking this is so egregious that it needed to be pointed out? Or is this part of a broader question-content-critique of which I am unaware?
posted by dios at 12:20 PM on July 17, 2007

its your tax return, dios
posted by quarter waters and a bag of chips at 12:34 PM on July 17, 2007 [3 favorites]

man, so now I have to satisfy the student loan people and unirat!! what a day...
posted by hector horace at 12:40 PM on July 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

Every time I think the bar can be set no lower someone comes along and starts digging....
posted by Floydd at 12:41 PM on July 17, 2007

i mean unixrat....though seriously I can only assume you had the best of intentions for flagging my question, so thank you.
posted by hector horace at 12:41 PM on July 17, 2007

I could use some salt and vinegar chips if anyone has any.
posted by puke & cry at 12:45 PM on July 17, 2007

.tax murderer
posted by kosem at 12:46 PM on July 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

I could use some salt and vinegar chips if anyone has any.

A nice thought; popcorn is getting expensive. Cockbuckets are probably still cheap, though.
posted by felix betachat at 12:49 PM on July 17, 2007

Did you try asking your question here?
posted by goml at 1:07 PM on July 17, 2007

I see unixrat has yet to come back and respond to peoples' questions about his pointless callout. Maybe I should make a MetaTalk thread about it.
posted by Falconetti at 1:42 PM on July 17, 2007

He's busy changing his myspace password.
posted by dersins at 1:52 PM on July 17, 2007

Erm.... I don't see the issue here. What's the problem again?
posted by craven_morhead at 1:58 PM on July 17, 2007

Ohhhhhhh, is the suggestion that the asker swiped a file from some poor schlub?

High density day around here, apparantly.
posted by craven_morhead at 1:59 PM on July 17, 2007

You made the same point right at the top of the thread. I think one place or the other would have been sufficient.
posted by MarkAnd at 2:02 PM on July 17, 2007

I can never open my old returns and have never understood why. The question makes perfect sense to me.
posted by docpops at 2:14 PM on July 17, 2007

I don't really know what software it was

There is nothing in the askme post that suggests that the poster does not know what software it was.
posted by winston at 2:17 PM on July 17, 2007

"The use of ellipses can either mislead or clarify, and the reader must rely on the good intentions of the writer who uses it."
Enough said.
posted by Sailormom at 2:36 PM on July 17, 2007

.boc
posted by quonsar at 2:39 PM on July 17, 2007

I think this callout is indicative of environmental toxicity in the poster's home and/or workplace.

Also, I thought this was a fine example of AskMe in action.
posted by Burhanistan at 2:42 PM on July 17, 2007

cortex : A scumbag would probably have heard of hex editors already, so, yeah.

Hey, I know about hex editors...

Nevermind. Yeah, I'd say that's an accurate assessment.
posted by quin at 2:54 PM on July 17, 2007

I don't think you can make an ellipsis like that.

This is how you do it: … or 8230;
posted by signal at 3:50 PM on July 17, 2007

Wow, this is was one of the most paranoid callouts I've seen in a while.
posted by delmoi at 5:47 PM on July 17, 2007

No man, you're the paranoid call out!!! You and everyone else here! This thing goes all the way to the top!

*swings arms wildly*
posted by fair_game at 5:54 PM on July 17, 2007

pancakes, anyone?




anyone?
posted by po at 6:21 PM on July 17, 2007

I've been thinking about posting a question about cracking some annoying Office document third-party DRM. Guess that wouldn't go over so well with some people.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:17 PM on July 17, 2007

I will have a pancake.

Perhaps even two.
posted by killdevil at 8:12 PM on July 17, 2007

as the resident ellipsis expert, i can assure you they cannot be made with question marks
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posted by loquacious at 9:26 PM on July 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

as the resident ellipsis expert, i can assure you they cannot be made with question marks

What???
posted by delmoi at 10:02 PM on July 17, 2007

see what i mean? ... it just doesn't have that feel to it ... but then, you people all think i'm dotty anyway ...
posted by pyramid termite at 10:07 PM on July 17, 2007

…---…
posted by b1tr0t at 7:13 AM on July 18, 2007

So, is unixrat going to come clean and admit that he really didn't think before posting this? It's ok, we all have or little lapses...and..... ellipissssssisses......
posted by Burhanistan at 7:31 AM on July 18, 2007

Dear MeFi, can a young man be trained to consistantly crack the encoding on a tax-submission file, given only one five year old, a sack of lye, and no element of surprise? Also, what if he was having an affair at the time?
posted by blue_beetle at 8:41 AM on July 18, 2007