A Path to Success

How smart design changes policy - aka "fradusters steal money by filing fake US Tax returns"

So I am reading a New York Times article off my twitter stream that catches my eye:

"Fraudsters steal money from the IRS (ie tax payers) by filing fake US tax returns"

I'm thinking, "Ah this can't be too big of a problem can it?" There's tax preparer fraud, there's outright filer fraud, but people filing fake tax returns? Over $5B of returns are still not caught, and it could be much more in the future as the Times makes this issue public and more criminals become white collar. And as Americans abroad, who rarely file, can be used as the new guinea pigs for fake returns. That's another 5M returns that can be faked when they get tired of faking returns of seniors and youth and start to target these folks abroad who have forgotten to file.

But there is a solution in Canada, called the CRA "notice of assessment" which I receive every time I file a Canadian tax return. You can even get a replacement one online if you need one. It is a confirmation of the receipt of my tax filing, and a friendly reminder of how much room I have in my retirement plans for contributions (RRSP). This is a straightforward exercise that happens to the millions of tak filers in Canada and has been in effect at least since the mid 90s. It looks like this:

The IRS could (at a nominal cost of say $1 per mailing) institute this for the 100M returns. You could send one to the current address on file and the previous address one file. If I received one of these babies and I have NOT yet filed for the past tax year, bingo, there's a problem. I should call the IRS and tell them there's an issue, and they'd investigate.

I bet this few hundred million dollar solution would probably eliminate all of this fraud. So why has the IRS invested millions on training and all sorts of other systems and procedures, rather than just send you a receipt of your filing? Heck, even an email receipt would be a nice touch and be faster to avoid issues in the e-future.

Control Your Computer Just like Minority Report

Leapmotion has announced a tiny controller that will allow you to manipulate content on screen with your hands and fingers. In thin air. Remember Minority Report with Tom Cruise? Yes, just like that.

But what will this gadget do for the porn industry? The mind reels at the possibilites. I expect Apple to buy this company before one product hits the shelves at your local Futureshop.

 

Bank fee tip: Avoid those nasty Interac and epayment fees!

If you are an online banking customer, you will be familiar with the ease of use and convenience that you get with online banking. These days though, as online banking becomes prevalent, the banks have realized that they would love to charge for the convenience. My bank, Royal Bank of Canada, has gone overboard on a savings account I use. The average fees I am paying in 2012 for 3-4 interac e-transfer transactions is about $20/month (!).

Turns out that many banks have a set of free transactions for Interac email money transfer as long as you pay a monthly fee. My chequing account for a $13.95 fee gives you 5 "free" Interac email transfer transactions which can be sent to anyone in Canada and deposited to their own bank using email only.

Also you should be aware that transfer between bank accounts within the same bank (yours or others within the same bank) should always be free between any account. Anything less is unreasonable because it costs literally nothing for a bank to transfer funds between accounts.

The approach I am taking these days is to do direct any deposits (esp direct deposts) to an interest bearing savings account which yields a few bucks each month (covering any small fees when possible). The float in this account can be used to transfer to other accounts within the same bank for free. You may have to rearrange how your direct deposits are directed, but trust me -- it is worth it. Flowing money through interest bearing accounts even if it  the money sits there for a bit, offsets the nickle and dime fees that banks have been instituting. I figured that if I didn't do anything with my online payment habits I would be spending over $250 in bank fees alone for one account (Royal Bank's interac email fees are $6/transaction). It all adds up -- call your bank and review your fee patterns in your various accounts. You may be surprised what the banks have changed in 2012!

The thing that gets me of course is that in theory an electronic transaction should be cheaper than one done in person or via a physical cheque, yet banks have (as always) figured out a way to make something that costs them less, cost us more. Fight back!

A better, smarter smartphone design

This chart on the cost of producing an iPhone in the US got me thinking.

This chart indicates that producing an iPhone in the US would cut Apple's profit margins on an iPhone by 20% or more. That's not really what got my attention, though. As an engineer, I started thinking about how a phone could be made cheaper, more effective by selecting a trade off in the parts you actually select to use and integrated into the device.

What if, for example, you decided your phone had no accelerometer, gyroscope? Switching orientation would happen with a softbutton in software. What if the camera disappeared? What if the battery you used was  A LOT better, 3-4x the cost and quality and capacity? What if the screen and memory were the best money could buy? According to this chart the UI costs a fraction of the display and memory - that seems to be one part of the chart that has me flummoxed somewhat. The more iPhones Apple sells the less the cost of the UI per phone becomes, so I guess this price continues to dwindle as the power of the engineering continues to be spread over more and more devices.

I can see a lower cost device being made by another manufacturer as long as they got the important parts of the device well - that is fast internet, social media and email/calendar integration and a terrific phone experience. On a great screen with awesome battery life, such a phone could put a dent into Apple's domination. Making it in the US would be a great story as well. Is any manufacturer up to such a challenge?

UPDATE: Cover the bottom 4 parts of this pyramid and you're good to go: