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We've all heard the famous quote before: Nothing is certain in life but death and taxes. And while you could try to avoid your taxes, Uncle Sam is probably going to make your life even more miserable if you do.

Rather than suffer the consequences of illegal action, we suggest you get a jump on your taxes with one of the four tax prep solutions we have thoroughly tested out for you: TurboTax (Web|Windows|Mac), H&R Block (Web|Windows|Mac), TaxAct (Web|Windows), and CompleteTax (Web-only). Oh, and--by the way--in the course of our testing, we … Read more

If you have tax prep needs, chances are H&R Block has you covered. The company is offering a total of eight options for the 2010 filing year: four software packages and four online prep services.

Like most other solutions on the market, H&R starts with a Free Edition as its entry-level product. This version, which is only available online, offers basic federal filing as well as a number of other free services, such as free advice and audit support. Moving up from there you have the $19.95 Basic Edition, which adds the ability to import … Read more

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded:

The Department of Justice proposes a very vague Internet data retention plan

Verizon's unlimited data plan for the iPhone will cost $30 per month--for a limited time

Verizon's iPhone tethering option will cost an extra $20 per month

Amazon.com wants to deliver groceries to homes nationwide with Amazon Fresh

Facebook is developing a Groupon competitor called Buy With Friends

Twitter confirms it has been blocked in Egypt amid violent, anti-government protests

Fox Sports will not broadcast the Super Bowl in 3D

The new MLB 11 game from Sony will … Read more

Plock is a fast-paced, color-matching arcade game, the fun iOS adaptation of the popular Facebook game of the same name.

Plock is a quick, simple time-waster on Facebook, and it's even more addictive with a touch screen and accelerometer: you break blocks by touching two or more adjacent blocks with matching colors (or eight or more matching blocks for a score-multiplying "Plock"), and if you don't see a match you like, you can shake your device to mix up the blocks. Breaking blocks helps you earn bombs, which are then randomly assigned to existing blocks to … Read more

People may be spending more time than ever on the Internet, but many of them--especially young folks--are spending less of their time using e-mail.

That's the conclusion of a comScore survey Matt Richtel wrote about recently for the New York Times. Teenagers in particular prefer to do without subject lines and other e-mail elements, and they tend to stick with short messages they can send quickly. I think they're on to something.

I noticed a sharp decline in the number of messages in my inbox after I created filters for non-priority messages; in a post from last month … Read more

Some BlockBuster Express kiosks will start offering new DVD and Blu-ray releases on the same day they go on sale, reports say.

According to the Dow Jones Newswires, NCR, the owner and operator of BlockBuster Express kiosks, inked the rental deals with Twentieth Century Fox Film and Universal Studios Home Entertainment. The company will be offering films for $2.99 on DVD or $3.99 on Blu-ray discs on the first rental night. The program is rolling out in a handful of test markets, including Atlanta, Miami, and San Francisco.

NCR, which licenses the BlockBuster Express name from the movie … Read more

LeechBlock is a kind of auto-nanny: it's a free Firefox add-on that blocks chosen Web sites at certain times on certain days and for different time periods. The idea is to automatically block time-wasting sites at times when you're supposed to be getting some work done. For individuals who lack the self-discipline not to check the weather, score, price, or thread when they should be focusing, it can be a real help. Of course, you can always defeat it when you need to, but you can also set a password to slow you down when you're weakening. … Read more

U.S. government scientists are being blocked from accessing WikiLeaks' Web sites for fear it will "contaminate" their computers, CNET has learned.

Starting last week, Department of Energy installations began barring access to WikiLeaks and its myriad of mirror sites, which have been disclosing confidential State Department documents on a daily basis.

"Sandia has blocked the site and its mirrors," said Stephanie Holinka, a spokeswoman at Sandia National Laboratories' Albuquerque headquarters. A spokesman for Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, Va., confirmed it's also "blocking access to WikiLeaks and its mirror sites.&… Read more

For years, storage vendors have been offering two types of disk storage: block and file. Block-based storage is commonly associated with SANs (storage area networks) while-file based storage is commonly referred to a NAS (network attached storage) and attached to Ethernet networks.

Lately, the vendors of either flavor have developed an interest in selling storage arrays that swing both ways--a storage system that provides both block and file access simultaneously. The moniker for these converged SAN/NAS systems is "unified storage."

With unified storage arrays, block access is accomplished through use of an interface to the array such … Read more