Looking for beta testers for TSP analyzer utility

[72Zorad]

We've written an application that reads TSP participant statements and performs calculations to provide quantative data and account value graphing as well as several other features. We would like to offer registration to 10 beta testers so we can ensure we've worked out any bugs and see what customers might think of the product. Beta testing would be to provide feedback on the functionality of the application as well as the web site/download experience.

Your TSP statements contain sensitive data. This is covered in detail on our website. However, if you are concerned about the sensitivity of your data we can assist you in using the application offline.


Please send me a PM (private message) and I will provide further information.


Thanks,


72Zorad

 

[grandma]

We've written an application that reads TSP participant statements and performs calculations to provide quantative data and account value graphing as well as several other features. We would like to offer registration to 10 beta testers so we can ensure we've worked out any bugs and see what customers might think of the product. Beta testing would be to provide feedback on the functionality of the application as well as the web site/download experience.

Your TSP statements contain sensitive data. This is covered in detail on our website. However, if you are concerned about the sensitivity of your data we can assist you in using the application offline.

Please send me a PM (private message) and I will provide further information.

Thanks,
72Zorad

What am I missing here?
Who is the `we' - have I missed the intro post?

72Zorad has no personal info listed on his registration -
Whaz-up???

:suspicious::notrust:

 

[James48843]

grandma-

he posted a few weeks back. I took at look at his product, and tracked down who he is- and it appears legit.

I personally would feel comfortable trying out his application.

Whether or not you choose to do so, is up to you.

Thanks

Jim

 

[72Zorad]

With the guidance of a Moderator I posted the message to intentionally not give company details to prevent spamming.

Company info;
There are two people. Me, the idea guy. I was doing it all by Excel before. Pretty intense work if you want and details.... Showed a programmer friend what I was doing who is also in the TSP. He said it could be programmed. I wrote the VBScript. He turned it into code.

Personal info;
IT guy in the federal gov. Been with the fed gov now about 22 years. Nothing very exciting there.

Basically, as I said, I was manually doing it it all, he saw it and laughed at me. We started working together and it grew as we went because we kept adding things to answer questions we had. Decided others might be interested in what we had created.

I can provide more details but that's about the long and the short of it.

72Zorad

 

[grandma]

With the guidance of a Moderator I posted the message to intentionally not give company details to prevent spamming.
Company info;
There are two people. Me, the idea guy. I was doing it all by Excel before. Pretty intense work if you want and details.... Showed a programmer friend what I was doing who is also in the TSP. He said it could be programmed. I wrote the VBScript. He turned it into code.
Personal info;
IT guy in the federal gov. Been with the fed gov now about 22 years. Nothing very exciting there.
Basically, as I said, I was manually doing it it all, he saw it and laughed at me. We started working together and it grew as we went because we kept adding things to answer questions we had. Decided others might be interested in what we had created.
I can provide more details but that's about the long and the short of it.
72Zorad

No, 72Zorad, that is fine. I did ask if I had missed the intro, & I had. James very kindly advised me of such! I was derelict in not looking for other posts elsewhere. We have had jokers in the past.
Good luck with your endeavors! This is the time for entrepreneurs to take their product in hand and get out into the world with it!!!

I personally would feel comfortable trying out his application.
Whether or not you choose to do so, is up to you.

Thanx James, but really, I don't think this is anything that would serve any purpose for me at this time, or that I would be interested in. However, whether or not you choose to do so, is up to you.

 

[James48843]

It actually seems pretty "Geeky" to me. More information all in one place than I can handle- but there are lots of TSP "geek" kind of folks who want to know everything there is to know about their returns.

For those folks- it looks pretty interesting.

 

[Rod]

Please post some "tested" screen shots of your TSP utility.

 

[tsptalk]

It actually seems pretty "Geeky" to me. More information all in one place than I can handle- but there are lots of TSP "geek" kind of folks who want to know everything there is to know about their returns.

For those folks- it looks pretty interesting.

Thanks James, for helping 72Z, and thanks to 72Z for his patience as I did not exactly help him in his initial attempt to promote his new program.

I don't allow free advertising to competitive type services so James took the time to help him.

I had the same reaction as grandma as I thought it was a little too much info that I might be overkill, but as James said, some may like that.

That said, I have no reason to believe that the program has any malicious intent as it accesses TSP statement information to make the data. But because I don't know for sure, I do not feel comfortable endorsing or promoting it it at this time, and this is why we are letting him ask for beta testers.

 

[72Zorad]

Please post some "tested" screen shots of your TSP utility.

I'm not sure where to go with this. I'm trying very hard to not spam TSPTalk. We have a website that has screen shots, a wealth of information about the product, and a free download that will run either the sample data (my account, cleansed of personal info) or your data up through 2008.

You don't have to be a beta tester to check it out. I just figured we'd give the beta testers a registered version that has no time limit for their assistance.


Can I leave it at that and if you are interested send me a PM or email?

 

[JTH]

I do have a question. Can the PII data be masked with tape, white out, black marker? Will the program still read the rest of the data? If this is the case, then you may attract more customers by stating this on your website.

 

[tsptalk]

I'm not sure where to go with this. I'm trying very hard to not spam TSPTalk. We have a website that has screen shots, a wealth of information about the product, and a free download that will run either the sample data (my account, cleansed of personal info) or your data up through 2008.

You don't have to be a beta tester to check it out. I just figured we'd give the beta testers a registered version that has no time limit for their assistance.

Can I leave it at that and if you are interested send me a PM or email?

Thanks 72Z. I don't think Rod knew about what was going on. I think he was concerned about spam not knowing that you were working with James on this already.

 

[72Zorad]

I do have a question. Can the PII data be masked with tape, white out, black marker? Will the program still read the rest of the data? If this is the case, then you may attract more customers by stating this on your website.

Perhaps I wasn't clear when I said it 'reads' the data. It reads it electronically, not via a scanner. We found a way to 'read' .pdf files in their native format electronically. Basically it loops through the electronic data looking for specific things (buys, sells, moves and the date of the transaction) and 'reads' that data. If the data is of no value, ie. doesn't match what we're looking for, it moves on. The SSN, address, account number have no value to the program so they are not 'read' into the application.

You can modify .pdf files so the PII data can be removed/changed. That is what I did with the sample data as they are my account files. My name is not John Public and I don't live in Anywhere NJ But, it's a pretty involved process most wouldn't want to attempt. It took me a couple days to figure out the process and another 3-4 hours to do it to all my files. This is how I discovered the SSN is still in the meta data on our new file types (previous post). That was a scary moment, when I realized I just about posted my files with the application for anyone to download and my SSN and name where embedded in the files. Not visible to the average viewer but certainly still in the file.

Hmm....we could write a program that modifies the PII info on the statements like I manually did for mine. That would be very involved though as the TSP folks have changed the layout several times. And, you still don't get around the fact that you are trusting whoever wrote that program isn't reading/transmitting your data while modifying it for you.

We realized this is the conundrum. The beauty of the app is that it automates the data entry for your data and share price values then does all the math for you. The Achilles Heel is that it automatically reads your data and they included PII info. It's of no value to the application but still in the files regardless.

72Zorad

 

[JTH]

Perhaps I wasn't clear when I said it 'reads' the data. It reads it electronically, not via a scanner. We found a way to 'read' .pdf files in their native format electronically. Basically it loops through the electronic data looking for specific things (buys, sells, moves and the date of the transaction) and 'reads' that data. If the data is of no value, ie. doesn't match what we're looking for, it moves on. The SSN, address, account number have no value to the program so they are not 'read' into the application.

You can modify .pdf files so the PII data can be removed/changed. That is what I did with the sample data as they are my account files. My name is not John Public and I don't live in Anywhere NJ But, it's a pretty involved process most wouldn't want to attempt. It took me a couple days to figure out the process and another 3-4 hours to do it to all my files. This is how I discovered the SSN is still in the meta data on our new file types (previous post). That was a scary moment, when I realized I just about posted my files with the application for anyone to download and my SSN and name where embedded in the files. Not visible to the average viewer but certainly still in the file.

Hmm....we could write a program that modifies the PII info on the statements like I manually did for mine. That would be very involved though as the TSP folks have changed the layout several times. And, you still don't get around the fact that you are trusting whoever wrote that program isn't reading/transmitting your data while modifying it for you.

We realized this is the conundrum. The beauty of the app is that it automates the data entry for your data and share price values then does all the math for you. The Achilles Heel is that it automatically reads your data and they included PII info. It's of no value to the application but still in the files regardless.

72Zorad

Good answer, I'm not a PDF guru, so I guess I should have clarified. If I printed out the PDF files, then scrubbed the PII, then scanned them back in as a PDF file, would the program still be able to read the needed data? I ask this because I realize there are going to be differences between the original PDF & the modified PDF, but perhaps the program can overcome this.

 

[72Zorad]

It would change the 'format' of the data. At that point you would have to incorporate a program that tries to interpret written data. Like an image interpreter rather than a data interpreter. Basically something that looks at an 'a' and says this looks somewhat like what I'm told is an 'a' so I'll make it an 'a' rather than something that reads a value of 'a'. :worried: Wow, I think I'm confusing me here.

I believe you are thinking pdf files are what I thought they were until my programming partner cleared my up. This was the point where he thought it was pretty funny that I was manually entering the data when the data can be read.

pdf files have a sort of fork. Some contain data and some contain pictures. Not all have both and some only have pictures which is what the scan is. Your electronic TSP statement has both. Pictures would be pie chart graphs, bar codes, logos.....we can't read those. But, it also contains data that can be read like an Excel file. That is what the application reads.

Before I always thought pdf files where 'pictures' that had to be interpreted by a human or interpreter. Turns out that's not always the case.

 

[JTH]

It would change the 'format' of the data. At that point you would have to incorporate a program that tries to interpret written data. Like an image interpreter rather than a data interpreter. Basically something that looks at an 'a' and says this looks somewhat like what I'm told is an 'a' so I'll make it an 'a' rather than something that reads a value of 'a'. :worried: Wow, I think I'm confusing me here.

I believe you are thinking pdf files are what I thought they were until my programming partner cleared my up. This was the point where he thought it was pretty funny that I was manually entering the data when the data can be read.

pdf files have a sort of fork. Some contain data and some contain pictures. Not all have both and some only have pictures which is what the scan is. Your electronic TSP statement has both. Pictures would be pie chart graphs, bar codes, logos.....we can't read those. But, it also contains data that can be read like an Excel file. That is what the application reads.

Before I always thought pdf files where 'pictures' that had to be interpreted by a human or interpreter. Turns out that's not always the case.

OIC said the blind man, it sounds right. I do hate PDF files because they are hard to alter, and I don't have the full version needed to modify/create them.

 

[72Zorad]

We still have some slots open for beta testers.

Beta testers get the application for free with no expiration period. This means you'll get a version that will read all files past and future. Sort of. At any time the TSP folks could change the file format to something we can't read, stopping future file reads, but so far so good.

Findings thus far:
Military files are different than 'regular' fed gov (no Agency matching). We had heard this but weren't sure what that meant as neither of us or our friends we tested with are current military. Both of us are prior military but that's of no use here and besides, they didn't offer TSP to military way back then...
We're working with a beta tester who is military and have identified the difference in the files. A code update will likely be available pretty quickly as the fix doesn't look too difficult.

72Zorad

 

[72Zorad]

Code is fixed for military folks. Much thanks to Ship for his beta testing and working with us to help identify the file difference that was the cause of the problem.

72Zorad

 

[72Zorad]

We've made quite a few improvements based on feedback from beta testers.

You don't need to be a beta tester to check out the app and see if it has value for you.

72Zorad