Unless it's maintained it won't be of much use. It needs to be kept up to date with tax laws, and it relies entirely on the IRS accepting the generated returns. It seems it may function for now, though.

Direct File interprets the United States' Internal Revenue Code (26 USC) as plain language questions, the answers to which should be known to taxpayers without need of external instructions or publications. Taxpayers' answers are then translated into standard tax forms and transmitted to the IRS's Modernized e-File (MeF) API, which is available for authorized public use

A lot of functionality can be decoupled from anything that needs to be classified. A HUD is a HUD and no one should be hard coding in performance characteristics of the F-35 into it. I've also worked on government projects and holy crap does the code quality vary wildly, even before you get into "it's still working so deal with the problems, it doesn't have the budget for updates".

Using 'off the shelf' parts/code can save significant time and money. There's a reason subs use xbox controllers. Government websites and data interfaces at the very least should have the audit-ability that open source provides.

I'm sure there are exceptions for classified systems. Personally, I do believe all things developed by tax payer money should be released to the public including classified systems, given enough time has passed that the release of such information wouldn't put anything or anyone at risk.

A HUD is a HUD

sure but the HUD from the F-35 is very specifically designed to work in an F-35. It's very similar, and comes from the same family, as the software running on other planes. But it's not identical.

And yes, performance limits would be hard coded into the software because the HUD needs to alert the pilot when they are getting close.

Edit: and that's ignoring the fact that a lot of this stuff comes from private companies so you'll run into things like IP/patent laws

For the most part they are. You can find enormous troves of classified documents that have been made public, and a huge amount of once top secret technology and engineering eventually makes its way into the public space.

Direct File is maintained by the IRS themselves though.

You are correct.

Here's an annoying thing i just learned about H&R Block:

As of 2022, H&R Block's tax preparation service shares user data with Facebook, which can be used for targeted advertising. This can include sensitive financial information from health savings accounts and college expenses, and this tax data is shared without consent even for users who opt out of the service.

We've already got free software for filing taxes, kthxbye!

Yeah I saw Monopoly Fortnite I wonder what is next?

A HUD is a HUD

sure but the HUD from the F-35 is very specifically designed to work in an F-35. It's very similar, and comes from the same family, as the software running on other planes. But it's not identical.

And yes, performance limits would be hard coded into the software because the HUD needs to alert the pilot when they are getting close.

Edit: and that's ignoring the fact that a lot of this stuff comes from private companies so you'll run into things like IP/patent laws

You are correct.

Here's an annoying thing i just learned about H&R Block:

As of 2022, H&R Block's tax preparation service shares user data with Facebook, which can be used for targeted advertising. This can include sensitive financial information from health savings accounts and college expenses, and this tax data is shared without consent even for users who opt out of the service.

Perhaps i should have said hot, but seriously; more fun to not.

So you're saying he's really really ugly

For the F35 unfortunately a lot of its capabilities seems to be cloud based. (At least for maintenence, I don't know of on the air).

That's why I'm angry my stupid government still has wants to buy the stupid things instead of sitting this generation out and going to an own 6gen aircraft.

Do you have a source we can reference for that particular bit of shitbaggery?

Edit: congressional report on the shit bags in question:

https://www.classaction.org/media/hartz-v-taxact-inc-congressional-report.pdf

Unless it's maintained it won't be of much use. It needs to be kept up to date with tax laws, and it relies entirely on the IRS accepting the generated returns. It seems it may function for now, though.

Direct File interprets the United States' Internal Revenue Code (26 USC) as plain language questions, the answers to which should be known to taxpayers without need of external instructions or publications. Taxpayers' answers are then translated into standard tax forms and transmitted to the IRS's Modernized e-File (MeF) API, which is available for authorized public use

The GitHub page has a section for this:

Exempted Code

Not all source code, documentation and metadata used in the development of Direct File is included in this repository. Specifically, any code or data that is considered Personally Identifiable Information (PII), Federal Tax Information (FTI), Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU), or source code developed for National Security Systems (NSS), as defined in 40 U.S.C. § 11103, is exempt. Due to these restrictions, certain pieces of functionality have been removed or rewritten.