CPA Technology Blog

Mossberg Recommends Macs for Home Users

The Wall Street Journal's weekly Walt Mossberg column (subscription required unless you go through http://ptech.wsj.com) comes out recommending Macs for home users.  While many of us think Walt may have drank a little too much Cupertino Kool-Aid (visual: imagine Steve Jobs dressed as the Kool-Aid pitcher from the ads), it's certainly interesting to see this.  He also discusses the limited availability of Windows XP on OEM PC's, as well as his frustrations trying to work with hardware in Windows Vista.

While Mossberg is certainly entitled to his opinion, I think the dearth of software targeted at the Accounting vertical market makes it a fundamentally bad idea to switch to Macs for a small CPA firm.  Although people like Thomson and CCH are both offering hosted versions of their CPA Firm Apps (in which case you would really be hosting your apps in the "cloud"), I still think there's enough out there on a PC which you need in a small firm that you're not going to be able to run on a Mac.  (disclosure: The last Apple product I have owned (besides my iPod)is an Apple ][+, with a scalding 1 Mhz 6502 processor, and a tricked out 64K ot RAM.  If anybody is interested in purchasing it, please e-mail me - I think I still have it somewhere.)  All bets are obviously off if you're a Big-4 firm, and can have your core apps written for you, but generally, the apps for vertical industries just aren't there.

Mossberg also discusses the Mac's ability to run Windows (since they're both based on Intel processors), but despite the buzz from the chattering creative classes, and their ad campaign which says , "You're a nerd if you have a PC", some things have not historically run well on Mac hardware.  For example, when Apple first came out with Boot Camp, their application that lets you reboot a Mac using the Windows XP operating system, there was no way to press Ctrl-Alt-Delete.  If you use a PC at home, this probably wasn't a big deal, but if you have a Windows computer at work, that's a pretty big problem, since most system admins require you to press Ctrl-Alt-Del before you log into your network.  Oops.  My Mac enabled friends seem to mutter about other similar issues in hushed tones, and stop talking about the things they don't like altogether when they don't like things.

Many of us in the IT community see the coming wave as applications hosted by third parties and running on the internet.  Microsoft has seized on this with SharePoint 2007 (and the hosted version for SMB called OfficeLive) and its ability to assist business users with sharing information amoung disbursed teams.  Google's new office competitor which runs in a browser offers a first edition view of what browser-based computing could look like (although it certainly has a long way to go before it becomes as elegant as Office 2007).  With internet connectivity becoming more reliable, faster, and staying relatively cheap, these types of services may be the long-term future of computing.  Basically, you would have a box that prints things and runs a browser that looks and acts a lot like today's PC, except you would never install anything on it.  [Think of this as the modern version of a green-screen VT100 terminal from the old mainframe computing days.]

With all of this said, I'm probably going to purchase a Mac in the fairly near future so I can speak intelligently about the operating system and applications on the platform.  While it's not going to be ready for prime-time CPA firm work for a while, they certainly do make a pretty piece of hardware, don't they?  Besides, with six windows PC's in my home (just the ones that are mine), I'm approaching the point where I need to add a Mac so my computer inventory looks like what America is buying..... or something like that.

Happy Birthday, Cougar Mountain

Cougar Mountain software announced today that they are celebrating their 25th anniversary in business.  In an industry which realistically hasn't been around very long (my parents business in the 1980's was run on manual books and VisiCalc spreadsheets), that's quite an achievement.

Happy birthday, guys!

Backups for Everyone....

4 GB USB drive = $29.95 after rebates

Add TrueCrypt (from www.truecrypt.org) for encryption.

Use MS's Sync utility for free....

If you're too cheap to buy a USB... you're just too cheap. 

Bonus:  If you have Windows Vista, you can use a USB as a ReadyBoost device, which uses the USB memory to speed up your PC.

Gadget Review - April 2007

In light of the revelations that my former Senator, Al Gore, has a $5K electric bill each month, I’m doing my part to reduce our use of coal-fired power plants with a new power gadget,  Solio. Solio is one of those batteries you can plug your cell phone, PDA, iPod into using a USB connector – but this one charges with either AC or Solar power through the attached solar cells.  (the battery keeps a nice charge too)  Plus, it was on closeout at Staples for $15 in Seattle (guess they don’t have sunlight out there). (http://www.solio.com/v2/) $100 retail – which isn’t too bad when you consider that it will work if you have light and your car and cell are dead.  Zero-carbon cell phone charging - take that, Al Gore!  (BTW, many of you know that my father owned a coal mining company in the 1980’s.  A friend recently asked me how I felt about my father’s "rape of the earth" in pursuit of windfall coal profits – and I immediately reminded him that the relationship was consensual, as the Company paid severance tax to the government for all of the stuff they took out.)

Another thing I’ve picked up lately is a Linksys Draft N router with a built in connector for USB HDD’s.  While it took a while to get the router to work and play well with the legacy 802.11g and 802.11b gear at my house (and longer to get the firewall to open and close at the right times), it’s very cool.  You can run your own FTP server off of it – and the router turns the USB drive into a network share using SMB (which works great with NT).  Model is Linksys WRT350N, and it’s about $179.  The firmware on this one is closer to a commercial router, so I’d clearly put it in the class between home grade equipment and commercial firewalls.  It doesn’t offer the VPN connectivity, but since I’ve got the WebEx stuff through QuickBooks, I’m OK. 

I was having problems with my AMD Turion laptop overheating (I know – join the club), and I found a great solution.  Targus makes a notebook fan that pushes lots of air against the bottom of the case – I know – you’re saying Ho-Hum – that’s so ‘90s. Well, this one has four built-in powered USB ports, so I can plug all of my crap into the notebook fan, and leave it in my office like a docking station.  It’s also about ¾” thick, so it goes in the bag OK as well.  Targus AWE01US, $50 at Fry’s.

I just switched to a Novatel U720 USB EV-DO adapter for Sprint.  This one is USB 2.0, and works with the new Rev. A standard, which gets me killer upload and download speed. The thing that makes this great is that you can use it as a NMEA GPS. While it doesn’t update as frequently as the normal USB GPS devices you can hook to your PC, you can still use it for navigation.  The bad news is that it uses so much power that you have to plug it into two USB ports. $100 on sale, w/ a $50 rebate from Sprint and a two year service agreement.  The GPS app is not documented in the manual, so you have to go looking for it – the app is called GPSModule.exe, and it’s in c:\program files\Novatel Wireless\Sprint\Sprint PCS Connection Manager\ (not like I had to look for it or anything).  This app has a button you can push to disable data and enable GPS.  Once you switch to GPS mode, it assigns a COM port to the GPS, and you can hook your mapping app to that port for the GPS feed. While this is a little too technical for my Mom to do every time she needs the GPS (com ports, buried apps, NMEA feeds, etc.), it works fine for me.  The other cool thing is that the app lets you send your location to Google Maps or MSN Maps and will show you where you are if you don’t have a map app on your PC. 

Windows Vista – Coolest features yet (ran the beta for a long time, and have been running it production since 2/1):

• Windows-Tab – like alt-tab, but with the new 3D window view – hit multiple times, and it scrolls through the windows.
•  Backup using the built-in app is SUPER fast and can be done while you’re doing other things.  I backed up this new PC (Val’s Flaming Laptop) onto a 120GB USB HDD in about 30 minutes.  Very, very cool – and fast.
•  Windows Search – Click on the logo, and then type something in the search pane at the bottom of the Start menu, but don’t hit enter.  Almost instantly, your references come up.
•  Gadgets (!) The Mac people may be cooler and have had them first, but  I’ve got my own stuff here, and I’m happy.
•  Core Duo processor and MS VPC 2007 rocks.  I worked on some graphics in a VPC session (I learned MS Image Composer back with FrontPage 2000, and still like to use it instead of Photoshop) with no noticeable lag – and the live PC and the VM were both running AVG antivirus, so nobody was practicing risky behavior here.

 
I do have some disappointments, however:

•  The anti-phishing stuff in IE7 always comes up that my router, the K2 Sharepoint site, and just about everywhere else doesn’t have a valid SSL certificate.  Could this be more annoying?  I think not.
•  Bitlocker’s configuration has eluded me.  I’m probably going to have to flatten another drive in my quest to master this compelling technology.  What the heck – I don’t need to see my family anyway.
• I hate the plethora of apps which shade everything out and make me either approve or disapprove an action.  While it’s better security, it’s also a pain in the back side.

Many apps, including Lacerte, ProSystem fx, and Adobe Acrobat are still not certifying that they run well under Vista.  I keep getting messages from Acrobat 8 Pro that I need to register even though I’ve done it already.  I’ve read of issues with Peachtree and Quickbooks (all except 2007), and have seen some issues with the anti-phishing filter and other identity theft prevention items in IE7+.  Finally, my Windows front ends for GPG aren’t available yet (and no version of PGP is compatible with Vista as of yet), so I’m hating it there.  I’ll probably have to set up a VM with my GPG settings on it to decrypt faxes – but hopefully, someone will come out with something that will work soon.

An interesting thing about the new laptop (HP Compaq nc6400 – smokin’!) is that it uses a new HP power adapter which is generally in short supply.  I traveled to Seattle without my power adapter, and could not find a universal to fit it in CompUSA, Fry’s, Office Depot, Office Max, Best Buy, and Staples (shot an afternoon on this).  The Kensington adapters (new style) don’t have a compatible tip, and the iGo is backordered (tip 24 or S24 depending on your model of power supply).  The Monster, some Targus, and the iGo all use the same tips, so check them out at iGo.com.  Radio Shack doesn’t stock the tip, and can’t order it right now – so if you get a new HP notebook, check out the power supply and get a backup plan for the road.