Blast from the Past: Bleeding Edge Column from 1994

[Editor's Note: Dave McClure has been a columnist for us since 1994, and in that time he has chronicled and even predicted many of the technology trends in both the tax and accounting profession, and broader society. The below is the first column he wrote for us, which appeared in May 1994.]

The Bleeding Edge

We were barely out of the summer heatwave when Win95 hit, bringing a whole new round of upgrades for software. Despite the grousing by some software companies, the whole Win95 introduction has been a bonanza for software publishers hoping to take consumers on a 32-bit ride.

Does 32-bit operation really make a difference? For most accounting and tax office, the answer is an unqualified “mebbe.” Most of the applications coming out now are only slightly better that the ones you have now, and it might make sense to wait until next year to upgrade. After all, you aren’t going to see a huge performance boost out of most of this stuff, and the old apps will run just fine.

There are exceptions.

Windows95 itself is a first-rate upgrade, worth every penny of the upgrade cost for its new features. The best news is that – despite the moanings of some consultants looking for cheap press – the system is pretty easy to learn. Two hours should be plenty of time for the average user.

And trust Symantec to jump in with new utilities. The Norton Utilities, Norton AntiVirus and Norton Navigator for Windows 95 are low-cost, must-have add-ons for the new system. Norton AntiVirus finally achieves what users are really looking for – a protection program that sits quietly in the background, unobtrusive and without hogging precious resources. The only time you’ll hear from it is when a problem occurs.

In addition to the normal Norton Utilities stuff for rescuing lost files and disks, the new Utilities has two killer features. The first is a Space Wizard that can be called up when drive space gets tight. It automatically scans the drive, recommending files that can be removed. Fast and very slick. The second is System Doctor, a monitor that sits in Win95’s toolbar to show critical system information such as memory usage, CPU utilization and fragmentation of the disk drive.

And the Norton Navigator is the stepchild of the Norton Desktop for Windows and Norton Commander – a super-enhanced replacement for the Windows Explorer with a whole host of new features.

All three are available in retail stores or from Symantec. Best prices are through mail order, as usual.

New and Improved

You hear a lot of talk about Corporate Re-Engineering and Re-Invention. Before you put it all down to another set of business buzzwords, take a hard look at software vendor Quarterdeck.

In the Eighties, Quarterdeck set the standards for DOS Multitasking with Desqview, and for memory management with QEMM. But advances in operating systems literally wiped out both markets. Rather than whine to the Gods and Department of Justice about the unfairness of it all, Quarterdeck quietly set out to reinvent itself as the premiere developer of Internet tools.

Their first two products, a WinWord add-in for Web Page development and an integrated suite of Internet tools, are stunning.

Quarterdeck’s Internet Suite ($70 from Quarterdeck, 800-354-3222) is hand-down the easiest of all of the current browsers to use. And it automatically calls up the right tool for each job, switching to Telnet to call a BBS, or to the Newsgroups for entertaining messages.

The best feature in my book is the ability to create your own Internet mailing lists. With only a little work, you can send a message easily to everyone in your address book, to every member of Congress, or to any other list you choose. For those who have clients with e-mail addresses, it’s a great way to send tax reminders, memos and newsletters.

Good products from a good company. Strongly recommend you try them.

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