Blog Archives
-
The SOPA Opera and You
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Monday January 16, 2012As of today, the controversies over the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House of Representatives, and PIPA, the companion bill in the Senate, are on hold. The White House, the tech industry and just about everyone else have taken a hard stance against passage of these bills. Everyone, that is, except the music and film industries in America, and their paid Congressional friends. The chief sponsor of SOPA, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), has even run in to major opposition to the bill among his constitutents in Texas. But he is determined to run the entertainment industry playbook in an effort to get these dreadful bills passed. There are two ways you can look at this. It is either (1) A critical issue about freedom on the Internet... -
The 10-Step Tech Checklist
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Tuesday January 10, 2012don’t want to grinch on your holiday spirit, but the sad fact is that Tax Season kicks up in less than three weeks. And chances are very good that you are not prepared. So as you are bouncing around trying to figure out what to do with yourself this week (assuming you are not on a real vacation!), here’s a quick tech checklist to prepare for the coming season: 1. Check all of the printer cartridges and replace any that are low. Most modern printers have an online function you can use for that purpose. Also, check to make sure that you have a local source for low-cost cartridges, either new or re-filled, that has the cartridges you need in stock. If there is none (with a tip of the hat to our small-town firms!), keep... -
"Please Change Your Password…"
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Tuesday January 10, 2012There are few messages from the IT department that I dislike more than the monthly reminder to change my network password. Frankly, I would rather slam my hand in a car door ten or twelve times. It’s not that I don’t understand network security, or don’t want to keep my data secure. It’s just that there is no human way to juggle the thousands of unique, 8-character or greater passwords with capital letters, lowercase letters, numbers and at least one “unique” characters that today’s security systems demand. I can’t remember them, and neither can you. You want to know the easiest way to hack into a corporate network? Just look at the edge of the monitor or in the center desk drawer of most network users... -
A Note For The Holidays
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Tuesday January 10, 2012You have to take a break. Even those of us who labor each day, reviewing software, hardware and industry news to help keep you informed, must at some point pay homage to the impending holidays. Regardless of your religious belief, it will be a time of reflection, of gathering with family and friends, and of preparation for the year and tax season ahead. So it is that in December of each year I share something personal that might be of value to you and yours as you take a break from the rigors of accounting. In this case, as it has been from time to time in previous years, I will share my super-secret old family recipe for eggnog. This is not a recipe to be taken lightly. While no one knows for sure where the concept and... -
Ghost In The Machine
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Tuesday January 10, 2012We’ve already chronicled on these pages how the proliferation of printers is a bad idea for accounting firms from both the standpoints of effective management and cost. To these we can now add a third problem — the ability of hackers to use printers to successfully invade your network. It is especially a problem for those CPA firms that hang on to hardware for year after year. Or, in this case, more than a couple of years. Researchers at Columbia University have found that printers connected to the Internet could be used to steal data, access secure networks and even cause a fire through deliberate overheating. And if you think your printer is not connected to the Internet, check the “Remote Firmware Update” feature... -
Why The Flat Tax Won't Happen
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Monday October 24, 2011The news is once again filled with speculation about converting America's tax system to a form of flat tax. Whether it is Herman Cain's 9-9-9 proposal, Rick Perry's flatter tax, or Newt Gingrich's "optional" flat tax, it is a concept that captures the imagination and fuels the idea that we can have a better, simpler, more fair system of taxation than we have today. But as much as I love the concept, I think we have to file it away with those other warm and fuzzy but ultimately unworkable ideas like world peace or men and women being able to share a bathroom. The flat tax has four things working against it. 1) The Cynical View: In order to have a flat tax, Congress would have to vote to eliminate most or all of the deductions... -
Caution in the Cloud
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Wednesday September 14, 2011Over the past several months, I’ve had the chance to assess the issue of computing “in the cloud,” both in terms of the benefits and the drawbacks. So far, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. But this is a very fluid situation that will require some strong due diligence and more than a little caution. Cloud computing is the idea that we can “rent” space on servers that exists in someone else’s server farm as we need it. Though vaguely similar to the old client/server model of computing that ruled until the advent of the personal computer, the Cloud model of computing allows you to keep both power and storage on your office PCs and servers, but to use the inherent advantages of shared resources to keep your IT costs under... -
Measuring Broadband Speed
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Thursday September 1, 2011By all accounts, broadband speeds have leapfrogged forward in the US over the past year. A study by content delivery network Akamai concludes that average broadband speeds in the U.S. jumped from 7.12 mbps at the end of 2009 to 9.54 mbps at the end of last year. The study also suggests that the majority of broadband consumers are satisfied with their connection rates. Market research firm In-Stat did the research, noting that the average downlink speed for broadband subscribers is 9.54 Mbps, up from the 2009 average 7.12 Mbps, which was itself up from 2008 average of 3.8 Mbps. The price of fixed broadband, by comparison, rose by only 4% among the 518 households surveyed. None of which will give you much comfort as you sit fuming at your... -
What About Tablets Now?
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Thursday August 25, 2011The sudden death of the HP Touchpad tablet sparked a firestorm this week that only got worse when the company dropped the price to only $99 and sold off nearly all of the rest of its inventory. Granted, the Touchpad was at best a lackluster me-too product in a field that has now become saturated. Reviewers found it bloated, slow, and lacking in any breakthrough features that would differentiate it from the glut of tablets running everything from iOS to Android to Blackberry's new QNX operating system. But the sudden withdrawal of a tablet by a major manufacturer has suddenly called into question the whole viability of tablets as a business device. Suddenly, it may be that the emperor is not wearing any clothes. Granted, tablets... -
Not Quite A Great Tax Season
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Thursday June 16, 2011It is not often that I disagree with the esteemed Darren Root. He is, after all, the Executive Editor here. And in truth I can't much disagree with the premise of his post, in that CCH had a banner year this tax season. They were not alone.Most of the tax prep providers had a good year, due in large measure to the stronger use of electronic filing. From the perspective of the Internal Revenue Service, this may count as one of the most successful tax seasons. Electronic filing was up by some 12.2 percent, total receipts increase 1.3 percent over 2010, and the number of individuals who used direct deposit to receive their refund was up by 5.9 percent.In fact, the IRS had virtually nothing negative to say about the tax season that...
