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Blog: Which Browser is the Safest?
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Tuesday June 18, 2013From the Bleeding Edge blog . If you are still relying on a firewall and anti-virus programs to protect your computer from malware and other problems, your security is about 10 years behind the bad guys. Today, the battlefield is no longer email (though there are still lower-level bad guys pushing their phishing schemes, spam and infectious viruses through emails). The real threat is through your browser, and in particular the add-ons that you use to enhance your browsing experience. If you are looking for the browser that does the best job of keeping you safe, though, you may be shocked. One of the leading culprits today, when it comes to making your computer vulnerable, is the suite of Java scripting add-ons from Oracle. Java is... -
The Rise of Practice Management
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Thursday June 13, 2013From the Bleeding Edge blog If there were ever a Hall of Fame for accounting software executives, I would not be inducted. That honor will be reserved for guys like Scott Cook of Intuit, Clyde Drake, René Lacerte and executives of a dozen other software companies.[Editor's note: CPA Practice Advisor has a Tax & Accounting Hall of Fame for practitioners and thoughtleaders affecting the profession.] But I can tell you that I have been in this business for a very long time, and seen the shifts of time, development and trends among CPA firms and their software vendors. Which is why I can tell you that the growing emphasis on practice management is a big thing. Back when people started using the term, it seemed like just another... -
Hard Times For The GPS Market
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Friday June 7, 2013
From the Bleeding Edge blog . These are not easy times for the commercial GPS marketplace. That may seem peculiar to those who have grown up with these devices. In just a little over a decade GPS receivers have become standard equipment in telephones and automobiles, and GPS inventor Bradford Parkinson predicts that they will soon be used to navigate driverless cars. Consumer Reports has released its latest list of the best GPS units. Nonetheless, the market for these and other stand-alone GPS navigation devices is slowly eroding, due to three factors: GPS devices built into the dashes of automobiles, and even more so the GPS systems offered in smartphones is eliminating the need to buy a dedicated device. This leaves... -
How Distributed Scanning Helps Streamline Accounting Workflow
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Tuesday June 4, 2013From the Bleeding Edge blog : I’ve been doing a lot of work writing and consulting on the topics of document management and workflow, and had seriously written off the hardware side of those critical accounting functions. After all, what more could be said about buying printers and scanners. Mike O’Leary at Ambir Technologies changed my mind. Ambir makes scanners and software for document management and workflow, and he took strong exception to the idea that you simply buy a big, auto-feed scanner and put it somewhere in the office. Instead, he presented a concept of distributed scanning by accounting professionals that made strong economic sense. To be fair, Fujitsu , arguably the leader in the scanner market for... -
IRS Admits Targeting Conservative Groups Before 2012 Election
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Friday May 10, 2013From the Bleeding Edge blog. In an awkward and unprecedented announcement this week, the Internal Revenue Service admitted that it targeted non-profits with “Tea Party” and “Patriot” in their names during the 2012 election year. The agency admitted they held up non-profit status for these groups, demanded lists of contributors to those organizations, and sought additional information about the groups. Mysteriously, no one in charge of anything at the IRS, the Treasury Department or the Administration will admit to have known anything about this. The abuse of IRS authority to target conservative groups, the agency insists, appears to have been done by career IRS employees with no political motivation at all. "That was...
