Tuesday Technology – Husband Father Son

Tuesday Technology: Here Comes iOS 10

In case you haven’t heard, Apple has put us on notice that another edition of the iOS software — 10 — will be coming at us this fall. ZDNet describes seven of the most significant changes here, but without a doubt the biggest change is coming to iPhone lock screens:

Lock screen widgets: We see a lot from Android present on iOS 10, but that’s not a bad thing. With iOS 9, the iPhone was unlocked so fast with the home button fingerprint sensor that you rarely even saw the lock screen. In iOS 10, you have to press down on the home button so will spend more time on the lock screen. Swipe in from the right to launch the camera and swipe in from the left to access your widgets. The widgets are very similar to what we see on Android Nougat, with some widgets offering even more information. You can customize the widgets that appear and if you add enough you may not even have to unlock your iPhone to get all the info you need.

Hmmm…do I like this? At this point, I’m not really sure.

If I’m understanding the update correctly, we’ll be able to see more things on the lock screen — i.e. more notifications — by simply accessing the lock screen. This seems like a good idea, but I thought the idea of a lock screen was to lock your phone. Other than work stuff that is always be under super-secret password security at the app level, I don’t have anything on my phone that would be inappropriate for other people to see. But that doesn’t mean I want other people — especially random people who could possibly pick up my phone — to see stuff. A couple of examples of this come to mind pretty quickly. A few years ago, a relative thought it would be a good idea to open my phone and take it for a test drive without asking me (I didn’t think this was such a good idea) and from time to time the kids will spy a text message between Sweet Wife and myself that they would have been better off having not seen. (Nothing gross, folks, just a text message or two sent when mom and dad weren’t in such a good mood with each other.)

To me, it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to open my phone with my finger and then open the app that needs attention. But then again, what do I know.

I am looking forward to the update, though. It’s always fun to check out what neat and new stuff has been added — even if I wind up never using most of it.

“Tuesday Technology” is a weekly series devoted to providing technology tips that help you figure out ways to do things or ways to do them better. You read through the entire series by clicking here.

Tuesday Technology: QuickBooks and Complex Passwords

If you’re a QuickBooks user that has automatic updates turned on, there’s a good chance you’ll encounter an unpleasant situation the next time your program updates.

What is this unpleasant situation, you ask? I’ll give you a two word hint: “Complex Passwords.”

Apparently, with the latest update, a security feature called “Sensitive Data Protection Setup” was added and with it, the requirement to set up a user name and password for every company you use in QuickBooks. On top of that, the password can’t be of the “123” or “abc” variety. Nope. It must be at least seven characters long and include at least one number and one uppercase letter. In other words, a complex password is required.

The interesting thing is that this is required. It is not an option. Once QuickBooks updates and you open a company, that company is then required to have a user set up and that user will have to have a complex password.

It’s always good to have your computer’s data protected and that, of course extends to your QuickBooks data. If your data is stored on a server, that server needs to be backed up and access to the server needs to be restricted. If your data is stored on a workstation, the same goes for the workstation. And up until now, protection your data was your problem. But this update changes things.

If you operate an accounting firm of any size that uses QuickBooks, you were just handed a tremendous password management problem. The same goes for the mom and pop company with one or two users. Now, those folks who probably aren’t computer and accounting gurus to begin, have been handed one more really important thing to remember.

At first glance, it looks like this may actually decrease the protection of many QuickBooks files because having to remember such a long and complex password will mean that in many cases, one password will be used for all of users and for all of the companies. Organizations that used user names and passwords most likely already had a workable system in place. This change is likely to force those who were not choosing to use the password feature into an uncomfortable spot.

So why would QuickBooks do this? I can think of a couple of reasons:

QuickBooks may think they are actually improving data security with this enhancement. (I guess this is theoretically possible.)
QuickBooks may have just goofed and maybe they really didn’t want this feature to work this way.
Or, perhaps they are forcing everyone who uses QuickBooks to become familiar with user names and complex passwords because they are working a plan to push the QuickBooks program and its data out to the cloud. And any data stored in the cloud will need a strong user name and password system.

Whatever the reason is, though, I don’t like it.

Tuesday Technology: Drafts 4

A couple of years ago, while surfing around technology sites looking tips and tricks to use at work, I kept reading references to some sort of an an app called “Drafts.” Mostly, Drafts would show up on lists of apps that folks just could not live without. I read up on the app for a while and then finally bit the bullet, payed a few dollars and downloaded it onto my iPhone and iPad. I’m really glad that I did.

Drafts, you see, is an app that is useful for anyone that uses text or types anything into their iPhone or iPad. That’s a pretty large category of folks, but it’s true. Using text or typing anything, includes such things as making lists, sending emails, sending texts, making appointments, and on and on and on. And if you do these things, Drafts can help you do it easier and better.

How does it do so? Here are the two main ways:

Drafts lets you type and store things (e.g. lists, thoughts, plans, etc.) and then save these things across your devices. You can type something into Drafts on your iPhone and, almost instantly, you’ll see the same note on another device.
Drafts lets you take the stuff you type (e.g. lists, thoughts, plans, etc.) and lets you automate what you do with this information. For example, I often email “to-dos” to myself. Drafts lets me capture the “to-do,” and then with one simple click, I can mail this “to-do” to myself.

Drafts also lets you connect with other apps, such as Evernote, Dropbox and Google Drive. So, accordingly, this lets you automate sending information to these apps.

If you want to learn more, visit the Drafts web site, or watch the video I’ve linked below.

Tuesday Technology: Printing Blues

Windows 10 has some nice features and a nice user interface, but it hasn’t always played nice with me. Last October, I accepted the free upgrade offered by Microsoft and used the system for several months without any major problems, but over the last few months, things started to get very s-l-o-w. Programs wouldn’t open, things would stick and stuff didn’t work right. Not cool.

So, after putting up with that for as long as I could, I bit the bullet, wiped my hard drive clean and installed Windows 10 from the ground up. For the most part, that cleared up most of the problems. Except for one big one: Windows 10 didn’t like my trusty HP Laser Jet P2055dn that has been my workhorse since 2009. For a while, Windows would throw up an error screen after every print job and I’d have to figure out a way to clear the error. That wasn’t horrible, though it wasn’t very productive to stop and close an error message after each press of the print button. But after a week or so of doing that, nothing. Nothing, as in every time I pressed the print button — no matter the program — nothing happened. I deleted and installed and yada, yada, yada, but nothing worked. Nothing that is, except for buying a new printer.

So, that’s what I did. I bought a Brother HLL5100DN off of Amazon for a cool $159. This young fella will whip out 42 pages per minute compared to the 33-35 of the HP 2055dn model — which is probably the most important statistic to know about a printer other than how much the toner cartridges cost. And speaking of toner cartridges, the high-yield Brother cartridge will spit out 8,000 pages for $106, while the 2055 will print 6,500 for $135. That’s not a bad deal.

All of this sounds good, I suppose, except for the part where I remind myself that I have a perfectly good HP 2055dn printer, that worked like a horse for seven years without a problem, that is now sitting in my office doing nothing while I use this fancy new printer. That’s not cool.

Tuesday Technology: Trello Tricks

Trello is a tool that helps you “manage your products and organize anything.” It says that right on their website, so it must be true, right?

Well, Trello really is a neat tool that I’ve started to use some and “Agile Scrum for Trello” is a neat extension for Chrome that helps it work even better. This tool adds things like progress bars, project labels and time tracking to your Trello experience.

It’s the right price – free – so you might was well try it out.

Tuesday Technology: Reinstalling Windows

This past week, I re-installed Windows on two different computers. I’m not talking about some sort of “reload” where things are patched and fixed. I’m talking about a burn-it-to-the-ground reformatting of the C drive Windows install. Out of those two projects, I picked up a couple of tips to share.

The re-formats and re-installs were necessary because both of these Windows 10 computers were running very “clunkily” and programs were constantly freezing. My office mate and I consulted with our “computer repair guy” and he thought the problem was likely caused — or made worse — by Windows 10. He recommended a reformatting the drives and rolling back to Windows 7, or re-installing Windows 10 without going through the upgrade process from Windows 7.

With all of that said, here are those tips:

Most all computer guys would rather re-format your hard drive and re-install Windows than find and fix your problem. First off, they are probably busy and finding a lot of our problems usually takes a lot of their time. And even if they find the problem, fixing it may also take a lot of time — and then that may not cure all of our problems. So, the easiest, and often the cheapest, thing to do is to re-format the hard drive and re-install Windows.
This is one more reason why you should always have a back up of your data, or store your data in the cloud. During these two projects, there was only one file — a Quicken backup file — that I had to make (and this is because the Quicken backup didn’t want to play nice with Dropbox). It’s too easy nowadays to back up data for us to leave data not backed up.
It’s always a good idea to keep a system re-boot CD handy. If you have no idea what this is, you probably haven’t had to use one, but if you have used a re-boot, you know this is important. This CD lets you start your computer without using the system files on your hard drive. Being able to boot this way is key for a re-install project or if you have to fix certain problems.
Don’t forget to have a copy of your drivers handy! If you buy a computer from a company like Dell, the computer will usually ship with a CD containing the drivers needed for your machine. Keep this CD! If you don’t have something like this, make sure your drivers are backed up to a CD or stick drive before you re-format your hard drive — because re-formatting your hard drive deletes your drivers!
Make a list of your applications (also known as programs for us old people) before you wipe out your computer and make sure you know how to re-install the programs once your system is re-installed.
Make sure you have access to the internet while you are in the midst of your re-format / re-install project. Basically, without Google access, I would have never completed these projects. All of my problems had previously been experienced by someone else and with internet access, I could find easy answers to my problems.
If you know a computer repair man, make sure you are on good terms with him before you start and keep his number handy. To be sure, he doesn’t want to spend two hours on the phone with you walking you through this. He’d rather do the project himself and get paid. But on the other hand, if you can do this project yourself, you are keeping your guy away from a nuisance. Keep in mind, though, that you may hit a brick wall and need help. If you do, try Google first an then give your guy a call.

This isn’t your typical list of “how to re-install Windows,” but these things are important to know if you do try this project for yourself. I hope they help.

Tuesday Technology: Tech Musings from a Busy Soul

Work for me is really busy right now (and also incredibly stressful). It’s been that way for most of 2016 and I think I may see the light at the end of the tunnel — or that could also be a train.

In these incredibly busy times, there are a few things that naturally happen:

The most important things get done. I suppose this is the old squeaky wheel gets the grease deal, but it still holds true. In these high intensity times, the things that must get done usually find a way to get done.
The things of lesser importance don’t get done. There are two ways two look at this. First, the things that aren’t getting done aren’t important. When viewed this way, it should make us think twice about how we build our to-do list in “normal” times. If the task really doesn’t need to get done, why is it even on the list? Second, there are lesser important things that really do need to get done. Some things can indeed be put off to a later date, but eventually failure to do these things will cause a problem. This sort of leads to the next observation.
The craving for planning time. When I’m really busy and things are very intense, sure a lot of necessary and important work gets done. Lesser things do fall away. But in these intense times, I know without a doubt, that my intense focus on one area is creating a lack of focus in other areas. Therefore, I always have this internal craving to take a step back and review the overall picture to see what needs to be addressed or re-addressed.
The subsequent lull. One would think that a super-intense time where lots of stuff gets done would create positive momentum and lots of stuff would get attacked after the crisis mode is over. One would think that, but the reality for me is different. The super-intense times are usually followed by a lull where nothing gets done. I’m not sure why this happens, but it does. Perhaps it is the mind’s way of keeping things leveled out.

Well, after thinking about this, “so what?” I think the “so what” is that studying what happens in the periods of being really busy (and the subsequent lull period) can help how one plans afterward. We can remember to build systems that will work (and that we can trust) even in periods of high-intensity. We can remember that certain things need to be overlooked and left off of the to-do list because they really aren’t important. And we can remember that our bodies do need a re-charge period and that’s not bad, but if we know this we can build it into our routines.

Tuesday Technology: Tech Rule #1

I’ve spent almost 26 years in the workplace, and for most of that — about 16 of those years — I’ve functioned basically as a self-employed-one-man-show**. Along the way, I’ve developed a certain mind set related to technology. Over the years I’ve experienced a lot of different changes — some good and some bad — and as time has gone by, I’ve developed some guidelines, or rules if you will, related to how to think about and handle “technology.” Since this is a blog and I’m looking for stuff to write, I thought I may as well share some of those rules.

Technology Rule #1

My first technology rule is:

Identify Your Specific Need

Get Specific

Sure, it may sound like Captain Obvious came up with this, but it’s still true. Technology is everywhere. There’s an app for this and an app for that. Most of this technology claims that it can make your job or life or whatever better and easier and more accurate. Well, that may be so, but if we’re not careful, we’ll overload ourselves with all of these apps and gadgets and in the process, we’ll render ourselves even more inefficient and ineffective than we were before all of the technology. We can gather so much technology around ourselves that we’re firing out in all different directions with no real focus.

That’s why I think identifying the specific need you are trying to address has to be Rule #1. Before you load up on technology, big or small, expensive or not, first isolate and identify the specific issue you need to address and then look for a specific solution to that specific need.

An Example

A good example of this came about 12 or 13 years ago. In the early part of the 2000s, I was preparing monthly financial statements for a group of companies located across the top half of Alabama.

At the end of the month, the various locations would close out their months, print a stack of reports about an inch or two thick, and then mail those reports to me so that I could prepare the monthly financials. I was too cheap to have the reports sent by overnight mail, so I would wind up waiting 2-5 business days after month end before receiving the reports. Obviously, my work couldn’t start until the reports were received. In the best case scenario, monthly financial statements wouldn’t be ready until 7-10 days following month end.

My specific need was to receive the reports earlier so that my work could begin sooner and my options were fairly limited. As I mentioned above, I had the option to have the reports sent by overnight mail, but this was expensive and added another hassle to the month-end close process.

What seemed to be the logical solution at the time was to buy some fairly expensive software that centralized report generation. In fact, there were multiple vendors that could provide this sort of solution. But a new software system wasn’t our real need. Our software was working. What we needed was to be able to share information quicker.

What did we do? Well, we hunted around for solutions until we discovered the ability to print our reports to PDF files. Then, once printed as PDF files, the reports could be emailed to me. Once we found the right piece of technology, I was receiving the reports in a matter of moments instead of days. Our reports were being received quicker, plus over the years we’ve saved a ton of postage.

Most folks are pretty comfortable with PDF files nowadays, but it wasn’t all that long ago that we weren’t. Now, you can generate PDF files from all sorts of applications, but in the early 2000s, we discovered that the PDF printer drivers (which allow print output to be saved as PDF files) were installed when a certain Adobe photo editing product was installed.

Voila! Problem solved.

Applying the Rule

Sure, it all sounds easy now, but back in the day this took quite a while to figure out. I knew what my need was, though, so I kept asking questions and searching until an answer was found. Along the way, there appeared to be some solutions, but at their core, they really didn’t address our need.

There are a lot of similar scenarios today. There’s a lot of technology around to seemingly address a lot of different problems. But before you jump in, make sure you’ve have specifically identified your need and make sure your solution does in fact meet that need.

** I’m not self-employed, but I work in an environment that resembles a one-man show. Hence, most of the technology I’ve used along the way either has a direct positive or negative benefit on me.

Tuesday Technology: YouTube

You may have heard of this web site called YouTube. Around since 2005, this site hosts jillions of videos and is famous for sucking people in and wasting their time. But did you know that this most popular of web sites could also help you get back some of that time?

That’s right, instead of watching cat videos, you can also use YouTube as your technology consultant. If you have a problem, need to know how to do something or just want to do something better, there’s a great chance an instructional video related to your issue is just sitting there in cyberspace waiting for you to watch it.

Want to know how to format rows and columns in Excel? Boom. Done.

Want to know how to backup and restore a QuickBooks company file? Zap. Finished.

Want to know how to set up a free WordPress blog? Yep. It’s there.

When we have a problem, especially one technology-related, we tend to freak out, spin around and act like we don’t know which way to turn. But really we do. It’s right there in our browser. Head on over to YouTube and figure out how to solve your problem.

Technology Tuesday: Slack

While cruising through the Wall Street Journal on my iPad recently, I saw this article about Slack. Slack, in case you’ve missed it, is the next big thing. Or at least one of the next big things.

So, being someone who is supposed to stay on top of the next big things for my job, in case the next big thing really is a big thing, I went to Slack and created an account and promptly installed the related app on my iPhone and iPad.

What is this thing called Slack? Well, it bills itself as “team communication for the 21st century.” In reality, this means that all of your teams communications can be handled internally through this service. Emails, texts, instant messages – however you are communicating, it can be handled through slack. As we all know, though, there are ancillary things that happen when we communicate. We need to send data back and forth, we need due dates, and on and on and on. Slack also has the ability to handle these things as well and has the ability to integrate with certain other apps and services that you may use such as Asana and Google Drive.

But after about a month of using Slack, I came away very underwhelmed. In a nutshell, here are a couple of things I didn’t like:

The produce seemed way too complicated for the average person using a computer at work. If I had to ask some of my co-workers to start using commands like “/” to bring up functions they could use, they would for sure kill me.
It seemed fairly all-or-nothing related to sharing things with others. For example, I don’t want to share a whole calendar with a group of people, but that was the only option because certain functions weren’t available to “private” channels (channels not shared with other folks).
I need lists and more lists of things I’m supposed to be doing or thinking about doing. That’s just not what Slack is designed to do. However, if I’m going to invest so much of how I communicate into one resource, it needs to be able to do more.

All-in-all I give the product a thumbs down. I just don’t get it. Perhaps if my organization was bigger I would get it, but it isn’t and I don’t.