Arranged Delirium

I’ve been meaning to write about my Apple Tablet Device (ATD) for some time now, and just haven’t had time to get to it. There’s been no shortage of coverage for it however, and you can find way too much written about it already: either praising it as passed down from the right hand of God, or reviled as an incomplete tool for which there is no real use. I still hold to my original premise. This is a great tool for folks who simply want easy-to-use technology. That audience isn’t necessarily the Technorati - although some of them may use one.

For my part, I’ve been surprised that I have liked it as much as I have. I’ve found it eminently useful. I can’t do any real development work on it - but then again, that isn’t the majority of my time on a computer anymore. I’ll always need a desktop machine for my development work; but my laptop has increasingly become the tool for my professional work which consists largely of email, web work, word processing, along with the occasional spreadsheet thrown in. This little machine handles all of that. I’ve found it particularly useful for the activities that you can tend to when you find yourself with 10 minutes to spare and want to get something done.

I should emphasize that this works for me because I rarely use a cell phone (unlike most people). So, I don’t see this replacing a phone, but replacing my laptop. I will also avoid the hyperbole of stating that this device will kill the Netbook - because that simply isn’t true - but this device will play a significant role in shaping the future of computing where our daily devices will look a lot more like this and desktop or tower machines will become increasingly rare.

In any event, here is a brief list of a few articles that I’ve found interesting over the past few months. You can check them out if you are interested, but take note of the dates - some are going to be less valuable through time:

Ann Kirschner shares her impressions through an article in the Chronicle
Omar Wasow explains The Techies Are Wrong about the iPad
Jean-Louis Gassée has been around a long time, and gives a reasoned review here

...and there are hundreds more. Articles regarding the features and specs, opinion around the usefulness of the device, and invective concerning how this changes everything - we’ve heard it all before. But you should go see this device and play with it a little bit. With the other tablet machines that will soon hit (or are already on) the market, it’s clear that this is the next big thing to figure out hardware-wise.

Now that school is over, I’m embarking on my annual quest to find something other than Quicken for managing my finances. Quicken for Macintosh has been notoriously ignored for years, and even there new offering is so limited on features that it’s unusable for anything other than simple tasks - and all the other available applications can do the same simple things for much less money.

At one point, I got so desperate, I actually purchased a copy of Quicken Essentials to see if it would work as a quick solution - even without the features I was looking for. It crashed repeatedly. My machine has only crashed twice in three years - I couldn’t even get Quicken to run on it. I got a refund - Intuit’s software (for Macs) simply isn’t worth buying.

So, what I am looking for is a software application that will let my track expenditures, manage loans, run reports, construct and maintain a budget, handle all my accounts with direct online connections (I don’t want to deal with paper receipts), and also let me track my minimal portfolio (including buys and sells). In the end, there were several possibilities and I’ll cover them here in brief detail:

MoneyWell - This application is quite good and I thought we had a winner right out of the gate! But, unfortunately it doesn’t have all the field needed to track my investments; although that is planned for the next version. Sadness. Thats a deal-breaker for me; but if I wasn’t keeping track of a portfolio, this would be my pick.

OK, I’ve decided I can live w/o portfolio tracking, since I do that online anyway. But, MoneyWell doesn’t handle my loans very effectively (by not calculating ongoing interest/principal, etc.) so it’s a no go.

Money - This is a nice collection of apps (also having iPhone and iPad versions). Truthfully, it works very well, although with some interface and terminology quirks. Reading the quick-start guide addressed all these. The biggest problem for me was also importing investment transactions within the app - I don’t want to have to go through the extra step of logging into a web site and downloading, then importing, a statement.

I really want to work with this because of the convenience of syncing with my tablet or iPod, but I really need direct downloads of bank data.

YNAB - Stands for You Need a Budget. It looks very promising, and seems to handle basic account structures well.

This app requires the Adobe Air platform to run. I’m not going there. I appreciate the capabilities that certain tools (like MS Silverlight and Adobe Air) provide for running apps over the Internet. But, please - I want a program to work with my finances on my own computer.

MyMoney - It’s a fine piece of software. And truthfully, it seems to do everything that I want it to do. However, the interface is problematic for me. I can do everything I want to do with the software, but not easily or quickly. I had to hunt too much to find how to perform common actions. This is natural with new software, but this program would force me to invest too much time in getting setup, and too much recurrent time in maintaining my finances.

I tried it again, but I just can’t get by the interface. This is likely my issue though - so I think it’s worth giving it a try if you are looking for something new.

Moneydance - this application has been updated since I tested it last with notable performance improvements. It does everything that I need it to do. There’s not a lot of eye-candy here, but then again there isn’t any in Quicken 2007 either. For $39 it seems to do all that Quicken does, more reliably and with regular updates. I’ll be working with this one for a bit…

iBank - This seems to be the favorite among most Mac users. It syncs with your iPhone, which is handy. I also like the ease of scheduling transactions, even if the interface leaves a bit to be desired. It’s a tie with Moneydance in terms of features and ease of use. Both require some learning, but neither would be huge time-sinks.

My recommendations come down to Moneydance and iBank. Your final choice would likely be a matter of personal preference - iBank is more Mac-like, and Moneydance has a more traditional feel. If you have a simpler financial life and can live without the investment-tracking, I think MoneyWell might be the way to go though. (BTW, this list isn’t exhaustive - there are other options, particularly at the low-end of functionality - but these we’re the most full-featured in my research.)

We have a winner! I’m going with Moneydance. A full-featured demo let me get everything set up and, with the exception of some challenging investment tracking, it does everything I want to do. I also appreciated the ability to customize the home screen to make it quite easy to get the immediate information I need. Nice. It’s also only $39, and well worth paying for. The documentation is excruciatingly basic, but the forums are well monitored and you can find the information you need to get set up right there.

...or a Dork, depending upon how you view things. Thanks to The Other Dr. Fee for sending this along. Do you think she’s trying to tell me something?

A few weeks ago, I presented on web development at the AIIP conference. I had presented there before, and I’ve always found it to be a really friendly group, and this year was no exception. After the conference I received several emails (and I apologize for my slow reply - it’s the end of the academic year!) with some really thoughtful comments and very considerate commentary. The event was very useful, because it has solidified my intent to write a text for web development courses. Currently, I need to employ several different texts in my intro course, and I’m convinced now that that can be done comprehensively in one title (sans technical reference).

One of the features I’ve been most looking forward to in Photoshop CS5 is the Content-Aware Fill ability. Some of the most time-consuming work that I tend to do comes from efforts to perfect selection addition, deletions, or blends. This new feature should make life much easier. EL sent along a link to a you tube video demonstrating the effects, so with many thanks, I’m including it here: