Category Archives: Software

Annals of Software Obsolescence: Intuit is Evil (Quicken Dept.)

Posted on May 29, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

I've been a somewhat satisfied user of Intuit's Quicken home accounting software for many, many years. Quicken has a very deserved reputation for lousy technical support, but the online users' groups are terrific. I used to upgrade every other year or so, but stalled at Quicken 2000. Or rather, I 'upgraded' to Quicken 2003, hated the way it locked up and garbled my display, uninstalled it and went back to Quicken 2000.

Among the very most useful features of Quicken is that I can download my checking account and credit card statements and reconcile them quickly. A bonus feature was that I could do the same with mutual fund prices, whether or not I actually owned them. Or rather, make that, I used to be able to do these things.

Some time in the past few days, Quicken quietly decided to pull the plug on what it calls online services for older versions of Quicken. (I had no warning of this and only found the web page today when things had been going wrong for several days.) The result of this is not only that I can't download mutual fund (or stock) prices, but also that I can no longer get information from my bank in a useful format.

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Posted in Software | 4 Comments

What Belongs on the Faculty Desktop?

Posted on April 26, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

My colleagues at UM Law endure a hyper-centralized information technology regime. Unless they raise a great ruckus, faculty members here get issued a Windows XP computer in “lockdown” mode, which prevents the installation of new programs on the desktop. (I raised a ruckus.) What's worse, the suite of programs offered to faculty has actually shrunk in the last few years, as the IT dept discovered that if you hand out fewer programs, they are easier to support.

The faculty has finally rebelled, although the actual flashpoint was lousy network performance and downtime. As part of an effort designed to head off what might otherwise become a pitchfork-wielding mob, the administration has asked for suggestions as to what programs should be part of the default faculty suite. Of course, since most of us haven't much experience with other office environments recently, we're not that well placed to know what's out there or what we might find enhances our productivity or makes new things possible or even easy..

I've made my own little list, but I'm sure it's deficient in imagination if not necessarily length. Suggestions needed and welcome. Please assume that the desktop will be a PC with XP as the OS—I think the odds of getting anything else on the faculty desktop in this iteration are about zero. And the network itself will probably stay Novell. You'll see from my list, though, that I have assumed the existence of a *nix internet server as we currently have one, even if it's not that well maintained.

So, what should be on my list?

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Posted in Software, U.Miami | 9 Comments

Would You Like Some Politics With that SQL?

Posted on April 23, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Here's an interesting controversy. In I Don't Like Your Examples! Steven Feuerstein explains why he used controversial political examples in a technical O'Reilly book on Oracle PL/SQL Programming and shares some reader reaction.

Obviously there's no legal issue here: in a free country an author can be political even in a technical reference book. And, equally obviously, political examples pose a commercial issue for a publisher: will a reference/instruction book with 'interesting' examples sell better because the reader stays awake (or because people buy it for the notoriety), or sell worse because those who find the examples distasteful will avoid it? (There's also a question of editorial principle—how much freedom should authors be entitled to have? It's not obvious to me that the answer is the same for technical books in a series as for a novelist or a polemicist, although in the hands of an enlightened and brave publisher it might be. I wonder what Theresa Nielsen Hayden thinks about this…)

But there's also a moral, or at least aesthetic, issue as to whether it's meet to introduce suggestions that Henery Kissinger is a war criminal for bombing Cambodia, CEOs are paid too much, or the gun lobby is too strong. And that's the question which really interests me. In his article Mr. Feuerstein quotes feedback from readers, or might-have-been readers, who think inserting politics into programming examples is at least icky, maybe gross.

Having thought hard about it for several seconds, it turns out that on this last question I have no doubt at all: it is proper, even admirable, to witness one's strongly held beliefs about the society we share in any book you write, and in most (but not all1) daily activities, especially in circumstances where your listener/reader is able to walk away or put down the tome. If this hurts your sales, that's your problem. In general though, I prefer my fellow citizens to be engaged, not passive, committed not apathetic, even if it should happen we don't agree.

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Posted in Readings, Software | 2 Comments

WP12 Under Linux (via WINE)?

Posted on April 18, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

I would dearly love this to be true: WPU Forums – Breaking News: WP12 Runs Under WINE (Linux)

A long history with WordPerfect…going back to version 4.1…is by far the most significant reason why I don't switch to a Linux desktop. But before I do anything rash, I'd need to see a report by someone who had really used WP12, exercising lots of features on long heavily footnoted documents, for a period of weeks, not just someone who fired it up and 'gave it a shot.'

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Posted in Software | 2 Comments

WordPerfect is NOT Dead

Posted on March 8, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

PC Mag reports on WordPerfect 12, which like all future versions is said to be jam-packed with goodies. Except when you read the fine print, the main goodie seems to be better interfacing with MS Office. Oh joy.

(This seems like as good a place as any to mention an AMAZING web site I just discovered with very detailed info on how to run WP 5.1 and 6.x for DOS under any version of windows. It also includes info on making them speak to networks, modern printers, and even how to create a Euro symbol!)

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Groklaw Scribes Eben Moglen

Posted on February 27, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Groklaw has put online a transcription of my friend Eben Moglen's latest public speech. (Eben is a professor at Columbia law and also general counsel for the Free Software Foundation.) A Moglen speech is a performance. It is a provocation. It is darned good fun, and gives you much to think about. And this one is also about SCO, and patents, and freedom — it's always about freedom. Enjoy.

Posted in Law: Copyright and DMCA, Software | Comments Off on Groklaw Scribes Eben Moglen