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Techno-Rant: Enough noise about Vista!

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26th Jan 2007
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25 January - Responding to an opinion article from Alan Wright on whether to stick or twist on Windows Vista, Glenn Gilbert shot back: "Someone wake me up in three years".

He continued: "To be quite frank I'm bored stiff with listening to Microsoft. I've been in the IT industry writing software (Microsoft software I may add), consulting and teaching since the 70s, so I've been around the block quite a few times.

So, Vista's better. I should damn well think so. That's not news. But, before we look forwards, let's look backwards at Microsoft's previous record.

They've come a long way since DOS in the early 90s. Just think, 17 years ago there was no internet and no Windows. But it's been a slow and evolutionary process to get where we are.

Skipping a version is good for the business. Mind you, there are some versions that are more important than others - I would never would have recommended skipping Windows 2000.

Office has never had a 'must have' version. They're all, well, let's say lacking in some way or other.

Somehow I just can't see that Vista and Office 2007 are anything other than a whole load of noise from people paid to make a whole load of noise.

"We're truly excited", "it's better", "it's easier" .... yarda yarda yarda, You said it all before. We fell for it then, but we're now learning to ignore you.

Now go away and let me get on with running my business. Amazingly I can do without all the grief of an upgrade. Come back in four years when you've the next 'great' thing to peddle. Or maybe in two or three years if I feel like an upgrade.

* * *
17 January - "I've just spent 20 minutes being wound up by the electronic business unit," wrote Jules in an Any Answers post on Tuesday January 16th - self assessment deadline day, minus 15.

"I just wanted to have a rant," she said afterwards. "I'm not a Revenue basher, but I just hate the way it is. They won't give me a name or a manager's to complain to and they just fob you off and say there couldn't possibly be anything wrong with their system."

Well, she came to the right place and her rant now joins AccountingWEB's ongoing catalogue of technological idiocy. Let's get back to Jules, so she can tell the story in her own words:

I have a return, which has the tax and class 4 liability calculated perfectly. I've checked it and it passes validation by my Digita Taxability Pro software. However SA Online will not accept it as it says that the liability should be nil for class 4 and income tax - so that's a new tax rate then £15,000 @ 0%. I talked with Digita and they said it wasn't them, it must be at the HMRC end.

As far as the Revenue are concerned, it's a third party software problem and that's that. When I pointed out that it's their end that is telling me there should be no liability, I was told that the Revenue's computer would not check the tax due, it will just accept the form! So why the **** doesn't it then?

To get the tax return through, I changed it manually to say the liability was nil, and then put an addendum in the white space. The return was accepted. I've been filing online for two years now and have had returns rejected for having the wrong PAYE codes, but I've never had one where it won't accept position when it's accurately stated. That's truly pathetic.

I know what the real liability is, and the return was rubbish. I'm really intrigued to see how it comes out in the wash. Does anyone read the white space? It will be interesting to find out.

Apart from the pretence of helplines that are anything but, the thing that really, really cheeses me off these days is speaking to people representing the Revenue who have no idea how tax works. This is January, and all I know is that you can't get any sense out of the Revenue.

* * *
12 January - Simon Hurst's rant last month about continuing to receive paper VAT returns and reminders after he had registered to file online struck a chord, writes Alan Wright.

A Liberty Accounts user contacted us after receiving a VAT 101 form (EC Sales List) through the post from HMRC. They had already now registered for online filing, so the cost of mailing seemed a bit wasteful.

But that's not all. The notes on completion on the back of the form say in bold print, "Do not write on or amend details in the green area of this form." Given that the form is printed on green paper, how are taxpayers supposed to complete it? Far be it for me to blow my own trumpet, but at least our user could fill out the VAT 101 using Liberty Accounts.

I followed up the issue with someone I know who works at the HRMC, who told me: "Regrettably, and for the time being, signing up for online filing only suppresses the paper VAT 100. The paper VAT 101 will continue to be issued."

Apparently, it took an inordinate amount of time to suppress the dispatch of paper VAT 100 forms and no work is being done to do the same with the VAT 101 because money is tight. It's obvious that this person and his colleagues are working very hard to try and deliver better services, but they are fighting an uphill batting against bureaucracy within a large and disjointed organisation.

* * *
9 January - No doubt the consumer electronics extravaganza currently taking place in Las Vegas will mark a further stage in the invasion of our lounges by computer technology. I am sure this will eventually be a great thing but for the moment I would advise the exercise of some caution.

A lounge version of Windows has been around for a few years now. Windows Media Centre is designed to power media PCs that sit next to your telly and act as TV tuner, DVD player and recorder, music centre and on-screen photo album – in addition of course to working as a normal computer, letting you browse the internet or fiddle with your favourite spreadsheet from the comfort of your armchair.

I felt that it was my duty as a computer consultant to explore some of this new technology, and about this time last year I had a real stroke of luck. Our telly stopped working properly even though it was only about five years old. This of course meant I had a valid reason for replacing an enormous cube of power-devouring plastic with a nice, neat flat-screen TV.

So I did a bit of research and eventually found an HD-ready LCD TV of the right size for quite a reasonable price. At the same time as replacing the telly, it made sense to replace the video recorder with a DVD recorder – or even better a media PC. The media PC has the potential to be fantastic, but if the one I got was representative of the breed, there are a few issues to be overcome.

Some of the things you take for granted with a 'normal' video or DVD recorder are:

  • You can still hear the hi fi when it's on
  • It turns itself on and off reliably
  • It's ready for use less than five minutes after you turn it on
  • You can connect it sensibly to a range of other devices such as a satellite decoder.

All of these are things that my media PC struggles with, but it is wonderful for digital photos and party music play lists.

However, the worst was still to come. I eventually gave up on the "media PC as DVD recorder" plan due to the satellite decoder connection issue, and bought a proper DVD recorder as a present for my wife for Christmas (no it wasn't quite what she had asked for, in case you were wondering).

This DVD recorder can "upscale" DVDs to produce a near-HD quality picture on a suitable TV - like the one I now had. I spent most of the Christmas period trying to locate the lead that would connect the DVD (HDMI) to the TV (DVI). Eventually I found one, connected it all up and… it didn't work.

After a lot of fruitless fiddling around with every available setting I gave up and phoned the support number for the TV. It transpires that the TV needs to go back to them for a firmware upgrade. What next, more memory in the toaster to save a few precious minutes every morning? Simon Hurst

* * *
Have you encountered irritating or silly experiences with technology? In an attempt to prevent techno-rage, this weblog offers members an outlet to vent their frustrations. Feel free to add your comments below, or for a more discreet service, email AccountingWEB and we will add your story to our Practical IT blog.

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Replies (9)

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By AnonymousUser
02nd Feb 2007 11:03

Software for Macs?
Had to take issue with the comment that nobody writes software for the Mac!

You could easily run an enterprise on Mac systems. Microsoft supplies Office, and there are the usual opensource clones too (Apple's own word processing and presentation software is light years ahead of Office).

For bookkeeping, you have options such as MYOB for the smaller businesses and the likes of Astra and Hansa for larger concerns. Plus there's the online variety of software, the sort of which Dennis Howlett champions.

And if push comes to shove, you can run Windows on the latest batch.

We operate here with a mix of Macs and PCs here and I personally have a lot less trouble with the Macs than the PCs.

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By User deleted
30th Jan 2007 08:08

Apple also have their own issues ....
Mac's may (questionably) have the edge for certain disciplines in the computing world - however

Having seen iPod's in operation I don't think we should be too smug about Mac's. So far as I recall these wizards of modern science started life with batteries that had a dubious life span and could not be replaced; requiring a recall and some very p... off customers compounded by Apple refusal to own up to the matter

Furthermore if you have ever tried to use an iPod they tend to dump playlists, refuse to connect to computers without reformatting the entire device (thus loosing everything on it) and latterly refusing to switch out of 'shuffle mode'; so you can play any track providing the iPod tells you which one.

Frankly it is a 'technology thing', whilst an excellent idea they are generally a complete nightmare to deal with and take endless hours to recover. It doesn't matter what the devices is (pc. mac etc) any machine that tells the user what to do (intellisense) and only lives up to part of ones expectation is disappointing

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Dennis Howlett
By dahowlett
10th Jan 2007 20:27

Simple answer
Apple - it just works

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By AnonymousUser
11th Jan 2007 15:01

another vote for the mac
Beat me to it… I was about to add that an Apple Mac Mini with elegato eyetv software and a USB freeview stick gives a superb PVR functionality, which “just works”.

I haven’t used a DVD recorder for nearly 2 years now, due to the Mac.

Be wary of “upscaling” DVD players though – they really offer nothing like HD images. When comparing an upscaled picture to either Sky HD, Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, upscaling really does nothing.

Still I suspect that the vast majority of owners of HD ready sets believe they are getting HD simply by having such a set, and it hasn’t occurred to them that HD sources (like the ones mentioned above) are required…

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By mickeyparish
11th Jan 2007 15:26

2 rants for you:
1) Just before Christmas I allowed some nice BT saleman to sell me an upgrade to 8MB Broadband, with a "free wireless router".

Between Xmas and Boxing Day, thought: "why don't I spend 10 minutes installing this thing..." BIG MISTAKE !!! after struggling for 2 days, I finally gave up and emailed the help line. After then wasting another 5 days with emails, eventually got to speak to a very pleasant technician in India, who very pleasantly informed me that my hardware ( which had been working fine with the old router ) was in need of a "patch". I am still waiting for a response from the hardware supplier .......

2) Two Xmas's ago, my wife bought me some CD Rom Ordnance Survey maps ( Memory-map ) of the South of England, which I could read on my computer and print off a map of anywhere we wanted to go for a walk. This Xmas, she phoned MM and asked them to recommend a PDA to download the maps to. Better than printing them out, and you can get PDA's with GPS positioning capability. "Sure, buy a Mio PDA", they said, and this was then my XMas present. Lovely ! Couldn't wait to install it . Well,..... another day and a half of fruitless struggle ! The PDA downloads data using software that is not compatible with my Win 98SE computer. Fine, I thought. No problem, I'll use my laptop, which is XP. Installed the maps on the laptop. Result laptop crashes when you try to open the maps. MM, needless to say, are on holiday until after New Year ( you would think they would be there, as a lot of their stuff gets bought for Xmas presents! ) and their Q&A's on their website seem to show others are experiencing similar problems. When I finally get through, I learn that the download software is indeed not compatible with 98SE. Moreover my 2003 maps are compatible with XP, BUT NOT when the download software is present in the computer. Stalemate ! what's the solution ? Spend another £65 upgrading the maps. Clever, eh !

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Simon Hurst
By Simon Hurst
12th Jan 2007 14:59

Macs just work
Where's the fun in that?!?

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By Nick Graves
22nd Jan 2007 18:02

Back on topic
I have had several bad experiences of the Gov't Grateway.

I fixed the problems myself in the end and they' tried to claim credit for it!

Complain & you eventually lose the will to live - typical call-centre cu(l)ture. There do not exist the words to describe properly their MO.

Their attitude makes the IR's services & complaints procedures look fantastic by comparison - probably a deliberate ploy.

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By daveforbes
19th Jan 2007 18:31

not everything being transmitted
You have data entered in your system and a tax calculation based on it. The HMRC are coming up with a different tax calculation. I see 3 possibilites

1. Your tax software is calculating the tax incorrectly.
2. The HMRC are calculating the tax incorrectly.
3. For some reason not all the data is being transmitted.

From what you have said and based on my experience of the HMRC computer systems my money is firmly on option 3. Do you get to see a copy of what is actually transmitted ?

As for filling in whitespace - I believe this will cause the return to be flagged for manual inspection which is a good reason not to use the whitespace unless strictly necessary. I would much rather my return was looked at by a computer than a human being who might be having a bad day.

as for Macs - unfortunately no one writes software for them !

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By daveforbes
02nd Feb 2007 19:51

software for accountants in practice for macs
tax software ?
final accounts ?
company secretarial ?
.....
The trouble is with a niche market, like software for accountants, targetting macs is a niche within a niche and just too small to be worth it commercially. As for windows Vista - justified by the "gadget bar" alone. Unfortunate I can't print to my LJ1022 anymore.

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